Citation
Abstract
Collocated measurements of opacity (from water vapor radiometer (WVR) brightness temperatures) and wet path delay (from ground-based tracking of Global Positions System (GPS) satellites) are used to constrain the model of atmospheric water vapor absorption in the 20 to 32 GHz band. A difierential approach is presented in which the slope of opacity-versus-wet delay data is used as the absorption model constraint. This technique minimizes the efiects of radiometric calibration errors and oxygen model uncertainties in the derivation of a best-fit vapor absorption model. A total of approximately 5 months of data were obtained from two experiment sites. At the Cloud and Radiation Testbed (CART) site near Lamont, Oklahoma, three independent WVRs provided near-continuous opacity measurements over the interval from July through September 1998. At NASA’s Goldstone tracking station in the California desert, two WVRs obtained opacity data over the September through October 1997 interval. At both sites, a GPS receiver and surface barometer obtained the data required for deriving the zenith wet delays over the same time frames. Measured values of the opacity-versus-wet delay slope parameter were obtained at four WVR frequencies (20.7, 22.2, 23.8, and 31.4 GHz) and compared with predictions of three candidate absorption models referenced in the recent literature. With one exception, all three models provide agreement within approximately 5 percent of the opacity-versus-wet delay slope measurements at all WVR frequencies at both sites. One model provides agreement for all channels at both sites to the 2 to 3 percent level. This accuracy is su–cient to meet the requirements of the tropospheric calibration system now being deployed at Goldstone to support the Cassini Gravitational Wave Experiment.
Keywords
Details
- Volume
- 42-144
- Published
- February 15, 2001
- Pages
- 1–23
- File Size
- 1.7 MB