SGP/MWR/E14 - calibration check

The MWR calibration was checked by pointing mirror at internal blackbody target.
The brightness temperatures are not representative of the sky.

• Mean total water vapor amount along LOS path(vap)
• Mean total liquid water amount along LOS path(liq)

• Mean total liquid water amount along LOS path(liq)
• Mean 31.4 GHz sky brightness temperature(tbsky31)
• Mean total water vapor amount along LOS path(vap)
• Mean 23.8 GHz sky brightness temperature(tbsky23)

SGP/MWR/E14 - Upgrade of Arm Core PC Configuration

Upgrade of Arm Core PC configuration to version 2.6B per ECO 407.  Data collection was 
temporarily interrupted.

• Time offset from base_time(base_time)
• east longitude for all the input platforms.(lon)
• 23.8 GHz blackbody+noise injection signal(bbn23)
• Mean 23.8 GHz sky brightness temperature(tbsky23)
• Noise injection temp at 31.4 GHz adjusted to tkbb(tnd31)
• 31.4 GHz sky signal(sky31)
• Mean total liquid water amount along LOS path(liq)
• north latitude for all the input platforms.(lat)
• Mean 31.4 GHz sky brightness temperature(tbsky31)
• Noise injection temp at 23.8 GHz adjusted to tkbb(tnd23)
• Noise injection temp at nominal temperature at 23.8 GHz(tnd_nom23)
• 23.8 GHz Blackbody signal(bb23)
• altitude above sea levelaltunits(alt)
• Mixer kinetic (physical) temperature(tkxc)
• Ambient temperature(tkair)
• 23.8 GHz sky signal(sky23)
• Blackbody kinetic temperature(tkbb)
• Noise injection temp at nominal temperature at 31.4 GHz(tnd_nom31)
• Temperature correction coefficient at 23.8 GHz(tc23)
• Sky/Cloud Infra-Red Temperature(sky_ir_temp)
• Mean total water vapor amount along LOS path(vap)
• Water on Teflon window (1=WET, 0=DRY)(wet_window)
• Noise diode mount temperature(tknd)
• Time offset of tweaks from base_time(time_offset)
• Temperature correction coefficient at 31.4 GHz(tc31)
• 31.4 GHz blackbody+noise injection signal(bbn31)
• 31.4 GHz Blackbody signal(bb31)

• 23.8 GHz goodness-of-fit coefficient(r23)
• Noise diode mount temperature(tknd)
• Temperature correction coefficient at 23.8 GHz(tc23)
• Time offset from base_time(base_time)
• Water on Teflon window (1=WET, 0=DRY)(wet_window)
• 31.4 GHz Blackbody signal(bb31)
• 31.4 GHz sky signal(tipsky31)
• Noise injection temp at 31.4 GHz derived from this tip(tnd31I)
• Time offset of tweaks from base_time(time_offset)
• Noise injection temp at nominal temperature at 31.4 GHz(tnd_nom31)
• Noise injection temp at 23.8 GHz adjusted to tkbb(tnd23)
• north latitude for all the input platforms.(lat)
• 31.4 GHz goodness-of-fit coefficient(r31)
• altitude above sea levelaltunits(alt)
• east longitude for all the input platforms.(lon)
• Actual elevation angle(actel)
• Actual Azimuth(actaz)
• Noise injection temp at 31.4 GHz adjusted to tkbb(tnd31)
• 31.4 GHz blackbody+noise injection signal(bbn31)
• Mixer kinetic (physical) temperature(tkxc)
• Noise injection temp at 23.8 GHz derived from this tip(tnd23I)
• 23.8 GHz Blackbody signal(bb23)
• Ambient temperature(tkair)
• Temperature correction coefficient at 31.4 GHz(tc31)
• Blackbody kinetic temperature(tkbb)
• 23.8 GHz sky signal(tipsky23)
• Noise injection temp at nominal temperature at 23.8 GHz(tnd_nom23)
• 23.8 GHz blackbody+noise injection signal(bbn23)

• altitude above sea levelaltunits(alt)
• Mean 23.8 GHz sky brightness temperature(tbsky23)
• Mean total water vapor amount along LOS path(vap)
• 31.4 GHz blackbody+noise injection signal(bbn31)
• 23.8 GHz Blackbody signal(bb23)
• Mean 31.4 GHz sky brightness temperature(tbsky31)
• Noise injection temp at 23.8 GHz adjusted to tkbb(tnd23)
• Sky/Cloud Infra-Red Temperature(sky_ir_temp)
• north latitude for all the input platforms.(lat)
• Noise diode mount temperature(tknd)
• east longitude for all the input platforms.(lon)
• 23.8 GHz sky signal(sky23)
• Temperature correction coefficient at 31.4 GHz(tc31)
• Blackbody kinetic temperature(tkbb)
• Ambient temperature(tkair)
• Time offset of tweaks from base_time(time_offset)
• 31.4 GHz sky signal(sky31)
• Mean total liquid water amount along LOS path(liq)
• Noise injection temp at nominal temperature at 31.4 GHz(tnd_nom31)
• 23.8 GHz blackbody+noise injection signal(bbn23)
• Time offset from base_time(base_time)
• Water on Teflon window (1=WET, 0=DRY)(wet_window)
• Noise injection temp at 31.4 GHz adjusted to tkbb(tnd31)
• Mixer kinetic (physical) temperature(tkxc)
• 31.4 GHz Blackbody signal(bb31)
• Temperature correction coefficient at 23.8 GHz(tc23)
• Noise injection temp at nominal temperature at 23.8 GHz(tnd_nom23)

SGP/MWR/E14 - Hard disk failure

The hard disk of the MWR laptop failed 7/17 and was replaced 7/20. The ARM
Core PC Configuration and MWR configuration files were installed on the new
hard disk.

• Raw data stream - documentation not supported(Raw data stream - documentation not supported)

• Time offset from base_time(base_time)
• east longitude for all the input platforms.(lon)
• 23.8 GHz blackbody+noise injection signal(bbn23)
• Mean 23.8 GHz sky brightness temperature(tbsky23)
• Noise injection temp at 31.4 GHz adjusted to tkbb(tnd31)
• 31.4 GHz sky signal(sky31)
• Mean total liquid water amount along LOS path(liq)
• north latitude for all the input platforms.(lat)
• Mean 31.4 GHz sky brightness temperature(tbsky31)
• Noise injection temp at 23.8 GHz adjusted to tkbb(tnd23)
• Noise injection temp at nominal temperature at 23.8 GHz(tnd_nom23)
• 23.8 GHz Blackbody signal(bb23)
• altitude above sea levelaltunits(alt)
• Mixer kinetic (physical) temperature(tkxc)
• Ambient temperature(tkair)
• 23.8 GHz sky signal(sky23)
• Blackbody kinetic temperature(tkbb)
• Noise injection temp at nominal temperature at 31.4 GHz(tnd_nom31)
• Temperature correction coefficient at 23.8 GHz(tc23)
• Sky/Cloud Infra-Red Temperature(sky_ir_temp)
• Mean total water vapor amount along LOS path(vap)
• Water on Teflon window (1=WET, 0=DRY)(wet_window)
• Noise diode mount temperature(tknd)
• Time offset of tweaks from base_time(time_offset)
• Temperature correction coefficient at 31.4 GHz(tc31)
• 31.4 GHz blackbody+noise injection signal(bbn31)
• 31.4 GHz Blackbody signal(bb31)

• 23.8 GHz goodness-of-fit coefficient(r23)
• Noise diode mount temperature(tknd)
• Temperature correction coefficient at 23.8 GHz(tc23)
• Time offset from base_time(base_time)
• Water on Teflon window (1=WET, 0=DRY)(wet_window)
• 31.4 GHz Blackbody signal(bb31)
• 31.4 GHz sky signal(tipsky31)
• Noise injection temp at 31.4 GHz derived from this tip(tnd31I)
• Time offset of tweaks from base_time(time_offset)
• Noise injection temp at nominal temperature at 31.4 GHz(tnd_nom31)
• Noise injection temp at 23.8 GHz adjusted to tkbb(tnd23)
• north latitude for all the input platforms.(lat)
• 31.4 GHz goodness-of-fit coefficient(r31)
• altitude above sea levelaltunits(alt)
• east longitude for all the input platforms.(lon)
• Actual elevation angle(actel)
• Actual Azimuth(actaz)
• Noise injection temp at 31.4 GHz adjusted to tkbb(tnd31)
• 31.4 GHz blackbody+noise injection signal(bbn31)
• Mixer kinetic (physical) temperature(tkxc)
• Noise injection temp at 23.8 GHz derived from this tip(tnd23I)
• 23.8 GHz Blackbody signal(bb23)
• Ambient temperature(tkair)
• Temperature correction coefficient at 31.4 GHz(tc31)
• Blackbody kinetic temperature(tkbb)
• 23.8 GHz sky signal(tipsky23)
• Noise injection temp at nominal temperature at 23.8 GHz(tnd_nom23)
• 23.8 GHz blackbody+noise injection signal(bbn23)

• altitude above sea levelaltunits(alt)
• Mean 23.8 GHz sky brightness temperature(tbsky23)
• Mean total water vapor amount along LOS path(vap)
• 31.4 GHz blackbody+noise injection signal(bbn31)
• Mean 31.4 GHz sky brightness temperature(tbsky31)
• Noise injection temp at 23.8 GHz adjusted to tkbb(tnd23)
• Sky/Cloud Infra-Red Temperature(sky_ir_temp)
• north latitude for all the input platforms.(lat)
• Noise diode mount temperature(tknd)
• east longitude for all the input platforms.(lon)
• 23.8 GHz sky signal(sky23)
• Temperature correction coefficient at 31.4 GHz(tc31)
• Blackbody kinetic temperature(tkbb)
• Ambient temperature(tkair)
• Time offset of tweaks from base_time(time_offset)
• 31.4 GHz sky signal(sky31)
• Mean total liquid water amount along LOS path(liq)
• Noise injection temp at nominal temperature at 31.4 GHz(tnd_nom31)
• 23.8 GHz blackbody+noise injection signal(bbn23)
• Time offset from base_time(base_time)
• Water on Teflon window (1=WET, 0=DRY)(wet_window)
• Noise injection temp at 31.4 GHz adjusted to tkbb(tnd31)
• Mixer kinetic (physical) temperature(tkxc)
• Temperature correction coefficient at 23.8 GHz(tc23)
• Noise injection temp at nominal temperature at 23.8 GHz(tnd_nom23)

SGP/MWR/E14  - min/max/delta values incorrect

The values of valid_min, valid_max, and valid_delta for fields tkxc and tknd were 
incorrect. They should be 303, 333, and 0.5 K, respectively.

• Noise diode mount temperature(tknd)
• Mixer kinetic (physical) temperature(tkxc)

SGP/MWR/E14  - thermal instability

During periods of high ambient temperature, the instrument may have been thermally 
unstable.

• Mean 23.8 GHz sky brightness temperature(tbsky23)
• Mean total water vapor amount along LOS path(vap)
• Mean 31.4 GHz sky brightness temperature(tbsky31)
• Mean total liquid water amount along LOS path(liq)

• Mean total liquid water amount along LOS path(liq)
• Mean 31.4 GHz sky brightness temperature(tbsky31)
• Mean total water vapor amount along LOS path(vap)
• Mean 23.8 GHz sky brightness temperature(tbsky23)

SGP/MWR/E14 - Reprocess: wrong retrievals

When MWR#04 was installed at EF14 (replacing MWR#33), out-of-date retrieval coefficients 
were used in the configuration file.
The correct coefficients were applied when the computer, software, and configuration file 
were upgraded.

• Mean total water vapor amount along LOS path(vap)
• Mean total liquid water amount along LOS path(liq)

• Total liquid water along zenith path using tip-derived brightness temperatures(liqtip)
• Total water vapor along zenith path using tip-derived brightness temperatures(vaptip)

• Mean total liquid water amount along LOS path(liq)
• Mean total water vapor amount along LOS path(vap)

• Ensemble average for MWR vapor in window centered about balloon release(mean_vap_mwr)
• Ensemble average for MWR liquid in window centered about balloon release(mean_liq_mwr)

SGP/MWR/E14 - Reprocess: Revised Retrieval Coefficients

IN THE BEGINNING (June 1992), the retrieval coefficients used to derive 
the precipitable water vapor (PWV) and liquid water path (LWP) from the 
MWR brightness temperatures were based on the Liebe and Layton (1987) 
water vapor and oxygen absorption model and the Grant (1957) liquid 
water absorption model.

Following the SHEBA experience, revised retrievals based on the more 
recent Rosenkranz (1998) water vapor and oxygen absorption models and 
the Liebe (1991) liquid waer absorption model were developed.  The 
Rosenkranz water vapor absorption model resulted a 2 percent increase 
in PWV relative to the earlier Liebe and Layton model.  The Liebe 
liquid water absorption model decreased the LWP by 10% relative to the 
Grant model.  However, the increased oxygen absorption caused a 
0.02-0.03 mm (20-30 g/m2) reduction in LWP, which was particularly 
significant for low LWP conditions (i.e. thin clouds encountered at 
SHEBA).

Recently, it has been shown (Liljegren, Boukabara, Cady-Pereira, and 
Clough, TGARS v. 43, pp 1102-1108, 2005) that the half-width of the 
22 GHz water vapor line from the HITRAN compilation, which is 5 percent 
smaller than the Liebe and Dillon (1969) half-width used in Rosenkranz 
(1998), provided a better fit to the microwave brightness temperature 
measurements at 5 frequencies in the range 22-30 GHz, and yielded more 
accurate retrievals. Accordingly, revised MWR retrieval coefficients 
have been developed using MONORTM, which utilizes the HITRAN compilation 
for its spectroscopic parameters.  These new retrievals provide 3 
percent less PWV and 2.6 percent greater LWP than the previous 
retrievals based on Rosenkranz (1998).

Although the MWR data will be reprocessed to apply the new monortm-based 
retrievals, for most purposes it will be sufficient to correct the data 
using the following factors:

PWV_MONORTM = 0.9695 * PWV_ROSENKRANZ
LWP_MONORTM = 1.026  * LWP_ROSENKRANZ

The Rosenkranz-based retrieval coefficients became active at SGP.E14 
20020416.0000.  The MONORTM-based retrieval coefficients became active 
at SGP.E14 20050628.2300.

Note: a reprocessing effort is already underway to apply the 
Rosenkranz-based retrieval coefficients to all MWR prior to April 
2002.  An additional reprocessing task will be undertaken to apply 
the MONORTM retrieval to all MWR data when the first is completed. 
Read reprocessing comments in the netcdf file header carefully to 
ensure you are aware which retrieval is in play.

• Mean total water vapor amount along LOS path(vap)
• Mean total liquid water amount along LOS path(liq)

• Total liquid water along zenith path using tip-derived brightness temperatures(liqtip)
• Total water vapor along zenith path using tip-derived brightness temperatures(vaptip)

• Mean total liquid water amount along LOS path(liq)
• Mean total water vapor amount along LOS path(vap)

• Ensemble average for MWR vapor in window centered about balloon release(mean_vap_mwr)
• Ensemble average for MWR liquid in window centered about balloon release(mean_liq_mwr)

SGP/MWR/E14 - New software version (4.15) installed

A problem began with the installation of MWR.EXE version 4.12 in May 2002. The software 
had been upgraded from a "DOS" to a "Windows"-compiled program to address an earlier 
problem.  The software upgrade corrected the earlier problem but introduced a new one that 
caused line-of-sight observing cycles to be skipped, a 15% reduction in the number of tip 
curves, and saturation of CPU usage. Software versions 4.13 and 4.14 also produced these 
problems.

The new MWR software, version 4.15, was installed on 8/1/2005. As a consequence of this 
upgrade, the tip curve frequency increased. The tip cycle time decreased from ~60s to ~50s.

• 23.8 GHz goodness-of-fit coefficient(r23)
• Noise diode mount temperature(tknd)
• Temperature correction coefficient at 23.8 GHz(tc23)
• Noise injection temp at 31.4 GHz adjusted to tkbb(tnd31)
• 31.4 GHz blackbody+noise injection signal(bbn31)
• 31.4 GHz Blackbody signal(bb31)
• Total water vapor along zenith path using tip-derived brightness temperatures(vaptip)
• Mixer kinetic (physical) temperature(tkxc)
• 31.4 GHz sky signal(tipsky31)
• Noise injection temp at 31.4 GHz derived from this tip(tnd31I)
• Total liquid water along zenith path using tip-derived brightness temperatures(liqtip)
• Noise injection temp at 23.8 GHz derived from this tip(tnd23I)
• Noise injection temp at nominal temperature at 31.4 GHz(tnd_nom31)
• 23.8 GHz Blackbody signal(bb23)
• Noise injection temp at 23.8 GHz adjusted to tkbb(tnd23)
• Ambient temperature(tkair)
• Temperature correction coefficient at 31.4 GHz(tc31)
• 31.4 GHz goodness-of-fit coefficient(r31)
• 31.8 GHz sky brightness temperature derived from tip curve(tbskytip31)
• 23.8 GHz sky brightness temperature derived from tip curve(tbskytip23)
• Blackbody kinetic temperature(tkbb)
• 23.8 GHz sky signal(tipsky23)
• Noise injection temp at nominal temperature at 23.8 GHz(tnd_nom23)
• 23.8 GHz blackbody+noise injection signal(bbn23)

• Mean total liquid water amount along LOS path(liq)
• Noise injection temp at nominal temperature at 31.4 GHz(tnd_nom31)
• Mean 23.8 GHz sky brightness temperature(tbsky23)
• Mean total water vapor amount along LOS path(vap)
• 23.8 GHz blackbody+noise injection signal(bbn23)
• 31.4 GHz blackbody+noise injection signal(bbn31)
• 23.8 GHz Blackbody signal(bb23)
• Mean 31.4 GHz sky brightness temperature(tbsky31)
• Noise injection temp at 23.8 GHz adjusted to tkbb(tnd23)
• Sky/Cloud Infra-Red Temperature(sky_ir_temp)
• Noise diode mount temperature(tknd)
• 23.8 GHz sky signal(sky23)
• Blackbody kinetic temperature(tkbb)
• Temperature correction coefficient at 31.4 GHz(tc31)
• Ambient temperature(tkair)
• Noise injection temp at 31.4 GHz adjusted to tkbb(tnd31)
• Mixer kinetic (physical) temperature(tkxc)
• 31.4 GHz Blackbody signal(bb31)
• Temperature correction coefficient at 23.8 GHz(tc23)
• Noise injection temp at nominal temperature at 23.8 GHz(tnd_nom23)
• 31.4 GHz sky signal(sky31)