Abstract
The Seasat Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR)1,2 determined the total atmospheric water vapour, qt, over 600-km wide swaths with a resolution of 54 km. Using radiosonde data from the Joint Air–Sea Interaction experiment, JASIN3, we show here that the SMMR qt distributions can be used to detect the position of atmospheric fronts in the lower troposphere. Unlike visible and IR radiometry these SMMR determinations are not hampered by extensive cirrus or by lack of frontal cloud. Advantages of the SMMR over previous passive microwave instruments on satellites such as Nimbus 5 and 6 (refs 4–9) are: the use of more channels, allowing better discrimination between the effects of liquid water, water vapour and sea state; and improved spatial resolution. The SMMR performance has been evaluated at several workshops10–14. Our results15 show that the SMMR qt determinations have similar accuracy to in situ radiosonde measurements.
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