Estimation and Correction of Geolocation Errors in FengYun-3C Microwave Radiation Imager Data

Abstract

Microwave Radiation Imager (MWRI) onboard the FengYun (FY)-3C satellite provides measurements of the Earth's atmosphere and surface at 10.65, 18.7, 23.8, 36.5, and 89.0 GHz with dual polarization. While FY MWRI data have been widely distributed to the user community, their geolocation accuracy has not been documented. In this paper, the coastline inflection method is used to estimate MWRI geolocation errors. Three coastal regions where MWRI brightness temperature exhibits a large contrast are selected for the geolocation analysis. A total of 720 MWRI data points are identified that cross the coastlines. The latitudes and longitudes at these data points are compared with the fine-resolution database of the Global Self-consistent, Hierarchical, High-resolution Shoreline (GSHHS). It is found that the mean geolocation errors in along- and cross-track directions are approximately 5–6 km at 89 GHz. This magnitude of errors is more than 30% of the field-of-view size at 89 GHz. Such a geolocation error must be corrected so that the MWRI data can be more useful for quantitative remote sensing. Thus, the mean geolocation errors are further utilized to adjust the satellite attitude angles (e.g., pitch, roll, and raw). After the attitude angle correction, the MWRI geolocation is very accurate at 89 GHz, and errors in other MWRI channels may be corrected through their co-registration relationships to the 89-GHz channel.