2009/01/13 by C. A. Mears, F. J. Wentz · 1 citation
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · #Atmospheric Ozone and Climate #Climate variability and models #Meteorological Phenomena and Simulations
paper · pdf · doi:10.1175/2008jtecha1176.1
openalex publication_date 2009/01/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
Abstract Measurements made by microwave sounding instruments provide a multidecadal record of atmospheric temperature change. Measurements began in late 1978 with the launch of the first Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU) and continue to the present. In 1998, the first of the follow-on series of instruments—the Advanced Microwave Sounding Units (AMSUs)—was launched. To continue the atmospheric temperature record past 2004, when measurements from the last MSU instrument degraded in quality, AMSU and MSU measurements must be intercalibrated and combined to extend the atmospheric temperature data records. Calibration methods are described for three MSU–AMSU channels that measure the temperature of thick layers of the atmosphere centered in the middle troposphere, near the tropopause, and in the lower stratosphere. Some features of the resulting datasets are briefly summarized.