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ISCCP Surface Climatology

II: Joint Analysis of ISCCP-FD and Microwave Emissivity Data Sets

Selected surface variables from a joint analysis of microwave emissivity and radiation fluxes are available here for the years 1992-1993. Also available is a surface climatology including monthly period means, seasonal and annual mean maps (see map grid information page).

Note that the surface climatologies that include the variables "Narrowband Infrared Emissivity (10-11µm wavelength)" and "Broadband Infrared Emissivity (5-200µm wavelength)" are represented by data from the year 1992, and that the variable "Mean Surface Microwave Emissivity" is represented by data from the period July 1992 through June 1993. Also note that all these datasets have a spatial resolution of 2.5 degrees, except the datasets that correspond to "Mean Surface Microwave Emissivity", which are at a resolution of 1.00 degree. Datasets for this variable at 0.25 degree resolution are also available by request.

Your selections may be viewed as GIF images or downloaded to your local disk. If you are downloading data, see the browse data format description, and sample FORTRAN read subroutines. These subroutines are NOT the same as the D2READ program used for the full D2 dataset.

Note: These data sets can be obtained from our download sute at isccp.giss.nasa.gov/pub/data/surface.

Please note that prior to September 3, 2002, the actual Mean Surface Microwave Emissivity data posted were as is indicated in the following table. The emissivity data that is available through this page is now accurate.

Channel and Polarizations posted as: Channel and Polarizations actually posted:
19 GHz, Vertical (F19V)F19V
19 GHz, Horizontal (F19H)Standard deviation of F19V
22 GHz, Vertical (F22V)F19H
37 GHz, Vertical (F37V)Standard deviation of F19H
37 GHz, Horizontal (F37H)F22V
85 GHz, Vertical (F85V)Standard deviation of F22V
85 GHz, Horizontal (F85H)F37V

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You may select from the following options if you chose the variable "Mean Surface Microwave Emissivity" above. Note that for Channel 22 GHz only the Vertical polarization component is available. Thus the data type "Polarization (V-H) Differences (DIF)" for Channel 22 GHz is not a valid option.

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Note that for Channel 22 GHz only the Vertical polarization component is available. Thus the (V-H) Difference for Channel 22 GHz is not a valid option.


Note that only the Vertical polarization component is available for channel 22 GHz.

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The following are references on microwave emissivity:

Prigent, C., W.B. Rossow, and E. Matthews, 1997: Microwave land surface emissivities estimated from SSM/I observations. Journal of Geophysical Research, 102, 21,867-21,890.

Prigent, C., W.B. Rossow, and E. Matthews, 1998: Global maps of microwave land surface emissivities: Potential for land surface characterization. Radio Science, 33, 745-751.

Prigent, C., F. Aires, W.B. Rossow, and E. Matthews, 2001: Joint characterization of the vegetation by satellite observations from visible to microwave wavelengths: A sensitivity analysis. Journal of Geophysical Research, 106, D14, 14,887--14,907.

Prigent, C., E. Matthews, F. Aires, and W.B. Rossow, 2001: Remote sensing of global wetland dynamics with multiple satellite datasets. Geophysical Research Letter, 28, 631.

Aires, F., C. Prigent, W. B. Rossow, and M. Rothstein, 2001: A new neural network approach including first-guess for retrieval of atmospheric water vapor, cloud liquid water path,surface temperature and emissivities over land from satellite microwave observations. Journal of Geophysical Research, 106, 14,887-14,907.

Prigent, C., F. Aires, and W.B. Rossow, 2002: Retrieval of surface and atmospheric geophysical variables over snow-covered land from combined microwave and infrared satellite observations. Journal of Applied Meteorology, 42, 368-380. Read abstract.

Prigent, C., F. Aires, and W.B. Rossow, 2002: Land surface skin temperatures from a combined analysis of microwave and infrared satellite observations for an all-weather evaluation of the differences between air and skin temperatures. Journal of Geophysical Research, 108, no. D10, 4310. Read abstract.

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