Report on Microwave Meetings

Draft Agenda

10min	Tim Hewison	Adopt Agenda Any other Business
10min	Tim Hewison	Report on MicroRad2010 and GPM X-cal Meeting
20min	Fuzhong Weng	Report on NOAA Workshop on Climate Data Records from Satellite Microwave Radiometers
10min	Tim Hewison	GSICS Plans to develop inter-calibration products for microwave imagers + sounders
20min	All	Discussion of GSICS Strategy for microwave instruments
10min	All	Affiliation of GPM X-Cal and SCOPE-CM PP2
10min	All	Membership of GRWG microwave sub-group
10min	All	Invitations to 2nd GSICS Users' Workshop

Attendees

EUMETSAT: Tim Hewison (chair), Marianne König

JMA: Hiromi Owada, Arata Okuyama

JAXA: Keiji Imaoka, Misako Kachi

KMA: Dohyeong Kim

NOAA: Bob Iacovazzi, Fred Wu

Texas A&M University: Tom Wilheit

Key Points

The attendees supported the general approach proposed that there be a GSICS review of existing microwave activities and methods being developed external to GSICS, while developing complimentary products within GSICS to meet user requirements for microwave data with improved calibration. It is anticipated that where products developed by external groups could meet user requirements, they should be encouraged to submit them to the GSICS Procedure for Product Acceptance (GPPA) to be endorsed as "GSICS Compliant".

A microwave sub-group of GRWG was proposed to assess these user requirements, coordinate liaison with external groups and review their inter-calibration methods as part of the GPPA. The membership of this sub-group is yet to be finalised. It was proposed that Fuzhong Weng would be able to represent the affiliation of GSICS with the GPM X-cal group and that Cheng-Zhi Zou be invited to nominate representatives of NOAA, UAH and RSS groups involved in the inter-calibration of (A)MSU. JAXA are interested in participating as an observer of this group.

It was anticipated that NOAA would be ready to submit MSU/AMSU-A historical inter-calibration products to the GPPA for demonstration mode distribution within a few months. This was welcomed and it was agreed that Cheng-Zhi Zou be invited to present his algorithm at a web meeting to be arranged on a similar timescale. Bob Iacovazzi agreed to follow this up with a presentation on his method of near-realtime analysing Simultaneous Nadir Overpasses of AMSU-A, highlighting any differences in approach. It is hoped that, with support, development of a GSICS Correction based on this near-realtime analysis can be developed. Items for the agenda of the next joint GDWG/GRWG meeting related to inter-calibration of microwave instruments will also be discussed at this web meeting.

It was recognised that this strategy could lead to multiple inter-calibration products for the same satellite instrument being submitted to the GPPA. The difficult question was raised of how GSICS should handle requests for certification of such 'rival' products. The group believed that GSICS should not be required to judge which is the 'best' product, but to ensure that sufficient information was available through the GPPA to allow users to decide which products best suited their requirements.

The agenda of the 2nd GSICS Users' Workshop was also briefly discussed, as this provides a good opportunity to assess users' requirements for microwave products. It was agreed that internal GSICS users, NWP centres, SCOPE-CM and CM-SAF were already well represented by the proposed invitees. However, it was suggested that Cheng-Zhi should also be asked to propose an additional microwave expert to attend workshop.

-- TimHewison - 10 Jun 2010