REMOTE-SENSING OF LAND-SURFACE ENERGY-BALANCE USING DATA FROM THE HIGH-RESOLUTION INTERFEROMETER SOUNDER (HIS) - A SIMULATION STUDY

The remote sensing of the land-surface energy balance and soil moisture using satellite surface 'skin' temperature measurements has long been a topic of investigation in the research community. Despite considerable progress in understanding and techniques, there are still serious limitations in the results obtainable using satellite measurements for both the surface fluxes and soil moisture which need to be addressed via improved measurements and methods. We detail in this work a simulation study investigating the remote sensing of the land-surface energy balance using information from the High-resolution Interferometer Sounder (HIS), an instrument being considered for launch on a future series of geostationary satellites. The study is accomplished using simulated HIS data that are generated using atmospheric radiative transfer models specific to the HIS applied to the output of a forecast model of the planetary boundary layer, which predicts temporal changes in skin temperature and atmospheric structure based on the surface fluxes. In this study, we find that the ability of the instrument to measure temporal changes of radiances that arise from time changes in the structure of the planetary boundary layer, as well as skin temperature changes, mitigates some Of the problems associated with using skin temperatures alone to estimate the surface energy balance.