Microwave Radiometer MTVZA-GY on New Russian Satellite Meteor-M No. 2-2 and Sudden Stratospheric Warming Over Antarctica

Abstract

The Meteor-M No. 2-2 meteorological satellite with the microwave radiometer MTVZA-GY on board was launched into a circular sun-synchronous orbit on July 5, 2019. The radiometer conducts a conical scanning at 65-degree incidence angle and receives the Earth's outgoing radiation in the frequency range ν ≈ 6–190 GHz. The swath width is 2500 km on ascending orbits and 1500 km on descending orbits. The parameters of the ocean, land surface, and troposphere are extracted from brightness temperatures TB(ν) measured at imager frequencies of 6.9, 10.65, 18.7, 23.8, 31.5, 36.5, 42, 48, and 91.65 GHz in vertical and horizontal polarizations. Measurements at the sounder frequencies (ten channels in the 52–58 GHz oxygen absorption band and three channels in the strong water vapor resonance line region centered at 183.31 GHz) provide information on air temperature and humidity in the troposphere and stratosphere. The structure and development of dynamic atmospheric phenomena of synoptic scale are imprinted on the global TB(ν) maps at imager frequencies. The TB(ν) time series at the sounder frequencies allowed us to detect and trace the evolution of a rare phenomenon — a sudden stratospheric warming over Antarctica in August–September 2019.

Keywords

• Atmospheric measurements
• cyclones
• deep convection
• microwave (MW) radiometry
• remote sensing
• sea ice