A comparison of ocean emissivity models using the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit, the Special Sensor Microwave Imager, the TRMM Microwave Imager, and airborne radiometer observations

New measurements of the permittivity of saline water at millimeter wavelengths have the potential to improve the accuracy of ocean surface emissivity models for use with microwave and millimeter-wave imaging and sounding instruments. Recent radiative transfer models employing a range of different treatments of surface ocean emissivity are compared with observations from the following microwave radiometers: Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit, Special Sensor Microwave Imager, TRMM Microwave Imager, Microwave Airborne Radiometer Scanning System, and Deimos. Emissivity models using the new permittivity model fit these observations more closely than those models which use the Klein and Swift extrapolation model.