Water vapour distribution over India using SAMIR data on board Bhaskara II satellite and its comparison with upward looking ground-based microwave radiometric measurements at 22.235 GHZ over New Delhi

Abstract

The 22.235 GHz data from SAMIR on board orbiting Bhaskara II satellite have been used for estimating water vapour content over oceans and land. The average values of land surface emissivity ( ~ 0.85) and ocean surface emissivity ( ~ 0.408) have been used based on model using average value of wind speed in the absence of daily wind speed values. The water vapour content so retrieved has been used to develop water vapour contours over land and sea based on SAMIR coverage over India. Comparison has also been made between the water vapour content measured using ground-based microwave radiometer operating at 22.235 GHz and SAMIR measurements for New Delhi. The scatter in the two values may be due to the average value of land surface emissivity used.