Geosounder Requirements Consolidation Study

A continuous observation of the atmosphere and its components is an important endeavour. For example, such observations can be valuable to improve the representation of clouds in global circulation models. The Geosounder project addresses the demands potential users have on such an atmospheric dataset and explores the potential of a microwave radiometer in a stationary orbit: 

• Which resolution in space and time should the data have for an optimal useability?
• Which set of frequencies contains the maximum information about the atmosphere?
• How much can we learn about the humidity and ice water content of the atmosphere?

Within the group Radiation and Remote Sensing we explore  the information content of different sets of frequencies with regard to ice clouds, especially their ice water content, but also their microphysical properties such as particle sizes. 

The project is a joint effort of the French Centre National de Recherches Météorologiques (CNRM) and the University of Hamburg, the main coordination of the project lies with the  Laboratoire d'Etudes en Géophysique et Océonographie Spatiales (CNRM-LEGOS).