Walbröl, Andreas; Rückert, Janna Elisabeth; Bühler, Linnu; Risse, Nils; Krobot, Pavel; Mech, Mario: Brightness temperatures of the surface and atmosphere at 183-340 GHz on Polarstern cruise PS144 [dataset]. PANGAEA, https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.993068 (dataset in review)
Abstract:
This data set contains daily files of atmospheric (PS144_uoc_lhumpro-243-340_l1_tb_v01_2024*.nc) and surface (PS144_uoc_lhumpro-243-340_l1_tb_sfc_v01_2024*.nc) brightness temperatures measured by the Microwave Radar/Radiometer for Arctic Clouds - Passive (MiRAC-P, Mech et al., 2019) onboard the research vessel Polarstern during cruise PS144 (Rabe & Geibert, 2025) from 10 August to 7 October 2024. MiRAC-P measures brightness temperatures at six double-sided channels along the strong water vapour absorption line in the G-band (183.31 +/- 0.6 GHz to 183.31 +/- 7.5 GHz) and at 243 and 340 GHz. The instrument was mounted at the portside railing on one of the highest decks of Polarstern (lower Peildeck).
Note that the surface brightness temperature files contain observations at different zenith angles and also provide atmospheric brightness temperatures at the angle corresponding to the atmospheric signal reflected by the surface. The latter is needed for surface emissivity calculations.
Keyword(s):
Related to:
Bühler, Linnu; Rückert, Janna Elisabeth; Walbröl, Andreas; Mech, Mario; Risse, Nils; Krobot, Pavel; Ebell, Kerstin; Schnitt, Sabrina; Spreen, Gunnar (2026): Water vapor, mixed-phase clouds, precipitation and sea ice emissivity over the Central Arctic Ocean (VAMPIRE-1): remote sensing and in-situ measurements suite during POLARSTERN cruise PS144 (ArcWatch-2) [dataset bibliography]. PANGAEA, https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.990496
Mech, Mario; Kliesch, Leif-Leonard; Anhäuser, Andreas; Rose, Thomas; Kollias, Pavlos; Crewell, Susanne (2019): Microwave Radar/radiometer for Arctic Clouds (MiRAC): first insights from the ACLOUD campaign. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, 12(9), 5019-5037, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-5019-2019
Rabe, Benjamin; Geibert, Walter (2025): The Expedition PS144 of the Research Vessel POLARSTERN to the Arctic Ocean in 2023 /2024. Berichte zur Polar- und Meeresforschung = Reports on Polar and Marine Research, 794, 312 pp, https://doi.org/10.57738/BZPM_0794_2025
Project(s):
Arctic Amplification (AC3)
Funding:
Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Bremerhaven (AWI), grant/award no. AWI_PS144_06: SeaIcePhys. (ArcWatch1/TransArc3)
German Research Foundation (DFG), grant/award no. 268020496: TRR 172: ArctiC Amplification: Climate Relevant Atmospheric and SurfaCe Processes, and Feedback Mechanisms
Coverage:
Median Latitude: 70.205973 * Median Longitude: 15.918065 * South-bound Latitude: 69.747320 * West-bound Longitude: 12.693690 * North-bound Latitude: 70.664627 * East-bound Longitude: 19.142440
Date/Time Start: 2024-08-09T08:00:00 * Date/Time End: 2024-10-08T12:08:45
Event(s):
PS144_0_Underway-16 * Latitude Start: 69.747320 * Longitude Start: 19.142440 * Latitude End: 70.664627 * Longitude End: 12.693690 * Date/Time Start: 2024-08-09T08:00:00 * Date/Time End: 2024-10-08T12:08:45 * O2A Registry URI: https://registry.o2a-data.de/items/11590 * Campaign: PS144 (ArcWatch 2; TransArc3) * Basis: Polarstern * Method/Device: Microwave Radar and radiometer for Arctic Clouds - Passive (MiRAC-P)
Comment:
Each netCDF file contains either atmospheric (PS144_uoc_lhumpro-243-340_l1_tb_v01_2024*.nc) or surface (PS144_uoc_lhumpro-243-340_l1_tb_v01_2024*.nc) brightness temperatures measured by MiRAC-P onboard Polarstern for one day of the cruise PS144. The total number of files is 115 and the total size is about 600 MB. Each file further contains meta data about the position (latitude, longitude, height above mean sea level), the zenith angle, the quality and the frequency of the measured brightness temperature, and provides standard meteorological parameters (air temperature, pressure and relative humidity) from the weather station mounted to MiRAC-P.
Parameter(s):
| # | Name | Short Name | Unit | Principal Investigator | Method/Device | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | File content | Content | Walbröl, Andreas | |||
| 2 | netCDF file | netCDF | Walbröl, Andreas | Microwave Radiometer for Arctic Clouds - Passive (MiRAC-P) | ||
| 3 | netCDF file (File Size) | netCDF (Size) | Bytes | Walbröl, Andreas | Microwave Radiometer for Arctic Clouds - Passive (MiRAC-P) | |
| 4 | Date/time start | Date/time start | Walbröl, Andreas | |||
| 5 | LATITUDE | Latitude | Walbröl, Andreas | Geocode – start | ||
| 6 | LONGITUDE | Longitude | Walbröl, Andreas | Geocode – start | ||
| 7 | Date/time end | Date/time end | Walbröl, Andreas | |||
| 8 | LATITUDE | Latitude | Walbröl, Andreas | Geocode – end | ||
| 9 | LONGITUDE | Longitude | Walbröl, Andreas | Geocode – end |
License:
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY-4.0) (License comes into effect after moratorium ends)
Status:
Curation Level: Enhanced curation (CurationLevelC)
Size:
460 data points