The retrieval of atmospheric water vapor and cloud liquid water over the oceans from a simple radiative transfer model: application to SSM/I data

A radiative transfer model is described for the evaluation of the brightness temperatures measured by microwave radiometers above the oceans. For observations at an incidence angle around 50/spl deg/ from the local vertical, a crude approximation of this model is providing the basis for a wind-independent inversion algorithm for the retrieval of atmospheric integrated water vapor and cloud liquid water. The algorithm is applied to special sensor microwave imager (SSM/I) data, and the results compared with estimates from the ECMWF climatological model and from the algorithms specifically developed for SSM/I. A short discussion on the accuracy of the algorithm is also provided.