Airborne remote sensing has improved significantly over the last two decades, with NSF investing in new radars and lidars for its aircraft fleet.A workshop held on 23-24 September, 2014, in Boulder, CO, reviewed scientific requirements for and instrument improvements in airborne microwave radiometry in this context. The surveyed microwave radiometers provide two important new sources of information:
1. The geophysical constraints on new vertically-resolved radar and lidar retrievals of aerosol, water vapor, and cloud liquid water
2. A potentially three-dimensional thermodynamic mapping capable of providing new insights into long-standing mesoscale problems. Simultaneously, miniaturization is creating smaller radiometers with lower power needs, higher frequencies, improved stabilities, and more modular designs.
Technological breakthroughs allows micro- and millimeter-wave radiometers to become more integrated into a synergistic suite of active and passive remote sensors. Ideal radiometer characteristics were identified, and institutional processes recommended by which NSF might promote the development and/or acquisition of a new sensor.
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