Abstract:The development and continuity of consistent long-term data records from similar overlapping satellite observations is critical for global monitoring and environmental change assessments. We developed an empirical approach for inter-calibration of satellite microwave brightness temperature (T b ) records over land from the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for EOS (AMSR-E) and Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) using overlapping T b observations from the Microwave Radiation Imager (MWRI). Double Differencing (DD) calculations revealed significant AMSR2 and MWRI biases relative to AMSR-E. Pixel-wise linear relationships were established from overlapping T b records and used for calibrating MWRI and AMSR2 records to the AMSR-E baseline. The integrated multi-sensor T b record was largely consistent over the major global vegetation and climate zones; sensor biases were generally well calibrated, though OPEN ACCESSRemote Sens. 2014, 6 8595 residual T b differences inherent to different sensor configurations were still present. Daily surface air temperature estimates from the calibrated AMSR2 T b inputs also showed favorable accuracy against independent measurements from 142 global weather stations (R 2 ≥ 0.75, RMSE ≤ 3.64 °C), but with slightly lower accuracy than the AMSR-E baseline (R 2 ≥ 0.78, RMSE ≤ 3.46 °C). The proposed method is promising for generating consistent, uninterrupted global land parameter records spanning the AMSR-E and continuing AMSR2 missions.

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