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SSMIS Implementation Details for GPROF 2010

The SSMIS version of the GPROF 2010 algorithm uses input data from the Fundamental Climate Data Record (FCDR) currently being developed for NOAA. This dataset consists of brightness temperature data from the DMSP F16, F17, and F18 SSMIS sensors, which have been quality controlled, corrected for cross-track biases and other issues, and then intercalibrated to be physically consistent with data from the SSM/I on board F13.

Note that the current version of GPROF 2010 for SSMIS is a beta or preliminary version. This is because the land implementation currently uses the same code as the SSM/I retrieval and does not account for the change in the high frequency channels from 85 GHz for SSM/I to 91 GHz for SSMIS. As a result, there are biases between the land estimates from these two sensors. The ocean retrieval does account for the sensor differences including the change in the high frequency channels.