Methodology ยท Passive microwave
Passive microwave radiometry
Retrieves soil moisture, sea ice concentration, snow water equivalent, and atmospheric water vapour from natural microwave emission; good for global hydrological and cryosphere monitoring.
How it works
Brightness temperature at multiple frequencies and polarisations inverted against emission models. Coarse spatial resolution (~25 km) limits applicability over heterogeneous terrain. Cloud-independent and operates day and night. [Wikipedia: Passive microwave remote sensing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_microwave_remote_sensing)
Topics this serves
- Sea ice well suited
- Snow water equivalent well suited
- Soil moisture well suited
Existing implementations
No implementations recorded yet.
Sources
- [wikipedia]Wikipedia: Passive microwave remote sensingcommunityaccessed 2026-05-22
Methodology
Edited from public sources. Last reviewed date pending by SpectraWorks editorial. See the data dictionary for field definitions.