Vinia Mattioli

• Electronical Engineering, PhD
• Researcher at European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT)

The forthcoming spaceborne Ice Cloud Imager (ICI) radiometer has 11 channels in the millimeter (mm) and sub-mm wave range from 183 up to 664 GHz. At some of these frequencies, the atmosphere is very opaque due to strong gaseous and cloud extinction, precluding the observation of the surface. We aim at investigating how to evaluate the ICI channels...

The goal of this work is to perform the geolocation error assessment of the channel imagery at 183.31 GHz of the Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS). The frequency around 183.31 GHz still represents the highest channel frequency of current spaceborne microwave and millimeter-wave radiometers. The latter will be extended to frequencies u...

The EUMETSAT Polar System (EPS) will be followed by a second generation system, EPS-SG, in the 2020–2040 timeframe and is the European contribution to the Joint Polar System being jointly set up with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the United States. Among the various missions which are part of EPS-SG, there are the Mi...

The second generation of the EUMETSAT Polar System (EPS-SG) will include the Ice Cloud Imager (ICI), the first operational sensor covering sub-millimetre wavelengths. Three copies of ICI will be launched that together will give a measurement time series exceeding 20 years. Due to the novelty of ICI, preparing the data processing is especially impor...

There has been growing interest in recent years in the use of homogeneously reprocessed ground-based GNSS, VLBI, and DORIS measurements for climate applications. Existing datasets are reviewed and the sensitivity of tropospheric estimates to the processing details is discussed. The uncertainty in the derived IWV estimates and linear trends is aroun...

Data from global positioning system (GPS) ground-based receivers, ground-based microwave radiometers (MWRs), and radiosondes (RS) at two high-latitude sites were compared. At one site, the North Slope of Alaska (NSA), Barrow, Alaska (USA), the instruments were co-located, while at the other site, the second ARM Mobile Facility (AMF2), Hyytiälä, Fin...

The second generation of the EUMETSAT Polar System (EPS-SG) will include the Ice Cloud Imager (ICI), the first operational sensor covering sub-millimetre wavelengths. Three copies of ICI will be launched that together will give a measurement series exceeding 20 years. Due to the novelty of ICI, preparing the data processing is especially important...

In this work, we examine data from a Global Positioning System (GPS) ground-based receiver, two co-located ground-based microwave radiometers (MWRs), and radiosondes (RAOBs) to characterize the uncertainties associated with integrated water vapour (IWV) values estimated from the GPS in a sub-Arctic climate region. The experiment was carried out dur...

The need to transfer ever-increasing amounts of information leads to the use of higher frequencies that allow for larger bandwidths. In the Alphasat Aldo Paraboni Propagation and Communication Experiments, Ka, Q and V-band frequencies (20, 40 and 50 GHz respectively) are investigated for satellite communications. In addition to the ground stations,...

A new model for the estimation of the dry path delay affecting electromagnetic waves traversing the neutral atmosphere (troposphere and stratosphere) is presented. For instance, an accurate evaluation of this parameter is necessary to directly get the amount of water vapour in the atmosphere from measurements of radio signals total delay available...

Sun-tracking (ST) microwave radiometry is a technique where the Sun is used as a microwave signal source and it is here rigorously summarized. The antenna noise temperature of a ground-based microwave radiometer is measured by alternately pointing toward-the-Sun and off-the-Sun while tracking it along its diurnal ecliptic. During clear sky the brig...

Sun-tracking microwave radiometry is a groundbased technique where the Sun is used as a beacon source. The atmospheric antenna noise temperature is measured by alternately pointing toward-the-Sun and off-the-Sun according to a beam switching strategy. By properly developing an ad hoc processing algorithm, we can estimate the atmospheric path attenu...

Sun-tracking millimeter-wave radiometry exploits the Sun as a beacon source by tracking it along its diurnal ecliptic. The atmospheric brightness temperature is measured by alternately pointing toward-the-Sun and off-the-Sun according to ad hoc switching strategy. By properly developing a retrieval algorithm, we can estimate the atmospheric path at...

The estimation of the path delay due to water vapor is a crucial aspect for the calibration of the Doppler observables of a deep space probe. The Advanced Water Vapor Radiometer (AWVR) developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL, NASA) already proved its capability to accurately estimate the path delay during the entire Cassini mission. Here, f...

In order to study propagation effects for future satellite communication frequencies, the Alphasat Aldo Paraboni (TDP 5) payload includes two beacon transmitters at Ka-band (19.701 GHz) and Q-band (39.402 GHz). Under ESA contract a Ground Propagation Terminal was developed to measure the co-and cross polar signals of both frequencies with the same...

A microwave radiometer profiler is used to determine the no-attenuation level relative to which beacon atmospheric attenuation is measured. A technique that can be used for the discrimination of atmospheric conditions (clear-sky, cloudy, rainy) from the measured slant-path brightness temperatures is discussed, with the aim of improving the accuracy...

A radiometer is a wideband receiver that allows the brightness temperature of the troposphere to be measured and the attenuation at any frequency to be inferred very accurately in clear-sky conditions, along with other atmospheric parameters like vapour and liquid water content. In addition to the Communication Ground Station and the Ground Propaga...

In the framework of the incoming Alphasat communication and propagation experiment, an operative real time criterion (SSI) to discriminate among the three main atmospheric propagation statuses (clear, cloudy and rainy sky conditions) and to trigger Fading Mitigation Techniques (FMT) is proposed and analysed. Two SSI boundary threshold values were e...

The estimation of the path delay due to water vapor is a crucial aspect for the calibration of the Doppler observables of a deep space probe. The Advanced Water Vapor Radiometer (AWVR), developed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL, NASA), already proved its capability to accurately estimate the path delay during the entire Cassini mission. Here,...

A physically-based parametric model (PPM) to predict the sky-noise temperature in all weather conditions is proposed. The proposed prediction model is based on the non-linear regression fit of numerical simulations derived from the sky-noise eddington radiative-transfer model (SNEM) in an absorbing and scattering medium such as gaseous, cloudy and...

Performances of the different techniques that can be used for the discrimination of atmospheric conditions (clear-sky, cloudy, rainy) from slant-path brightness temperatures measured by ground-based microwave radiometers are revised and discussed for their application in radio-propagation.

Radiosoundings data and numerical outputs from a cloud-resolving model in conjunction with a Monte Carlo statistical scheme and a radiative transfer algorithm (SNEM) are used to characterize propagation parameters at V- and W-band in Rome, NY, for any meteorological scenario including clear-air, cloudy coverage, stratiform rain and convective preci...

The authors propose an inversion scheme devoted to the retrieval of the atmospheric specific absorption coefficient based on data collected by a ground-based microwave radiometer. The technique processes elevation scans. The vertical plan is modelled by allocating M bins in the vertical directions. The forward modelling is defined by linearization...

A field campaign was carried out in the framework of the Mitigation of Electromagnetic Transmission errors induced by Atmospheric Water Vapour Effects (METAWAVE) project sponsored by the European Space Agency (ESA) to investigate the accuracy of currently available sources of atmospheric columnar integrated water vapor measurements. The METAWAVE ca...

A review of microwave radiometric (MWR) instruments, algorithms and ancillary data for deriving total attenuation and sky noise in propagation experiments is presented. The paper also includes reference to MWR networks, experimental databases and identification of the channel condition in propagation experiments and telecom systems.

A field campaign was carried out in the framework of the Mitigation of Electromagnetic Transmission errors induced by Atmospheric Water Vapour Effects (METAWAVE) project sponsored by the European Space Agency (ESA) to investigate the accuracy of currently available sources of atmospheric columnar integrated water vapor measurements. The METAWAVE ca...

A method based on neural networks is proposed to retrieve integrated precipitable water vapor (IPWV) over land from brightness temperatures measured by the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-Earth Observing System (AMSR-E). Water vapor values provided by European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) were used to train the network....

Spaceborne Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) is a well established technique useful in many land applications, such as tectonic movements, landslide monitoring and digital elevation model extraction. One of its major limitation is the atmospheric effect, and in particular the high water vapour spatial and temporal variability which i...

A physically-oriented statistical prediction of sky-noise temperature intercepted by ground Deep-Space antennas has been developed, based on simulations obtained by using a radiative transfer model approaching the electromagnetic propagation in a scattering medium. A model dependent on attenuation, frequency and elevation angle is proposed for desc...

In recent years the demand for high data rate satellite links in Earth Observation (EO) missions has increased because of the adoption of instruments with higher resolution. The high data rate systems envisaged require then very large bandwidth and for this reason the use of the Ka band for the Earth Observation Satellites has been planned. In the...

Spaceborne Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) is a well established technique useful in many land applications, such as tectonic movements, landslide monitoring and digital elevation model extraction. One of its major limitation is the atmospheric effect, and in particular the high water vapour spatial and temporal variability which i...

The objective of this contribution is the review of remote sensing and navigation data in order to provide an overview on meteorological parameters important for propagation modelling up to W band. Such data are also useful to assess the accuracy of the propagation models and analyse propagation impairment mitigation techniques (PIMTs). The review...

Accurate measurements of water vapor in the Arctic winter, either in situ or remote, are difficult to achieve. These measurements are important to studies in infrared radiative transfer. To focus on measurements during cold temperatures (<- 20ºC) and low amounts of vapor (Precipitable Water Vapor, 5 mm), an Intensive Operating Period (IOP) was cond...

A multilayer neural network has been developed to retrieve IPWV over land from brightness temperatures measured by the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - Earth Observing System (AMSR-E) on board the Aqua satellite. Our study was optimized over two areas in Northern and Central Italy. Good agreements on the order of 0.24 cm and 0.33 cm rms, re...

A method based on neural networks is proposed to retrieve precipitable water vapor (IPWV) over land from brightness temperatures measured by the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - Earth Observing System (AMSR-E). Water vapor values provided by European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) were used to train the network. The perfo...

Spaceborne Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) is a well established technique useful in many land applications, such as monitoring tectonic movements and landslides or extracting digital elevation models. One of its major limitations is the atmospheric variability, and in particular the high water vapor spatial and temporal variabilit...

Spaceborne interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) is a well established technique useful in many land applications, such as tectonic movements, landslide monitoring and digital elevation model extraction. One of its major limitations is the atmospheric effect, and in particular the high water vapour spatial and temporal variability which...

Two cloud models currently in use in propagation and remote sensing simulations in the presence of nonprecipitating clouds were analyzed. A new cloud model is also proposed: a modification of a humidity threshold to better identify clouds is suggested, as is a new cloud density function for computing cloud liquid and ice content within a cloud. The...

This work concerns the problem of analysing the link budget of a ground station communicating with deep space probes. The advantages of a high frequency link (Ka and W band) are discussed, together with the problem originating from the considerable tropospheric effect. The work presents an approach aiming to provide the information on attenuation a...

In a recent paper by Mattioli et al., a significant difference was observed between upper-tropospheric and lower-stratospheric water vapor profiles as observed by two radiosonde systems operating in the Arctic. The first was the Vaisala RS90 system as operated by the U.S. Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program; the second...

Measurement of water vapor and cloud liquid during very cold (-20 to -40 Deg. C) and dry (precipitable water vapor < 5 mm) conditions is a very important, but difficult task. Starting in 1999, three radiometric experiments were conducted at the U. S. Department of Energypsilas Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Programpsilas North Slope of Ala...

In this work a method based on neural networks is proposed to retrieve precipitable water vapour over land and over ocean from brightness temperatures measured by the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer - Earth Observing System. In order to train the neural network, water vapour values provided by European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecas...

In this work a method based on neural networks is proposed to retrieve profiles of refractivity, temperature, pressure and humidity in the troposphere from GPS-LEO radio occultation. To overcome the constraint of temperature profile availability at each GPS occultation, we have trained a neural network with refractivity profiles as input computed f...

During 9 March–9 April 2004, the North Slope of Alaska Arctic Winter Radiometric Experiment was conducted at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program’s (ARM) “Great White” field site near Barrow, Alaska. The major goals of the experiment were to compare microwave and millimeter wavelength radiometers and to develop forward models in radiative...

The Salonen cloud model currently in use in propagation and remote sensing simulations is analyzed at two independent sites: the ARM SGP site in USA, and the FUB site in Pomezia, Italy. The humidity threshold function is evaluated by using a ceilometer located at SGP and an otimization of such threshold is proposed. The cloud water model is assesse...

The passive calibration of the Radar Altimeter (RA) consists of characterizing the receiver gain by observing natural surfaces with known emission in the so-called noise-listen mode. It is based on the comparison between the simulated values of the brightness temperature impinging on the altimeter antenna, and the digital counts at the output of th...

This paper deals with the development of a microwave, noise-adding radiometer, purposely designed for the fire detection in forest environments. The sensor operates at 12.65GHz and exploits commercial TV-SAT components such as a parabolic dish and a low-noise down-converter. First, an electromagnetic model is presented in order to estimate the radi...

Two cloud water models that can be included in the radiative transfer to simulate brightness temperatures from radiosonde data are analyzed. We first evaluate and optimize the capability of the models to detect correctly the presence of clouds, by comparing the cloud base heights identified from the radiosoundings with those provided by a ceilomete...

An intensive operating period (IOP) was conducted at the U. S. Department of Energy's atmospheric radiation measurement (ARM) program's field site near Barrow, Alaska, during March 9 to April 9 2004. During this IOP, radiometers were deployed over a broad frequency range (22.235 to 380 GHz), including several channels near the strong water vapor ab...

Ground-based millimeter(mm)- and submillimeter (submm)-wave observations were collected during the Arctic winter by a new 25-channel scanning radiometer. Theoretical analysis and observations are shown to demonstrate the enhanced sensitivity of mm- and submm-wave radiometers with respect to conventional instruments, such microwave radiometers and g...

Two cloud water models that can be included in the radiative transfer to simulate brightness temperatures from radiosonde data are analyzed. We first evaluate and optimize the capability of the models to detect correctly the presence of clouds, by comparing the cloud base heights identified from the radiosoundings with those provided by a ceilomete...

Brightness temperatures computed from five absorption models and radiosonde observations were analyzed by comparing them with measurements from three microwave radiometers at 23.8 and 31.4 GHz. Data were obtained during the Cloudiness Inter-Comparison Experiment at the U.S. Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program's (ARM) si...

The 2004 Arctic Winter Radiometric Experiment was conducted at the North Slope of Alaska (NSA) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program field site near Barrow, Alaska from March 9 to April 9, 2004. The goals of the experiment were: to study the microwave and millimeter wave radiometric response to water vapor and clouds during cold and dry c...

A multiinstrument radiometric experiment was conducted on the North Slope of Alaska near Barrow, Alaska, during March 9 to April 9 2004. Initial radiometric and radiosonde data from this experiment are presented.

This work concerns the surface 'change detection' by means of differential digital elevation model (D_DEM) techniques, based on laser scanning 3D data. The laser scanning 3D technology allows to generate an high precision DEM, that can be used to calculate the morphological ground surface variations at different acquisition time intervals. The basi...

This paper deals with a procedure to generate maps of the integrated precipitable water vapor (IPWV) over the Mediterranean area by using estimates from a global positioning system (GPS) network over land and from the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) over sea. In particular, we investigate the application of the kriging geostatistical techni...

This paper deals with a procedure to generate maps of the integrated precipitable water vapor (IPWV) over the Mediterranean area by using estimates from a global positioning system (GPS) network over land and from the Special Sensor Microwave/imager (SSM/I) over sea. In particular, we investigate the application of the Kriging geostatistical techni...

This paper reports the results of an experimental campaign carried out in the Central Italy, considering also part of the Tyrrhenian Sea. Integrated precipitable water vapour estimates obtained from measurements of multiple sensors were produced for a period of about one year, with the purpose of validating the corresponding MERIS estimates. The va...

This work considers the use of a dual-frequency, ground-based microwave radiometer with scanning capabilities to investigate the behaviour of the atmosphere in terms of precipitable water vapour and integrated cloud liquid before precipitation events.

This paper concerns the validation of the atmospheric integrated precipitable water vapour (IPVW) product of the MERIS instrument on board of ENVISAT satellite. The validation is performed both at specific locations and over an extended area. The first comparison is performed with respect to the measurements of ground based instruments (microwave r...

In the framework of the ENVISAT project, we present the preliminary results of a validation campaign concerning atmospheric water, performed by means of a geographical network of ground-based sensors including multichannel microwave radiometers, GPS receivers, radiosondes, ground-based meteo stations, and the outputs of a mesoscale numerical predic...

This paper concerns the remote sensing of atmospheric integrated precipitable water vapour (IPVW) using a Global Positioning System (GPS) network and the Special Sensor Microwave Imager Radiometer (SSM/I) in the Mediterranean area. A comparison of IPWV maps from the two different techniques is presented. Some preliminary attempts to develop a data...

This paper considers the monitoring of integrated precipitable water vapour (IPWV) exploiting measurements of Global Positioning System (GPS) ground-based receivers with the purpose of analysing the behaviour of such parameter in occasion of precipitation events. A statistical characterisation of atmospheric water vapour content retrieved by GPS at...

The passive calibration of the radar altimeter consists in characterising the receiver by observing natural surfaces with known emission in the so-called noise-sensing mode. The paper focuses on the general approach undertaken to simulate the brightness temperature at the top of the atmosphere observed by the Envisat Radar Altimeter (RA-2). It is b...

fax +390755853654; ph. +390755853667, basili@diei.unipg.it (2) Dept. of Electrical Engineering., Univ. of L'Aquila, 67040 Poggio di Roio, L'Aquila, Italy; fax +390862434414; ph. +390862434412, p.ciotti@ing.univaq.it (3) Fondazione Ugo Bordoni, viale Europa 190 00144 Rome, Italy; fax +39-06-54804401; ph +39-06-54802118, ermanno@fub.it ABSTRACT This...

This paper considers the monitoring of integrated precipitable water vapour (IPWV) exploiting measurements of Global Positioning System (GPS) ground-based receivers with the purpose of analysing the behaviour of such parameter during precipitation events. A statistical characterisation of atmospheric water vapour content retrieved by GPS at a singl...

This paper reports the results of an experimental campaign carried out in the Central Italy, considering also part of the Tyrrhenian Sea. Integrated precipitable water vapour estimates obtained from measurements of multiple sensors were produced for a period of about one year, with the purpose of validating the corresponding MERIS estimates. The va...

In recent years the demand for high data rate satellite links in Earth Observation (EO) missions has increased because of the adoption of instruments with higher resolution. The high data rate systems envisaged require then very large bandwidth and for this reason the use of the Ka band for the Earth Observation Satellites has been planned. In the...

ABSTRACT The water vapour present in the troposphere is the source of important processes relevant for climate studies and for telecommunication applications. Accurate, frequent sampling of fluctuations of water vapour is a fundamental goal. This work considers the estimation of atmospheric integrated precipitable water vapour (IPWV) by means of a...

In March-April of 2004, a radiometric experiment was conducted at the U. S. Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurements (ARM) Program's field site near Barrow, Alaska. During this experiment, multi-wavelength measurements of clear-air brightness temperature were taken by three upward-looking radiometers: the Ground-based Scanning Radi...

We used data from three Microwave radiometers (MWRs) at 23.8 and 31.4 GHz, radiosonde, and Global Positioning System (GPS) to analyze the performance of five clear-sky atmospheric absorption models. Data were collected during the Cloud Inter-Comparison experiment at the Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program's (ARM) site i...