Kwajalein Experiment (KWAJEX) Data from the University of Washington

The Kwajalein Experiment (KWAJEX), held 23 July - 15 September 1999,
was a field observation campaign centered on Kwajalein Atoll, Marshall
Islands and sponsored by NASA in cooperation with the U.S. Army
Kwajalein Atoll/Kwajalein Missile Range and the National Oceanographic
and Atmospheric Administration. The joint U.S.-Japan Tropical Rainfall
Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite was launched in November 1997 and
uses a Ku-band radar and a multi-channel passive microwave radiometer
to map precipitation in the tropics. A number of physical assumptions
are made within the TRMM satellite algorithms in order to obtain rain
rates from the the satellite-measured radiances. The goals of KWAJEX
were focused on making observations to reduce uncertainty in these
physical assumptions by gathering a coordinated data set of airborne,
shipborne, and ground-based measurements within tropical open ocean
precipitating clouds.

1999年7月23日至9月15日实施的夸贾林试验（Kwajalein Experiment, KWAJEX），是一项以马绍尔群岛夸贾林环礁为中心的野外观测计划，由美国国家航空航天局（National Aeronautics and Space Administration, NASA）联合美国陆军夸贾林环礁/夸贾林导弹靶场以及美国国家海洋和大气管理局（National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NOAA）共同资助开展。美日联合研制的热带降雨测量任务（Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission, TRMM）卫星于1997年11月发射升空，该卫星搭载Ku波段雷达与多通道被动微波辐射计，用于绘制热带地区的降水分布。为从卫星实测的辐射亮度数据中反演降雨率，TRMM卫星的算法中采用了多项物理假设。KWAJEX的研究目标聚焦于通过采集热带开阔洋面降水云的机载、船载与地基协同观测数据集，降低上述物理假设中的不确定性。