Technical development to improve satellite sounding over radiatively complex terrain

High resolution topography was acquired and applied on the McIDAS system. A technique for finding the surface skin temperature in the presence of cloud and reflected sunlight was implemented in the ALPEX retrieval software and the variability of surface emissivity at microwave wavelength was examined. Data containing raw radiances for all HIRS and MSU channels for NOAA-6 and 7 were used. METEOSAT data were used to derive cloud drift and water vapor winds over the Alpine region.