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Over the last decades, the spaceborne remote sensing community has been focused on the development of imaging radars at RF frequencies such as S-band, L-band, C-band and X-band.

ITU regulations currently permit the use of Ka-band for active spaceborne microwave remote sensing but only few missions are considering applying this frequency band such as the SARAL mission with the ALtiKa instrument (launched 2013).

The aim of this study was to explore and consolidate the possible sources of methane (CH₄) biases in retrievals from thermal infrared (TIR) sensors, to establish necessary actions and perform the related work for mitigating biases. The study distinguisged three types of error sources: spectroscopic knowledge and input data to radiative transfer models (RTM), forward model errors, and instrument biases.

For achieving this goal, the study addresses three main objectives, corresponding to three identified tasks:

Earth observation by satellites provides essential datasets for a wide range of commercial, societal and scientific applications. Satellites have been observing the state of the environment since the launch of the radiation balance instrument on Explorer 8 in October 1959, and over the last 60 years the range of observation types and applications has grown exponentially. Today operational long-term sustained Earth observation programmes, exemplified by the Copernicus Sentinels, give a wide range of users reliable environmental information services.

This study focused on the synergistic retrieval of cloud information from active and passive observations. While this synergistic approach is well established for precipitation, it is used less for clouds.