We develop a new technique for terrain correction of coarse resolution satellite

microwave radiometer measurements using the high-resolution digital elevation

model (DEM). With the high-resolution DEM and a facet model, we first simulated

the terrain influences that resulted from both effects of local incidence and

polarization rotation (PR) on the microwave radiometer measurements at the different

scales of the radiometer footprints. The emissivity signals of bare surfaces

are more sensitive on incidence and PR than vegetated surfaces. So the emissivities

at different incidence angles of the bare surface generated by the advanced

integral equation model (AIEM) were used to simulate the terrain effects on the

satellite measurements. It was found that (1) the PR effect at the satellite footprint

can be corrected using the absolute mean PR angle from all facets within the footprint,

and (2) the satellite measurements can be described as from a mean incidence

angle. Both angles can be obtained from all facets within the footprint with the

high-resolution DEM and the satellite viewing geometry. Therefore, a corresponding

terrain-correction technique was developed for satellite brightness temperature

measurements. We also demonstrate the terrain effects on the satellite measurements

from the advanced microwave scanning radiometer–earth observing system