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RESEARCH EQUIPMENT

The group has obtained large equipment from the Deanˇ¦s Reserve Fund and the universityˇ¦s Large Equipment Grant. These include:

(i)             a CIMEL sunphotometer for measurement of atmospheric aerosols and water vapour

(ii)           a Microwave Water Radiometer for research into the effects of the atmosphere on Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) and Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements.

CIMEL sunphotometer CE318N-EBS9

Part of NASAˇ¦s global AERONET network for monitoring global air pollution:

Figure 13.  The CIMEL sunphotometer

The CIMEL sunphotometer is installed on the roof of the PolyU, to support research on air pollution monitoring. The instrument is used for calibrating and analyzing data on aerosols and other atmospheric parameters obtained from NASAˇ¦s MODIS hyperspectral satellite.  The satellite passes over Hong Kong and the south China region twice every 24 hours and gives a broad perspective of air quality and visibility over the region. The Department has entered into a 10-year agreement with NASA, which has partially funded the cost, and assisted in the setting up of the sunphotometer. The data is received in the department, and provided to other users on the internet as part of the global AERONET programme coordinated by NASA.

Microwave Water Radiometer WVR-1100

The WVR-1100 is a sensitive microwave receiver which is tuned to measure the microwave emissions of the vapor and liquid water molecules in the atmosphere at specific frequencies. It continuously measures the integrated water vapor and cloud liquid along the line of sight of the radiometer, by observing at 23.8 and 31.4 GHz. Observations can be made in any sky direction. Applications include atmospheric radiation monitoring, meteorological research, weather forecasting, telecommunications and satellite propagation for quality observation and forecasting.

Figure 14.  Microwave water vapour radiometer