scholarly journals A fast radiative transfer model for the assimilation of water vapor radiances from the Kalpana very high resolution radiometer

2009 ◽  
Vol 36 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Randhir Singh ◽  
Peter Rayer ◽  
Roger Saunders ◽  
Stefano Migliorini ◽  
Roger Brugge ◽  
...  
2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (19) ◽  
pp. 7397-7417 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. W. Shephard ◽  
S. A. Clough ◽  
V. H. Payne ◽  
W. L. Smith ◽  
S. Kireev ◽  
...  

Abstract. Presented here are comparisons between the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding instrument (IASI) and the "Line-By-Line Radiative Transfer Model" (LBLRTM). Spectral residuals from radiance closure studies during the IASI JAIVEx validation campaign provide insight into a number of spectroscopy issues relevant to remote sounding of temperature, water vapor and trace gases from IASI. In order to perform quality IASI trace gas retrievals, the temperature and water vapor fields must be retrieved as accurately as possible. In general, the residuals in the CO2 ν2 region are of the order of the IASI instrument noise. However, outstanding issues with the CO2 spectral regions remain. There is a large residual ~−1.7 K in the 667 cm−1 Q-branch, and residuals in the CO2 ν2 and N2O/CO2 ν3 spectral regions that sample the troposphere are inconsistent, with the N2O/CO2 ν3 region being too negative (warmer) by ~0.7 K. Residuals on this lower wavenumber side of the CO2 ν3 band will be improved by line parameter updates, while future efforts to reduce the residuals reaching ~−0.5 K on the higher wavenumber side of the CO2 ν3 band will focus on addressing limitations in the modeling of the CO2 line shape (line coupling and duration of collision) effects. Brightness temperature residuals from the radiance closure studies in the ν2 water vapor band have standard deviations of ~0.2–0.3 K with some large peak residuals reaching ±0.5–1.0 K. These are larger than the instrument noise indicating that systematic errors still remain. New H2O line intensities and positions have a significant impact on the retrieved water vapor, particularly in the upper troposphere where the water vapor retrievals are 10% drier when using line intensities compared with HITRAN 2004. In addition to O3, CH4, and CO, of the IASI instrument combined with an accurate forward model allows for the detection of minor species with weak atmospheric signatures in the nadir radiances, such as HNO3 and OCS.


2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 3357-3397 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. J. Zawada ◽  
S. R. Dueck ◽  
L. A. Rieger ◽  
A. E. Bourassa ◽  
N. D. Lloyd ◽  
...  

Abstract. The OSIRIS instrument on board the Odin spacecraft has been measuring limb scattered radiance since 2001. The vertical radiance profiles measured as the instrument nods are inverted, with the aid of the SASKTRAN radiative transfer model, to obtain vertical profiles of trace atmospheric constituents. Here we describe two newly developed modes of the SASKTRAN radiative transfer model: a high spatial resolution mode, and a Monte Carlo mode. The high spatial resolution mode is a successive orders model capable of modelling the multiply scattered radiance when the atmosphere is not spherically symmetric; the Monte Carlo mode is intended for use as a highly accurate reference model. It is shown that the two models agree in a wide variety of solar conditions to within 0.2%. As an example case for both models, Odin-OSIRIS scans were simulated with the Monte Carlo model and retrieved using the high resolution model. A systematic bias of up to 4% in retrieved ozone number density between scans where the instrument is scanning up or scanning down was identified. It was found that calculating the multiply scattered diffuse field at five discrete solar zenith angles is sufficient to eliminate the bias for typical Odin-OSIRIS geometries.


2009 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. F. Feltz ◽  
K. M. Bedka ◽  
J. A. Otkin ◽  
T. Greenwald ◽  
S. A. Ackerman

Abstract Prior work has shown that pilot reports of severe turbulence over Colorado often occur when complex interference or crossing wave patterns are present in satellite water vapor imagery downstream of the Rocky Mountains. To improve the understanding of these patterns, a high-resolution (1-km) Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model simulation was performed for an intense mountain-wave event that occurred on 6 March 2004. Synthetic satellite imagery was subsequently generated by passing the model-simulated data through a forward radiative transfer model. Comparison with concurrent Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) water vapor imagery demonstrates that the synthetic satellite data realistically captured many of the observed mesoscale features, including a mountain-wave train extending far downstream of the Colorado Front Range, the deformation of this wave train by an approaching cold front, and the substantially warmer brightness temperatures in the lee of the major mountain ranges composing the Colorado Rockies. Inspection of the model data revealed that the mountain waves redistributed the water vapor within the lower and middle troposphere, with the maximum column-integrated water vapor content occurring one-quarter wavelength downstream of the maximum ascent within each mountain wave. Due to this phase shift, the strongest vertical motions occur halfway between the locally warm and cool brightness temperature couplets in the water vapor imagery. Interference patterns seen in the water vapor imagery appear to be associated with mesoscale variability in the ambient wind field at or near mountaintop due to flow interaction with the complex topography. It is also demonstrated that the synergistic use of multiple water vapor channels provides a more thorough depiction of the vertical extent of the mountain waves since the weighting function for each channel peaks at a different height in the atmosphere.


2005 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 789-803 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jordi Badosa ◽  
Josep-Abel González ◽  
Josep Calbó ◽  
Michiel van Weele ◽  
Richard L. McKenzie

Abstract To perform a climatic analysis of the annual UV index (UVI) variations in Catalonia, Spain (northeast of the Iberian Peninsula), a new simple parameterization scheme is presented based on a multilayer radiative transfer model. The parameterization performs fast UVI calculations for a wide range of cloudless and snow-free situations and can be applied anywhere. The following parameters are considered: solar zenith angle, total ozone column, altitude, aerosol optical depth, and single-scattering albedo. A sensitivity analysis is presented to justify this choice with special attention to aerosol information. Comparisons with the base model show good agreement, most of all for the most common cases, giving an absolute error within ±0.2 in the UVI for a wide range of cases considered. Two tests are done to show the performance of the parameterization against UVI measurements. One uses data from a high-quality spectroradiometer from Lauder, New Zealand [45.04°S, 169.684°E, 370 m above mean sea level (MSL)], where there is a low presence of aerosols. The other uses data from a Robertson–Berger-type meter from Girona, Spain (41.97°N, 2.82°E, 100 m MSL), where there is more aerosol load and where it has been possible to study the effect of aerosol information on the model versus measurement comparison. The parameterization is applied to a climatic analysis of the annual UVI variation in Catalonia, showing the contributions of solar zenith angle, ozone, and aerosols. High-resolution seasonal maps of typical UV index values in Catalonia are presented.


2010 ◽  
Vol 27 (10) ◽  
pp. 1609-1623 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Petrenko ◽  
A. Ignatov ◽  
Y. Kihai ◽  
A. Heidinger

Abstract The Advanced Clear Sky Processor for Oceans (ACSPO) generates clear-sky products, such as SST, clear-sky radiances, and aerosol, from Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR)-like measurements. The ACSPO clear-sky mask (ACSM) identifies clear-sky pixels within the ACSPO products. This paper describes the ACSM structure and compares the performances of ACSM and its predecessor, Clouds from AVHRR Extended Algorithm (CLAVRx). ACSM essentially employs online clear-sky radiative transfer simulations enabled within ACSPO with the Community Radiative Transfer Model (CRTM) in conjunction with numerical weather prediction atmospheric [Global Forecast System (GFS)] and SST [Reynolds daily high-resolution blended SST (DSST)] fields. The baseline ACSM tests verify the accuracy of fitting observed brightness temperatures with CRTM, check retrieved SST for consistency with Reynolds SST, and identify ambient cloudiness at the boundaries of cloudy systems. Residual cloud effects are screened out with several tests, adopted from CLAVRx, and with the SST spatial uniformity test designed to minimize misclassification of sharp SST gradients as clouds. Cross-platform and temporal consistencies of retrieved SSTs are maintained by accounting for SST and brightness temperature biases, estimated within ACSPO online and independently from ACSM. The performance of ACSM is characterized in terms of statistics of deviations of retrieved SST from the DSST. ACSM increases the amount of “clear” pixels by 30% to 40% and improves statistics of retrieved SST compared with CLAVRx. ACSM is also shown to be capable of producing satisfactory statistics of SST anomalies if the reference SST field for the exact date of observations is unavailable at the time of processing.


1995 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 413-418 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. P. F. Fortuin ◽  
R. van Dorland ◽  
W. M. F. Wauben ◽  
H. Kelder

Abstract. With a radiative transfer model, assessments are made of the radiative forcing in northern mid-latitudes due to aircraft emissions up to 1990. Considered are the direct climate effects from the major combustion products carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, water vapor and sulphur dioxide, as well as the indirect effect of ozone production from NOx emissions. Our study indicates a local radiative forcing at the tropopause which should be negative in summer (–0.5 to 0.0 W/m2) and either negative or positive in winter (–0.3 to 0.2 W/m2). To these values the indirect effect of contrails has to be added, which for the North Atlantic Flight Corridor covers the range –0.2 to 0.3 W/m2 in summer and 0.0 to 0.3 W/m2 in winter. Apart from optically dense non-aged contrails during summer, negative forcings are due to solar screening by sulphate aerosols. The major positive contributions come from contrails, stratospheric water vapor in winter and ozone in summer. The direct effect of NO2 is negligible and the contribution of CO2 is relatively small.


2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 6687-6711 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. J. Alvarado ◽  
V. H. Payne ◽  
E. J. Mlawer ◽  
G. Uymin ◽  
M. W. Shephard ◽  
...  

Abstract. Modern data assimilation algorithms depend on accurate infrared spectroscopy in order to make use of the information related to temperature, water vapor (H2O), and other trace gases provided by satellite observations. Reducing the uncertainties in our knowledge of spectroscopic line parameters and continuum absorption is thus important to improve the application of satellite data to weather forecasting. Here we present the results of a rigorous validation of spectroscopic updates to an advanced radiative transfer model, the Line-By-Line Radiative Transfer Model (LBLRTM), against a global dataset of 120 near-nadir, over-ocean, nighttime spectra from the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI). We compare calculations from the latest version of LBLRTM (v12.1) to those from a previous version (v9.4+) to determine the impact of spectroscopic updates to the model on spectral residuals as well as retrieved temperature and H2O profiles. We show that the spectroscopy in the CO2 ν2 and ν3 bands is significantly improved in LBLRTM v12.1 relative to v9.4+, and that these spectroscopic updates lead to mean changes of ~0.5 K in the retrieved vertical temperature profiles between the surface and 10 hPa, with the sign of the change and the variability among cases depending on altitude. We also find that temperature retrievals using each of these two CO2 bands are remarkably consistent in LBLRTM v12.1, potentially allowing these bands to be used to retrieve atmospheric temperature simultaneously. The updated H2O spectroscopy in LBLRTM v12.1 substantially improves the a posteriori residuals in the P-branch of the H2O ν2 band, while the improvements in the R-branch are more modest. The H2O amounts retrieved with LBLRTM v12.1 are on average 14% lower between 100 and 200 hPa, 42% higher near 562 hPa, and 31% higher near the surface compared to the amounts retrieved with v9.4+ due to a combination of the different retrieved temperature profiles and the updated H2O spectroscopy. We also find that the use of a fixed ratio of HDO to H2O in LBLRTM may be responsible for a significant fraction of the remaining bias in the P-branch relative to the R-branch of the H2O ν2 band. There were no changes to O3 spectroscopy between the two model versions, and so both versions give positive a posteriori residuals of ~ 0.3 K in the R-branch of the O3 ν3 band. While the updates to the H2O self-continuum employed by LBLRTM v12.1 have clearly improved the match with observations near the CO2 ν3 band head, we find that these updates have significantly degraded the match with observations in the fundamental band of CO. Finally, significant systematic a posteriori residuals remain in the ν4 band of CH4, but the magnitude of the positive bias in the retrieved mixing ratios is reduced in LBLRTM v12.1, suggesting that the updated spectroscopy could improve retrievals of CH4 from satellite observations.


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