scholarly journals Analysis of global water vapour trends from satellite measurements in the visible spectral range

2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 491-504 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Mieruch ◽  
S. Noël ◽  
H. Bovensmann ◽  
J. P. Burrows

Abstract. Global water vapour total column amounts have been retrieved from spectral data provided by the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) flying on ERS-2, which was launched in April 1995, and the SCanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY (SCIAMACHY) onboard ENVISAT launched in March 2002. For this purpose the Air Mass Corrected Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (AMC-DOAS) approach has been used. The combination of the data from both instruments provides us with a long-term global data set spanning more than 11 years with the potential of extension up to 2020 by GOME-2 data on MetOp. Using linear and non-linear methods from time series analysis and standard statistics the trends of H2O columns and their errors have been calculated. In this study, factors affecting the trend such as the length of the time series, the magnitude of the variability of the noise, and the autocorrelation of the noise are investigated. Special emphasis has been placed on the calculation of the statistical significance of the observed trends, which reveal significant local changes from −5% per year to +5% per year. These significant trends are distributed over the whole globe. Increasing trends have been calculated for Greenland, East Europe, Siberia and Oceania, whereas decreasing trends have been observed for the northwest USA, Central America, Amazonia, Central Africa and the Arabian Peninsular.

2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 11761-11796 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Mieruch ◽  
S. Noël ◽  
H. Bovensmann ◽  
J. P. Burrows

Abstract. Global water vapour total column amounts have been retrieved from spectral data provided by the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) flying on ERS-2, which was launched in April 1995, and the SCanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY (SCIAMACHY) onboard ENVISAT launched in March 2002. For this purpose the Air Mass Corrected Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (AMC-DOAS) approach has been used. The combination of the data from both instruments provides us with a long-term global data set spanning more than 11 years with the potential of extension up to 2020 by GOME-2 data, on Metop. Using linear and non-linear methods from time series analysis and standard statistics the trends of H2O contents and their errors have been calculated. In this study, factors affecting the trend such as the length of the time series, the magnitude of the variability of the noise, and the autocorrelation of the noise are investigated. Special emphasis has been placed on the calculation of the statistical significance of the observed trends, which reveal significant local changes of water vapour columns distributed over the whole globe.


2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (7) ◽  
pp. 1835-1841 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Noël ◽  
M. Buchwitz ◽  
H. Bovensmann ◽  
J. P. Burrows

Abstract. A first validation of water vapour total column amounts derived from measurements of the SCanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY (SCIAMACHY) in the visible spectral region has been performed. For this purpose, SCIAMACHY water vapour data have been determined for the year 2003 using an extended version of the Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (DOAS) method, called Air Mass Corrected (AMC-DOAS). The SCIAMACHY results are compared with corresponding water vapour measurements by the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) and with model data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). In confirmation of previous results it could be shown that SCIAMACHY derived water vapour columns are typically slightly lower than both SSM/I and ECMWF data, especially over ocean areas. However, these deviations are much smaller than the observed scatter of the data which is caused by the different temporal and spatial sampling and resolution of the data sets. For example, the overall difference with ECMWF data is only -0.05 g/cm2 whereas the typical scatter is in the order of 0.5 g/cm2. Both values show almost no variation over the year. In addition, first monthly means of SCIAMACHY water vapour data have been computed. The quality of these monthly means is currently limited by the availability of calibrated SCIAMACHY spectra. Nevertheless, first comparisons with ECMWF data show that SCIAMACHY (and similar instruments) are able to provide a new independent global water vapour data set.


2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 1925-1942 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Noël ◽  
M. Buchwitz ◽  
H. Bovensmann ◽  
J. P. Burrows

Abstract. A first validation of water vapour total column amounts derived from measurements of the SCanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY (SCIAMACHY) in the visible spectral region has been performed. For this purpose, SCIAMACHY water vapour data have been determined for the year 2003 using an extended version of the Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (DOAS) method, called Air Mass Corrected (AMC-DOAS). The SCIAMACHY results are compared with corresponding water vapour measurements by the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) and with model data from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). In confirmation of previous results it could be shown that SCIAMACHY derived water vapour columns are typically slightly lower than both SSM/I and ECMWF data, especially over ocean areas. However, these deviations are much smaller than the observed scatter of the data which is caused by the different temporal and spatial sampling and resolution of the data sets. For example, the overall difference with ECMWF data is only −0.05 g/cm2 whereas the typical scatter is in the order of 0.5 g/cm2. Both values show almost no variation over the year. In addition, first monthly means of SCIAMACHY water vapour data have been computed. The quality of these monthly means is currently limited by the availability of calibrated SCIAMACHY spectra. Nevertheless, first comparisons with ECMWF data show that SCIAMACHY (and similar instruments) are able to provide a new independent global water vapour data set.


2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 3021-3073 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Grossi ◽  
P. Valks ◽  
D. Loyola ◽  
B. Aberle ◽  
S. Slijkhuis ◽  
...  

Abstract. The knowledge of the total column water vapour (TCWV) global distribution is fundamental for climate analysis and weather monitoring. In this work, we present the retrieval algorithm used to derive the operational TCWV from the GOME-2 sensors and perform an extensive inter-comparison and validation in order to estimate their absolute accuracy and long-term stability. We use the recently reprocessed data sets retrieved by the GOME-2 instruments aboard EUMETSAT's MetOp-A and MetOp-B satellites and generated by DLR in the framework of the O3M-SAF using the GOME Data Processor (GDP) version 4.7. The retrieval algorithm is based on a classical Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (DOAS) method and combines H2O/O2 retrieval for the computation of the trace gas vertical column density. We introduce a further enhancement in the quality of the H2O column by optimizing the cloud screening and developing an empirical correction in order to eliminate the instrument scan angle dependencies. We evaluate the overall consistency between about 8 months measurements from the newer GOME-2 instrument on the MetOp-B platform with the GOME-2/MetOp-A data in the overlap period. Furthermore, we compare GOME-2 results with independent TCWV data from ECMWF and with SSMIS satellite measurements during the full period January 2007–August 2013 and we perform a validation against the combined SSM/I + MERIS satellite data set developed in the framework of the ESA DUE GlobVapour project. We find global mean biases as small as ± 0.03 g cm−2 between GOME-2A and all other data sets. The combined SSM/I-MERIS sample is typically drier than the GOME-2 retrievals (−0.005 g cm−2), while on average GOME-2 data overestimate the SSMIS measurements by only 0.028 g cm−2. However, the size of some of these biases are seasonally dependent. Monthly average differences can be as large as 0.1 g cm−2, based on the analysis against SSMIS measurements, but are not as evident in the validation with the ECMWF and the SSM/I + MERIS data. Studying two exemplary months, we estimate regional differences and identify a very good agreement between GOME-2 total columns and all three independent data sets, especially for land areas, although some discrepancies over ocean and over land areas with high humidity and a relatively large surface albedo are also present.


2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (11) ◽  
pp. 11467-11511 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Noël ◽  
K. Bramstedt ◽  
M. Hilker ◽  
P. Liebing ◽  
J. Plieninger ◽  
...  

Abstract. Stratospheric profiles of methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) have been derived from solar occultation measurements of the SCanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY (SCIAMACHY). The retrieval is performed using a method called "Onion Peeling DOAS" (ONPD) which combines an onion peeling approach with a weighting function DOAS (Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy) fit. By use of updated pointing information and optimisation of the data selection and of the retrieval approach the altitude range for reasonable CH4 could be extended to about 17 to 45 km. Furthermore, the quality of the derived CO2 has been assessed such that now the first stratospheric profiles of CO2 from SCIAMACHY are available. Comparisons with independent data sets yield an estimated accuracy of the new SCIAMACHY stratospheric profiles of about 5–10 % for CH4 and 2–3 % for CO2. The accuracy of the products is currently mainly restricted by the appearance of unexpected vertical oscillations in the derived profiles which need further investigation. Using the improved ONPD retrieval, CH4 and CO2 stratospheric data sets covering the whole SCIAMACHY time series (August 2002–April 2012) and the latitudinal range between about 50 and 70° N have been derived. Based on these time series, CH4 and CO2 trends have been estimated, which are in reasonable agreement with total column trends for these gases. This shows that the new SCIAMACHY data sets can provide valuable information about the stratosphere.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farahnaz Khosrawi ◽  
Stefan Lossow ◽  
Gabriele P. Stiller ◽  
Karen H. Rosenlof ◽  
Joachim Urban ◽  
...  

Abstract. Time series of stratospheric and lower mesospheric water vapour using 33 data sets from 15 different satellite instruments were compared in the framework of the second SPARC (Stratosphere-troposphere Processes And their Role in Climate) water vapour assessment (WAVAS-II). This comparison aimed to provide a comprehensive overview of the typical uncertainties in the observational database that can be considered in the future in observational and modelling studies addressing e.g stratospheric water vapour trends. The time series comparisons are presented for the three latitude bands, the Antarctic (80°–70° S), the tropics (15° S–15° N) and the northern hemisphere mid-latitudes (50° N–60° N) at four different altitudes (0.1, 3, 10 and 80 hPa) covering the stratosphere and lower mesosphere. The combined temporal coverage of observations from the 15 satellite instruments allowed considering the time period 1986–2014. In addition to the qualitative comparison of the time series, the agreement of the data sets is assessed quantitatively in the form of the spread (i.e. the difference between the maximum and minimum volume mixing ratio among the data sets), the (Pearson) correlation coefficient and the drift (i.e. linear changes of the difference between time series over time). Generally, good agreement between the time series was found in the middle stratosphere while larger differences were found in the lower mesosphere and near the tropopause. Concerning the latitude bands, the largest differences were found in the Antarctic while the best agreement was found for the tropics. From our assessment we find that all data sets can be considered in the future in observational and modelling studies addressing e.g. stratospheric and lower mesospheric water vapour variability and trends when data set specific characteristics (e.g. a drift) and restrictions (e.g. temporal and spatial coverage) are taken into account.


2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 234-240 ◽  

Several epidemiological studies have shown an association between particulate air pollution and health effects. Suspended particulates and more specifically the inhalable PM10 fraction appear to cause respiratory health effects and heart diseases. Furthermore, particulate pollution is of paramount importance in areas with open-pit mines and especially when it is combined with raw lignite transfer and combustion in power stations through the suspension of particles and stack emissions, respectively. The penetration of particles into respiratory track is a function of the size of the particles and thus, it is more likely for the finer PM2.5 fraction to reach the deepest of the lugs. The fast economic growth the last decades has resulted in an increase of the sources of pollution not only in large metropolitan areas but also in medium-sized urban areas like the city of Kozani, Greece. It is the most densely populated city in the area of West Macedonia affected by urban particulate matter originated from local and stationary sources, from regional and long-range transport, and from street dust resuspension. Kozani is located a few kilometers away from lignite power stations that contribute to about 70% of the total electrical energy produced in Greece. Dust emissions seem to be the most serious problem in the area, as the measured ambient concentrations of suspended particles are at high levels and exceed local and international standards. In this study PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations are presented. The measurements have been carried out, from April to December 2002, by the Lab of Atmospheric Pollution and Environmental Physics (LAPEP) of Technological Education Institute of West Macedonia in the commercial centre of the city of Kozani. The temporal variation of PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations was studied and allowed a further insight on the factors affecting the measured ambient particulate levels. PM2.5 – PM10 correlation and PM2.5/PM10 ratios were investigated and compared to those in the literature together with the factors affecting their diurnal variation. The pollution levels were also detected in process of the experimental time series data by fractal dimension. Generally, fractal analysis is able to detect the data set complexity by scaling empirical data using threshold values. These values define the levels of air pollution episodes. The method presented in this study, is the transformation of PM10 and PM2.5 concentrations into a set of points whose dimension was estimated by box counting. This technique has estimated the fractal dimension of both the time series by the relationship between data variance and time scale.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 4435-4463 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farahnaz Khosrawi ◽  
Stefan Lossow ◽  
Gabriele P. Stiller ◽  
Karen H. Rosenlof ◽  
Joachim Urban ◽  
...  

Abstract. Time series of stratospheric and lower mesospheric water vapour using 33 data sets from 15 different satellite instruments were compared in the framework of the second SPARC (Stratosphere-troposphere Processes And their Role in Climate) water vapour assessment (WAVAS-II). This comparison aimed to provide a comprehensive overview of the typical uncertainties in the observational database that can be considered in the future in observational and modelling studies, e.g addressing stratospheric water vapour trends. The time series comparisons are presented for the three latitude bands, the Antarctic (80∘–70∘ S), the tropics (15∘ S–15∘ N) and the Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes (50∘–60∘ N) at four different altitudes (0.1, 3, 10 and 80 hPa) covering the stratosphere and lower mesosphere. The combined temporal coverage of observations from the 15 satellite instruments allowed the consideration of the time period 1986–2014. In addition to the qualitative comparison of the time series, the agreement of the data sets is assessed quantitatively in the form of the spread (i.e. the difference between the maximum and minimum volume mixing ratios among the data sets), the (Pearson) correlation coefficient and the drift (i.e. linear changes of the difference between time series over time). Generally, good agreement between the time series was found in the middle stratosphere while larger differences were found in the lower mesosphere and near the tropopause. Concerning the latitude bands, the largest differences were found in the Antarctic while the best agreement was found for the tropics. From our assessment we find that most data sets can be considered in future observational and modelling studies, e.g. addressing stratospheric and lower mesospheric water vapour variability and trends, if data set specific characteristics (e.g. drift) and restrictions (e.g. temporal and spatial coverage) are taken into account.


2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 303-379 ◽  
Author(s):  
H.-P. Dorn ◽  
R. L. Apodaca ◽  
S. M. Ball ◽  
T. Brauers ◽  
S. S. Brown ◽  
...  

Abstract. The detection of atmospheric NO3 radicals is still challenging owing to its low mixing ratios (≈ 1 to 300 pptv) in the troposphere. While long-path differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS) is a well established NO3 detection approach for over 25 yr, newly sensitive techniques have been developed in the past decade. This publication outlines the results of the first comprehensive intercomparison of seven instruments developed for the spectroscopic detection of tropospheric NO3. Four instruments were based on cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS), two utilised open-path cavity enhanced absorption spectroscopy (CEAS), and one applied "classical" long-path DOAS. The intercomparison campaign "NO3Comp" was held at the atmosphere simulation chamber SAPHIR in Jülich (Germany) in June 2007. Twelve experiments were performed in the well mixed chamber for variable concentrations of NO3, N2O5, NO2, hydrocarbons, and water vapour, in the absence and in the presence of inorganic or organic aerosol. The overall precision of the cavity instruments varied between 0.5 and 5 pptv for integration times of 1 s to 5 min; that of the DOAS instrument was 9 pptv for an acquisition time of 1 min. The NO3 data of all instruments correlated excellently with the NOAA-CRDS instrument, which was selected as the common reference because of its superb sensitivity, high time resolution, and most comprehensive data coverage. The median of the coefficient of determination (r2) over all experiments of the campaign (60 correlations) is r2 = 0.981 (25th/75th percentiles: 0.949/0.994; min/max: 0.540/0.999). The linear regression analysis of the campaign data set yielded very small intercepts (1.2 ± 5.3 pptv) and the average slope of the regression lines was close to unity (1.02, min: 0.72, max: 1.36). The deviation of individual regression slopes from unity was always within the combined accuracies of each instrument pair. The very good correspondence between the NO3 measurements by all instruments for aerosol-free experiments indicates that the losses of NO3 in the inlet of the instruments were determined reliably by the participants for the corresponding conditions. In the presence of inorganic or organic aerosol, however, differences in the measured NO3 mixing ratios were detectable among the instruments. In individual experiments the discrepancies increased with time, pointing to additional NO3 radical losses by aerosol deposited onto the inlet walls of the instruments. Instruments using DOAS analyses showed no significant effect of aerosol on the detection of NO3. No hint of a cross interference of NO2 was found. The effect of non-Lambert–Beer behaviour of water vapour absorption lines on the accuracy of the NO3 detection by broadband techniques was small and well controlled. The NO3Comp campaign demonstrated the high quality, reliability and robustness of performance of current state-of-the-art instrumentation for NO3 detection.


2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 1111-1140 ◽  
Author(s):  
H.-P. Dorn ◽  
R. L. Apodaca ◽  
S. M. Ball ◽  
T. Brauers ◽  
S. S. Brown ◽  
...  

Abstract. The detection of atmospheric NO3 radicals is still challenging owing to its low mixing ratios (≈ 1 to 300 pptv) in the troposphere. While long-path differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS) has been a well-established NO3 detection approach for over 25 yr, newly sensitive techniques have been developed in the past decade. This publication outlines the results of the first comprehensive intercomparison of seven instruments developed for the spectroscopic detection of tropospheric NO3. Four instruments were based on cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS), two utilised open-path cavity-enhanced absorption spectroscopy (CEAS), and one applied "classical" long-path DOAS. The intercomparison campaign "NO3Comp" was held at the atmosphere simulation chamber SAPHIR in Jülich (Germany) in June 2007. Twelve experiments were performed in the well-mixed chamber for variable concentrations of NO3, N2O5, NO2, hydrocarbons, and water vapour, in the absence and in the presence of inorganic or organic aerosol. The overall precision of the cavity instruments varied between 0.5 and 5 pptv for integration times of 1 s to 5 min; that of the DOAS instrument was 9 pptv for an acquisition time of 1 min. The NO3 data of all instruments correlated excellently with the NOAA-CRDS instrument, which was selected as the common reference because of its superb sensitivity, high time resolution, and most comprehensive data coverage. The median of the coefficient of determination (r2) over all experiments of the campaign (60 correlations) is r2 = 0.981 (quartile 1 (Q1): 0.949; quartile 3 (Q3): 0.994; min/max: 0.540/0.999). The linear regression analysis of the campaign data set yielded very small intercepts (median: 1.1 pptv; Q1/Q3: −1.1/2.6 pptv; min/max: −14.1/28.0 pptv), and the slopes of the regression lines were close to unity (median: 1.01; Q1/Q3: 0.92/1.10; min/max: 0.72/1.36). The deviation of individual regression slopes from unity was always within the combined accuracies of each instrument pair. The very good correspondence between the NO3 measurements by all instruments for aerosol-free experiments indicates that the losses of NO3 in the inlet of the instruments were determined reliably by the participants for the corresponding conditions. In the presence of inorganic or organic aerosol, however, differences in the measured NO3 mixing ratios were detectable among the instruments. In individual experiments the discrepancies increased with time, pointing to additional NO3 radical losses by aerosol deposited onto the filters or on the inlet walls of the instruments. Instruments using DOAS analyses showed no significant effect of aerosol on the detection of NO3. No hint of a cross interference of NO2 was found. The effect of non-Lambert–Beer behaviour of water vapour absorption lines on the accuracy of the NO3 detection by broadband techniques was small and well controlled. The NO3Comp campaign demonstrated the high quality, reliability and robustness of performance of current state-of-the-art instrumentation for NO3 detection.


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