scholarly journals IASI temperature and water vapor retrievals – error assessment and validation

2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 7971-7989 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Pougatchev ◽  
T. August ◽  
X. Calbet ◽  
T. Hultberg ◽  
O. Oduleye ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapor ◽  
Assessment Model ◽  
Statistical Characteristics ◽  
Radiosonde Data ◽  
Statistical Validation ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Error Covariance ◽  
Recent Version ◽  
Level 2 ◽  
Good Agreement

Abstract. The METOP-A satellite Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) Level 2 products comprise retrievals of vertical profiles of temperature and water vapor. The error covariance matrices and biases of the most recent version (4.3.1) of the L2 data were assessed, and the assessment was validated using radiosonde data for reference. The radiosonde data set includes dedicated and synoptic time launches at the Lindenberg station in Germany. For optimal validation, the linear statistical Validation Assessment Model (VAM) was used. The VAM uses radiosonde profiles as input and provides optimal estimate of the nominal IASI retrieval by utilizing IASI averaging kernels and statistical characteristics of the ensembles of the reference radiosondes. For temperature temperatures above 900 mb and water retrievals above 700 mb, level expected and assessed errors are in good agreement. Below those levels, noticeable excess in assessed error is observed, possibly due to inaccurate surface parameters and undetected clouds/haze.

scholarly journals IASI temperature and water vapor retrievals – error assessment and validation

2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (17) ◽  
pp. 6453-6458 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Pougatchev ◽  
T. August ◽  
X. Calbet ◽  
T. Hultberg ◽  
O. Oduleye ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapor ◽  
Assessment Model ◽  
Statistical Characteristics ◽  
Radiosonde Data ◽  
Statistical Validation ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Error Covariance ◽  
Recent Version ◽  
Level 2 ◽  
Good Agreement

Abstract. The METOP-A satellite Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) Level 2 products comprise retrievals of vertical profiles of temperature and water vapor. The error covariance matrices and biases of the most recent version (4.3.1) of the L2 data were assessed, and the assessment was validated using radiosonde data for reference. The radiosonde data set includes dedicated and synoptic time launches at the Lindenberg station in Germany. For optimal validation, the linear statistical Validation Assessment Model (VAM) was used. The VAM uses radiosonde profiles as input and provides optimal estimate of the nominal IASI retrieval by utilizing IASI averaging kernels and statistical characteristics of the ensembles of the reference radiosondes. For temperatures above 900 mb and water retrievals above 700 mb, level expected and assessed errors are in good agreement. Below those levels, noticeable excess in assessed error is observed, possibly due to inaccurate surface parameters and undetected clouds/haze.

Statistical Characteristics of Long-Term High-Resolution Precipitable Water Vapor Data at Darwin

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (04) ◽  
pp. 1850010
Author(s):  
Kimberly Leung ◽  
Aneesh C. Subramanian ◽  
Samuel S. P. Shen
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapor ◽  
High Resolution ◽  
Southern Oscillation ◽  
Precipitable Water ◽  
Precipitable Water Vapor ◽  
Statistical Characteristics ◽  
Convective Precipitation ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Best Estimates

This paper studies the statistical characteristics of a unique long-term high-resolution precipitable water vapor (PWV) data set at Darwin, Australia, from 12 March 2002 to 28 February 2011. To understand the convective precipitation processes for climate model development, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program made high-frequency radar observations of PWV at the Darwin ARM site and released the best estimates from the radar data retrievals for this time period. Based on the best estimates, we produced a PWV data set on a uniform 20-s time grid. The gridded data were sufficient to show the fractal behavior of precipitable water with Hausdorff dimension equal to 1.9. Fourier power spectral analysis revealed modulation instability due to two sideband frequencies near the diurnal cycle, which manifests as nonlinearity of an atmospheric system. The statistics of PWV extreme values and daily rainfall data show that Darwin’s PWV has El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) signatures and has potential to be a predictor for weather forecasting. The right skewness of the PWV data was identified, which implies an important property of tropical atmosphere: ample capacity to hold water vapor. The statistical characteristics of this long-term high-resolution PWV data will facilitate the development and validation of climate models, particularly stochastic models.

scholarly journals Antarctic Low-Tropospheric Humidity Inversions: 10-Yr Climatology

2013 ◽  
Vol 26 (14) ◽  
pp. 5205-5219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiina Nygård ◽  
Teresa Valkonen ◽  
Timo Vihma
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapor ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Weather Prediction ◽  
Temperature Inversion ◽  
Statistical Characteristics ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Radiosonde Data ◽  
Atmospheric Moisture Budget ◽  
Temperature Inversions ◽  
The Antarctic

Abstract Humidity inversions are nearly permanently present in the coastal Antarctic atmosphere. This is shown based on an investigation of statistical characteristics of humidity inversions at 11 Antarctic coastal stations using radiosonde data from the Integrated Global Radiosonde Archive (IGRA) from 2000 to 2009. The humidity inversion occurrence was highest in winter and spring, and high atmospheric pressure and cloud-free conditions generally increased the occurrence. A typical humidity inversion was less than 200 m deep and 0.2 g kg−1 strong, and a typical humidity profile contained several separate inversion layers. The inversion base height had notable seasonal variations, but generally the humidity inversions were located at higher altitudes than temperature inversions. Roughly half of the humidity inversions were associated with temperature inversions, especially near the surface, and humidity and temperature inversion strengths as well as depths correlated at several stations. On the other hand, approximately 60% of the humidity inversions were accompanied by horizontal advection of water vapor increasing with height, which is also a probable factor supporting humidity inversions. The spatial variability of humidity inversions was linked to the topography and the water vapor content of the air. Compared to previous results for the Arctic, the most striking differences in humidity inversions in the Antarctic were a much higher frequency of occurrence in summer, at least under clear skies, and a reverse seasonal cycle of the inversion height. The results can be used as a baseline for validation of weather prediction and climate models and for studies addressing changes in atmospheric moisture budget in the Antarctic.

scholarly journals GNSS-based water vapor estimation and validation during the MOSAiC expedition

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Männel ◽  
Florian Zus ◽  
Galina Dick ◽  
Susanne Glaser ◽  
Maximilian Semmling ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapor ◽  
Very Long Baseline Interferometry ◽  
Precise Point Positioning ◽  
Radiosonde Data ◽  
Weather Data ◽  
Radio Telescopes ◽  
Long Baseline ◽  
Gnss Data ◽  
Level Of Agreement ◽  
Good Agreement

Abstract. Within the transpolar drifting expedition MOSAiC (Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate), GNSS was used among other techniques to monitor variations in atmospheric water vapor. Based on 15 months of continuously tracked GNSS data including GPS, GLONASS, and Galileo, epoch-wise coordinates and hourly zenith total delays (ZTD) were determined using a kinematic precise point positioning (PPP) approach. The derived ZTD values agree to 1.1 ± 0.2 mm (RMS of the differences 10.2 mm) with the numerical weather data of ECMWF’s latest reanalysis, ERA5, computed for the derived ship’s locations. This level of agreement is also confirmed by comparing the on-board estimates with ZTDs derived for terrestrial GNSS stations in Bremerhaven and Ny Ålesund and for the radio telescopes observing Very Long Baseline Interferometry in Ny Ålesund. Preliminary estimates of integrated water vapor derived from frequently launched radiosondes are used to assess the GNSS-derived integrated water vapor estimates. The overall difference of 0.08 ± 0.04 kg m−2 (RMS of the differences 1.47 kg m−2) demonstrates a good agreement between GNSS and radiosonde data. Finally, the water vapor variations associated with two warm air intrusion events in April 2020 are assessed.

scholarly journals Water Vapor Mixing Ratio Distribution Inversion by Raman Lidar in Beijing

2020 ◽  
Vol 237 ◽  
pp. 06020
Author(s):  
SiQi Yu ◽  
Dong Liu ◽  
JiWei Xu ◽  
ZhenZhu Wang ◽  
DeCheng Wu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapor ◽  
Radiosonde Data ◽  
Mixing Ratio ◽  
Raman Lidar ◽  
Ratio Distribution ◽  
Water Vapor Mixing Ratio ◽  
Detection Instrument ◽  
Active Detection ◽  
The Vertical Distribution ◽  
Good Agreement

Water Aerosol Raman Lidar-II is an active detection instrument with high temporal and spatial resolution at Nanjiao observation station, and that could continuous water vapor mixing ratio (WVMR) measurements. WVMR profiles inversion from lidar data and water ratio retrieved from radiosonde data are in good agreement. The statistical results of the vertical distribution of WVMR indicate that WVMR seasonal mean distribution is consistent with precipitation. In addition, WVMR in Nanjiao station is related to total cloud cover.

scholarly journals Retrieval of upper tropospheric water vapor and upper tropospheric humidity from AMSU radiances

2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (8) ◽  
pp. 2019-2028 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Houshangpour ◽  
V. O. John ◽  
S. A. Buehler
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapor ◽  
Synthetic Data ◽  
Weighted Average ◽  
Radiosonde Data ◽  
Atmospheric Conditions ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Microwave Sounding Unit ◽  
Upper Tropospheric Humidity ◽  
Microwave Sounding ◽  
Average Relative Humidity

Abstract. A regression method was developed to retrieve upper tropospheric water vapor (UTWV in kg/m2) and upper tropospheric humidity (UTH in % RH) from radiances measured by the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU). In contrast to other UTH retrieval methods, UTH is defined as the average relative humidity between 500 and 200hPa, not as a Jacobian weighted average, which has the advantage that the UTH altitude does not depend on the atmospheric conditions. The method uses AMSU channels 6-10, 18, and 19, and should achieve an accuracy of 0.48 kg/m2 for UTWV and 6.3% RH for UTH, according to a test against an independent synthetic data set. This performance was confirmed for northern mid-latitudes by a comparison against radiosonde data from station Lindenberg in Germany, which yielded errors of 0.23 kg/m2 for UTWV and 6.1% RH for UTH.

scholarly journals Ship- and island-based atmospheric soundings from the 2020 EUREC<sup>4</sup>A field campaign

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 491-514 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Christine Stephan ◽  
Sabrina Schnitt ◽  
Hauke Schulz ◽  
Hugo Bellenger ◽  
Simon P. de Szoeke ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Radiosonde Data ◽  
Data Set ◽  
The Public ◽  
Synoptic Variability ◽  
Mesoscale Convective ◽  
Level 1 ◽  
Lifting Condensation Level ◽  
Level 2 ◽  
Convective Organization

Abstract. To advance the understanding of the interplay among clouds, convection, and circulation, and its role in climate change, the Elucidating the role of clouds–circulation coupling in climate campaign (EUREC4A) and Atlantic Tradewind Ocean–Atmosphere Mesoscale Interaction Campaign (ATOMIC) collected measurements in the western tropical Atlantic during January and February 2020. Upper-air radiosondes were launched regularly (usually 4-hourly) from a network consisting of the Barbados Cloud Observatory (BCO) and four ships within 6–16∘ N, 51–60∘ W. From 8 January to 19 February, a total of 811 radiosondes measured wind, temperature, and relative humidity. In addition to the ascent, the descent was recorded for 82 % of the soundings. The soundings sampled changes in atmospheric pressure, winds, lifting condensation level, boundary layer depth, and vertical distribution of moisture associated with different ocean surface conditions, synoptic variability, and mesoscale convective organization. Raw (Level 0), quality-controlled 1 s (Level 1), and vertically gridded (Level 2) data in NetCDF format (Stephan et al., 2020) are available to the public at AERIS (https://doi.org/10.25326/137). The methods of data collection and post-processing for the radiosonde data set are described here.

scholarly journals Comparing atmospheric data and models at station Wettzell during CONT17

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Daniel Landskron ◽  
Johannes Böhm ◽  
Thomas Klügel ◽  
Torben Schüler
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapor ◽  
Mapping Function ◽  
Global Navigation Satellite Systems ◽  
Radiosonde Data ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Mapping Functions ◽  
Satellite Systems ◽  
Long Baseline ◽  
Global Navigation Satellite ◽  
Troposphere Delays

Abstract. During the Continuous Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) Campaign 2017 (CONT17), carried out from 28 November through 12 December 2017, an extensive data set of atmospheric observations was acquired at the Geodetic Observatory Wettzell. In addition to in situ measurements of temperature, humidity, pressure or wind speed at the surface, radiosonde ascents yielded meteorological parameters continually up to 25 km height, and integrated water vapor (IWV) was obtained at several elevations and azimuths from a water vapor radiometer. Troposphere delays estimated from Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) observations plus comparative values from two different Numerical Weather Models (NWMs) complete the abundance of data. In this presentation, we compare these data sets to parameters of the Vienna Mapping Functions 1 and 3 (VMF1 &amp; VMF3), which are based on NWM data by the ECMWF, and to estimates of VLBI analysis using the Vienna VLBI and Satellite Software (VieVS). On the one hand, we contrast the variety of troposphere delays in zenith direction with each other, while on the other hand we utilize radiosonde data and meteorological observations at the site to create local mapping functions which can then be compared to VMF3 and VMF1 at Wettzell. In general, we thus received very good accordance between the different solutions. Also in terms of the mapping functions, the local radiosonde mapping function is in consistence with VMF1 and VMF3 with differences less than 5 mm at 5∘ elevation.

scholarly journals GPS radio occultation with CHAMP: monitoring of climate change parameters

2004 ◽  
Vol 4 (6) ◽  
pp. 7837-7857 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Schmidt ◽  
S. Heise ◽  
J. Wickert ◽  
G. Beyerle ◽  
C. Reigber
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapor ◽  
Radio Occultation ◽  
Radiosonde Data ◽  
Temperature Profiles ◽  
Satellite Mission ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Gps Radio Occultation ◽  
Temperature Bias ◽  
Retrieval Scheme ◽  
Data Source

Abstract. The Global Positioning System (GPS) radio occultation (RO) technique offers a valuable new data source for global and continuous monitoring of the Earth's atmosphere. Refractivity, temperature and water vapor profiles with high accuracy and vertical resolution can be derived from this method. The GPS RO technique requires no calibration, is not affected by clouds, aerosols or precipitation, and the occultations are almost uniformly distributed over the globe. In this paper the potential of GPS RO for monitoring of the temperature is demonstrated exemplarily for the tropical upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) region using GPS RO data from the German CHAMP (CHAllenging Minisatellite Payload) satellite mission. In addition, results of a 1DVAR retrieval scheme to derive tropospheric water vapor profiles using ECMWF data as background will be discussed. CHAMP RO data are available since 2001 with up to 200 high resolution temperature profiles per day. The temperature bias between CHAMP temperature profiles and radiosonde data as well as ECMWF analyses is less than 0.5 K between 300–30 hPa. The CHAMP RO experiment generates the first long-term RO data set. Other satellite missions will follow (GRACE, TerraSAR-X, COSMIC, METOP) generating some thousand profiles of atmospheric parameters daily.

scholarly journals Ship- and island-based atmospheric soundings from the 2020 EUREC<sup>4</sup>A field campaign

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia Christine Stephan ◽  
Sabrina Schnitt ◽  
Hauke Schulz ◽  
Hugo Bellenger ◽  
Simon P. de Szoeke ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Radiosonde Data ◽  
Data Set ◽  
The Public ◽  
Synoptic Variability ◽  
Mesoscale Convective ◽  
Field Campaigns ◽  
Level 1 ◽  
Lifting Condensation Level ◽  
Level 2 ◽  
Convective Organization

Abstract. To advance the understanding of the interplay among clouds, convection, and circulation, and its role in climate change, the EUREC4A and ATOMIC field campaigns collected measurements in the western tropical Atlantic during January and February 2020. Upper-air radiosondes were launched regularly (usually 4-hourly) from a network consisting of the Barbados Cloud Observatory (BCO) and four ships within 51–60° W, 6–16° N. From January 8 to February 19, a total of 812 radiosondes measured wind, temperature and relative humidity. In addition to the ascent, the descent was recorded for 82 % of the soundings. The soundings sampled changes in atmospheric pressure, winds, lifting condensation level, boundary layer depth, and vertical distribution of moisture associated with different ocean surface conditions, synoptic variability, and mesoscale convective organization. Raw (Level-0), quality-controlled 1-second (Level-1), and vertically gridded (Level-2) data in NetCDF format (Stephan et al., 2020) are available to the public at AERIS (https://doi.org/10.25326/62). The methods of data collection and post-processing for the radiosonde data set are described here.

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