Water vapour monitoring with E-band microwave links of cellular backhaul

<p>Water vapour observations represent an important input e.g. for predicting mesoscale initiation of convective precipitation or estimating evapotranspiration. E-band commercial microwave links (CMLs), which are increasingly used in cellular backhaul, might be used as unintentional water vapour sensors accessible remotely from a network operation centre. E-band CMLs operate at frequencies between 71 and 86 GHz where water vapour causes substantial attenuation of electromagnetic waves. This attenuation can be related to water vapour density along a CML path, nevertheless, it has to be properly separated from other sources of attenuation, especially rainfall-induced attenuation, and wet antenna attenuation caused by wet surface of antenna radomes. Moreover, the relation between attenuation and water vapour density is also dependent on temperature (Fencl et al., 2020).</p><p>This contribution evaluates capability to estimate water vapour density on a 4.86 km long full-duplex CML being operated within cellular backhaul at frequencies 73.5 GHz and 83.5 GHz. Three rain gauges are deployed along its path, two of them being equipped with an air humidity sensor. The evaluation period is between August to December 2018. The results show that estimation of water vapour density is feasible when there is now rain and antenna radomes are dry, which is only about 50% of time. Estimated water vapour density during dry weather is highly correlated with humidity observations (r = 0.7). The highest correlations are observed during summer season (r = 0.9) and lowest during December (r = 0.3) when amplitude of water vapour fluctuations are small. In contrast, mean absolute error is highest during August (approx. 1 g/m<sup>3</sup>) and lowest in December (0.2 g/m<sup>3</sup>). Most of the outliers were encountered during October, probably due to multipath inferences occurring during clear-sky conditions.</p><p>Unintentional sensing of water vapour density with E-band CMLs is feasible by sufficiently (several kilometres) long CMLs. Currently, 20 % of new CML deployments are operated E-band. E-band CMLs might thus greatly increase continental coverage of water vapour ground observations.</p><p> </p><p>Fencl, M., Dohnal, M., Valtr, P., Grabner, M. and Bareš, V.: Atmospheric observations with E-band microwave links – challenges and opportunities, Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, 13(12), 6559–6578, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-6559-2020, 2020.</p>

Water

The physical properties of water provide a framework for many day-to-day experiences: including the energy intrinsic to the melting and boiling of water, and in the increase in vapour density with temperature. The availability of freshwater is sequestered mainly in ice caps and groundwater and most readily acquired water emanates from the rainwater that falls on land. The demands of water for processing (Virtual water) are substantial. Extension fo water supply by desalination of seawater by reverse osmosis is explained. Options for extraction of minerals from seawater are also developed. The challenges posed by heavy elements, pharmaceuticals and plastics on wastewater treatment and drinking water supplies are elaborated

EPIC simulations of Neptune’s dark spots using an active cloud microphysical model

ABSTRACT The Great Dark Spot (GDS-89) observed by Voyager 2 was the first of several large-scale vortices observed on Neptune, the most recent of which was observed in 2018 in the Northern hemisphere (NDS-2018). Ongoing observations of these features are constraining cloud formation, drift, shape oscillations, and other dynamic properties. In order to effectively model these characteristics, an explicit calculation of methane cloud microphysics is needed. Using an updated version of the Explicit Planetary Isentropic Coordinate General Circulation Model (EPIC GCM) and its active cloud microphysics module to account for the condensation of methane, we investigate the evolution of large-scale vortices on Neptune. We model the effect of methane deep abundance and cloud formation on vortex stability and dynamics. In our simulations, the vortex shows a sharp contrast in methane vapour density inside compared to outside the vortex. Methane vapour column density is analogous to optical depth and provides a more consistent tracer to track the vortex, so we use that variable over potential vorticity. We match the meridional drift rate of the GDS and gain an initial insight into the evolution of vortices in the Northern hemisphere, such as the NDS-2018.

Evaluation of differential absorption radars in the 183 GHz band for profiling water vapour in ice clouds

Relative humidity (RH) measurements in ice clouds are essential for determining ice crystal growth processes and rates. A differential absorption radar (DAR) system with several frequency channels within the 183.3 GHz water vapour absorption band is proposed for measuring RH within ice clouds. Here, the performance of a DAR system is evaluated by applying a DAR simulator to A-Train observations in combination with co-located European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) reanalysis. Observations from the CloudSat W-band radar and from the CALIPSO lidar are converted first into ice microphysical properties and then coupled with ECMWF temperature and relative humidity profiles in order to compute scattering properties at any frequency within the 183.3 GHz band. A self-similar Rayleigh–Gans approximation is used to model the ice crystal scattering properties. The radar reflectivities are computed both for a space-borne and airborne and a ground-based DAR system by using appropriate radar receiver characteristics. Sets of multi-frequency synthetic observation of attenuated reflectivities are then exploited to retrieve profiles of water vapour density by fitting the line shape at different levels. A total of 10 d of A-Train observations are used to test the measurement technique performance for different combinations of tones when sampling ice clouds globally. Results show that water vapour densities can be derived at the level that can enable ice process studies (i.e. better than 3 %), both from a ground-based system (at the minute temporal scale and with circa 100 m vertical resolution) and from a space-borne system (at 500 m vertical resolution and with circa 5 km integration lengths) with four tones in the upper wing of the absorption line. Deploying ground-based DAR system at high latitudes and high altitudes is highly recommended to test the findings of this work in the field.

Evaluation of differential absorption radars in the 183 GHz band for profiling water vapour in ice clouds

Relative humidity (RH) measurements in ice clouds are essential for determining the ice crystals growth processes and rates. A differential absorption radar (DAR) system with several frequency channels within the 183.3 GHz water vapour absorption band is proposed for measuring RH within ice clouds. Here, the performance of a DAR system is evaluated by applying a DAR simulator to A-Train observations in combination with collocated European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) reanalysis. Observations from the CloudSat W-band radar and from the CALIPSO lidar are converted first into ice microphysical properties and then coupled with ECMWF temperature and relative humidity profiles in order to compute scattering properties at any frequency within the 183.3 GHz band. Self-similar Rayleigh Gans approximation is used to model the ice crystal scattering properties. The radar reflectivities are computed both for a space-borne and a ground-based DAR system by using appropriate radar receiver characteristics. Sets of multi-frequency synthetic observation of attenuated reflectivities are then used to retrieve profile of water vapour density by fitting the line shape at different levels. 10 days of A-Train observations are used to test the measurement technique performance for different combination of tones when sampling ice clouds globally. Results show that that water vapour densities can be derived with accuracies that can enable ice process studies (i.e. better than 3 %) both from a ground-based system (at the minute temporal scale and with circa 100 m vertical resolution) and from a space/airborne system (at 500 m vertical resolution and with circa 5 km integration lengths) with four tones in the right wing of the absorption line. A ground-based DAR system to be deployed at high latitude/high altitudes is highly recommended to test the findings of this work in the field.

Cross-validation of GPS tomography models and methodological improvements using CORS network

Using data from the Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS), recorded in March 2010 during severe weather in the Victoria State, in southern Australia, sensitivity and statistical results of GPS tomography retrievals (water vapour density and wet refractivity) from 5 models have been tested and verified – considering independent observations from radiosonde and radio occultation profiles. The impact of initial conditions, associated with different time-convergence of tomography inversion, can reduce the normalised RMS of the tomography solution with respect to radiosonde estimates by a multiple (up to more than 3). Thereby it is illustrated that the quality of the apriori data in combination with iterative processing is critical, independently of the choice of the tomography model. However, the use of data stacking and pseudo-slant observations can significantly improve the quality of the retrievals, due to a better geometrical distribution and a better coverage of mid- and low-tropospheric parts. Besides, the impact of the uncertainty of GPS observations has been investigated, showing the interest of using several sets of data input to evaluate tomography retrievals in comparison to independent external measurements, and to estimate simultaneously the quality of NWP outputs. Finally, a comparison of our multi-model tomography with numerical weather prediction from ACCESS-A model shows the relevant use of tomography retrieval to improve the understanding of such severe weather conditions, especially about the initiation of the deep convection.

Troposphere Water Vapour Tomography: A Horizontal Parameterised Approach

Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) troposphere tomography has become one of the most cost-effective means to obtain three-dimensional (3-d) image of the tropospheric water vapour field. Traditional methods divide the tomography area into a number of 3-d voxels and assume that the water vapour density at any voxel is a constant during the given period. However, such behaviour breaks the spatial continuity of water vapour density in a horizontal direction and the number of unknown parameters needing to be estimated is very large. This is the focus of the paper, which tries to reconstruct the water vapor field using the tomographic technique without imposing empirical horizontal and vertical constraints. The proposed approach introduces the layered functional model in each layer vertically and only an a priori constraint is imposed for the water vapor information at the location of the radiosonde station. The elevation angle mask of 30° is determined according to the distribution of intersections between the satellite rays and different layers, which avoids the impact of ray bending and the error in slant water vapor (SWV) at low elevation angles on the tomographic result. Additionally, an optimal weighting strategy is applied to the established tomographic model to obtain a reasonable result. The tomographic experiment is performed using Global Positioning System (GPS) data of 12 receivers derived from the Satellite Positioning Reference Station Network (SatRef) in Hong Kong. The quality of the established tomographic model is validated under different weather conditions and compared with the conventional tomography method using 31-day data, respectively. The numerical result shows that the proposed method is applicable and superior to the traditional one. Comparisons of integrated water vapour (IWV) of the proposed method with that derived from radiosonde and European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ERA-Interim data show that the root mean square (RMS)/Bias of their differences are 3.2/−0.8 mm and 3.3/−1.7 mm, respectively, while the values of traditional method are 5.1/−3.9 mm and 6.3/−5.9 mm, respectively. Furthermore, the water vapour density profiles are also compared with radiosonde and ECMWF data, and the values of RMS/Bias error for the proposed method are 0.88/0.06 g/m3 and 0.92/−0.08 g/m3, respectively, while the values of the traditional method are 1.33/0.38 g/m3 and 1.59/0.40 g/m3, respectively.