TY - JOUR
T1 - The SPARC Water Vapor Assessment II
T2 - assessment of satellite measurements of upper tropospheric humidity
AU - Read, William G.
AU - Stiller, Gabriele
AU - Lossow, Stefan
AU - Kiefer, Michael
AU - Khosrawi, Farahnaz
AU - Hurst, Dale
AU - Vömel, Holger
AU - Rosenlof, Karen
AU - Dinelli, Bianca M.
AU - Raspollini, Piera
AU - Nedoluha, Gerald E.
AU - Gille, John C.
AU - Kasai, Yasuko
AU - Eriksson, Patrick
AU - Sioris, Christopher E.
AU - Walker, Kaley A.
AU - Weigel, Katja
AU - Burrows, John P.
AU - Rozanov, Alexei
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Copyright:
PY - 2022/6/9
Y1 - 2022/6/9
N2 - Nineteen limb-viewing data sets (occultation, passive thermal, and UV scattering) and two nadir upper tropospheric humidity (UTH) data sets are intercompared and also compared to frost-point hygrometer balloon sondes. The upper troposphere considered here covers the pressure range from 300-100hPa. UTH is a challenging measurement, because concentrations vary between 2-1000 ppmv (parts per million by volume), with sharp changes in vertical gradients near the tropopause. Cloudiness in this region also makes the measurement challenging. The atmospheric temperature is also highly variable ranging from 180-250K. The assessment of satellite-measured UTH is based on coincident comparisons with balloon frost-point hygrometer sondes, multi-month mapped comparisons, zonal mean time series comparisons, and coincident satellite-to-satellite comparisons. While the satellite fields show similar features in maps and time series, quantitatively they can differ by a factor of 2 in concentration, with strong dependencies on the amount of UTH. Additionally, time-lag response-corrected Vaisala RS92 radiosondes are compared to satellites and the frost-point hygrometer measurements. In summary, most satellite data sets reviewed here show on average 1/430% agreement amongst themselves and frost-point data but with an additional 1/430% variability about the mean bias. The Vaisala RS92 sonde, even with a time-lag correction, shows poor behavior for pressures less than 200hPa.
AB - Nineteen limb-viewing data sets (occultation, passive thermal, and UV scattering) and two nadir upper tropospheric humidity (UTH) data sets are intercompared and also compared to frost-point hygrometer balloon sondes. The upper troposphere considered here covers the pressure range from 300-100hPa. UTH is a challenging measurement, because concentrations vary between 2-1000 ppmv (parts per million by volume), with sharp changes in vertical gradients near the tropopause. Cloudiness in this region also makes the measurement challenging. The atmospheric temperature is also highly variable ranging from 180-250K. The assessment of satellite-measured UTH is based on coincident comparisons with balloon frost-point hygrometer sondes, multi-month mapped comparisons, zonal mean time series comparisons, and coincident satellite-to-satellite comparisons. While the satellite fields show similar features in maps and time series, quantitatively they can differ by a factor of 2 in concentration, with strong dependencies on the amount of UTH. Additionally, time-lag response-corrected Vaisala RS92 radiosondes are compared to satellites and the frost-point hygrometer measurements. In summary, most satellite data sets reviewed here show on average 1/430% agreement amongst themselves and frost-point data but with an additional 1/430% variability about the mean bias. The Vaisala RS92 sonde, even with a time-lag correction, shows poor behavior for pressures less than 200hPa.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85132698014
U2 - 10.5194/amt-15-3377-2022
DO - 10.5194/amt-15-3377-2022
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85132698014
SN - 1867-1381
VL - 15
SP - 3377
EP - 3400
JO - Atmospheric Measurement Techniques
JF - Atmospheric Measurement Techniques
IS - 11
ER -