Observations of water vapor by ground-based microwave radiometers and Raman lidar
- NOAA Environmental Research Lab., Boulder, CO (United States)
- NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD (United States)
- Hughes-STX Corp., Lanham, MD (United States)
In November to December 1991, a substantial number of remote sensors and in situ instruments were operated together in Coffeyville, Kansas, during the climate experiment FIRE II. Included in the suite of instruments were (1) the NOAA Environmental Technology Laboratory (ETL) three-channel microwave radiometer, (2) the NASA GSFC Raman lidar, (3) ETL radio acoustic sounding system (RASS), and (4) frequent, research-quality radiosondes. The Raman lidar operated only at night and the focus of this portion of the experiment concentrated on clear conditions. The lidar data, together with frequent radiosondes and measurements of temperature profiles (every 15 min) by RASS allowed profiles of temperature and absolute humidity to be estimated every minute. The authors compared 2-min measurements of brightness temperature (T{sub b}) with calculations of T{sub b} that were based on the Liebe and Layton, and Liebe et al. microwave propagation models, as well as the Waters model. The comparisons showed the best agreement at 20.6 GHz with the Waters model, with the Liebe et al. model being best at 31.65 GHz. The results at 90 GHz gave about equal success with the Liebe and Layton, and Liebe et al. models. Comparisons of precipitable water vapor derived independently from the two instruments also showed excellent agreement, even for averages as short as 2 min. The rms difference between Raman and radiometric determinations of precipitable water vapor was 0.03 cm which is roughly 2%. The experiments clearly demonstrate the potentisdal of simultaneous operation of radiometers and Raman lidars for fundamental physical studies of water vapor. 31 refs., 5 figs., 5 tabs.
- OSTI ID:
- 86689
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 99, Issue D9; Other Information: PBD: 20 Sep 1994
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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