Retrieving Mean Temperature of Atmospheric Liquid Water Layers Using Microwave Radiometer Measurements

Matrosov, Sergey Y.; Turner, David D.

doi:10.1175/JTECH-D-17-0179.1

Title: Retrieving Mean Temperature of Atmospheric Liquid Water Layers Using Microwave Radiometer Measurements

Abstract

A remote sensing method to retrieve the mean temperature of cloud liquid using ground-based microwave radiometer measurements is evaluated and tested by comparisons with direct cloud temperature information inferred from ceilometer cloud-base measurements and temperature profiles from radiosonde soundings. The method is based on the dependence of the ratio of cloud optical thicknesses at W-band (~90 GHz) and Ka-band (~30 GHz) frequencies on cloud liquid temperature. This ratio is obtained from total optical thicknesses inferred from radiometer measurements of brightness temperatures after accounting for the contributions from oxygen and water vapor. This accounting is done based on the radiometer-based retrievals of integrated water vapor amount and temperature and pressure measurements at the surface. The W–Ka-band ratio method is applied to the measurements from a three-channel (90, 31.4, and 23.8 GHz) microwave radiometer at the U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Mobile Facility at Oliktok Point, Alaska. The analyzed events span conditions from warm stratus clouds with temperatures above freezing to mixed-phase clouds with supercooled liquid water layers. Intercomparisons of radiometer-based cloud liquid temperature retrievals with estimates from collocated ceilometer and radiosonde measurements indicated on average a standard deviation of about 3.5°C between the two retrieval types in a widemore »« less

Authors:

Matrosov, Sergey Y. ^[1]; Turner, David D. ^[2]

Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder, and NOAA/Earth System Research Laboratory/Physical Sciences Division, Boulder, Colorado
NOAA/Earth System Research Laboratory/Global Systems Division, Boulder, Colorado

Publication Date:: Tue May 01 00:00:00 EDT 2018

Research Org.:: Univ. of Colorado, Boulder, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE Office of Science (SC); USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER). Earth and Environmental Systems Science Division

OSTI Identifier:: 1436561

Alternate Identifier(s):: OSTI ID: 1541863; OSTI ID: 1673395

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0013306

Resource Type:: Published Article

Journal Name:: Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Name: Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology Journal Volume: 35 Journal Issue: 5; Journal ID: ISSN 0739-0572

Publisher:: American Meteorological Society

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; 47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION; Engineering; meteorology & atmospheric sciences; cloud retrieval; microwave observations; remote sensing

Citation Formats


                    Matrosov, Sergey Y., and Turner, David D. Retrieving Mean Temperature of Atmospheric Liquid Water Layers Using Microwave Radiometer Measurements.  United States: N. p., 2018. 
Web.  doi:10.1175/JTECH-D-17-0179.1.

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                    Matrosov, Sergey Y., & Turner, David D. Retrieving Mean Temperature of Atmospheric Liquid Water Layers Using Microwave Radiometer Measurements.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1175/JTECH-D-17-0179.1

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                    Matrosov, Sergey Y., and Turner, David D. Tue .  
"Retrieving Mean Temperature of Atmospheric Liquid Water Layers Using Microwave Radiometer Measurements".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1175/JTECH-D-17-0179.1.

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@article{osti_1436561,

  title        = {Retrieving Mean Temperature of Atmospheric Liquid Water Layers Using Microwave Radiometer Measurements},

  author       = {Matrosov, Sergey Y. and Turner, David D.},

  abstractNote = {A remote sensing method to retrieve the mean temperature of cloud liquid using ground-based microwave radiometer measurements is evaluated and tested by comparisons with direct cloud temperature information inferred from ceilometer cloud-base measurements and temperature profiles from radiosonde soundings. The method is based on the dependence of the ratio of cloud optical thicknesses at W-band (~90 GHz) and Ka-band (~30 GHz) frequencies on cloud liquid temperature. This ratio is obtained from total optical thicknesses inferred from radiometer measurements of brightness temperatures after accounting for the contributions from oxygen and water vapor. This accounting is done based on the radiometer-based retrievals of integrated water vapor amount and temperature and pressure measurements at the surface. The W–Ka-band ratio method is applied to the measurements from a three-channel (90, 31.4, and 23.8 GHz) microwave radiometer at the U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Mobile Facility at Oliktok Point, Alaska. The analyzed events span conditions from warm stratus clouds with temperatures above freezing to mixed-phase clouds with supercooled liquid water layers. Intercomparisons of radiometer-based cloud liquid temperature retrievals with estimates from collocated ceilometer and radiosonde measurements indicated on average a standard deviation of about 3.5°C between the two retrieval types in a wide range of cloud temperatures, from warm liquid clouds to mixed-phase clouds with supercooled liquid and liquid water paths greater than 50 g m-2. Finally, the three-channel microwave radiometer–based method has a broad applicability, since it requires neither the use of active sensors to locate the boundaries of liquid cloud layers nor information on the vertical profile of temperature.},

  doi          = {10.1175/JTECH-D-17-0179.1},

  journal      = {Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology},

  number       = 5,

  volume       = 35,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Tue May 01 00:00:00 EDT 2018},

  month        = {Tue May 01 00:00:00 EDT 2018}

}

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Figures / Tables:

FIG. 1: The ratio of the oxygen optical thicknesses, normalized to 1013 hPa, as a function of T_sfc/288.2 for characteristic atmospheric profiles from McClatchey et al. (1972) and COESA (1976).

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Abstract

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