TY - JOUR
T1 - Comparison of atmospheric profiles between microwave radiometer retrievals and radiosonde soundings
AU - Xu, Guirong
AU - Xi, Baike
AU - Zhang, Wengang
AU - Cui, Chunguang
AU - Dong, Xiquan
AU - Liu, Yuanyuan
AU - Yan, Guopao
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grants 41175016, 41375041, 41541037 and 41375057), and the National High Technology Research and Development Program (“863” Program) of China (grant 2012AA120902), and the open project of State Key Laboratory of Severe Weather, Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences (grant 2013LASW-A02). Xiquan Dong was partially supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program, 2013CB955803) at Beijing Normal University. Special thanks for Timothy Logan to read the manuscript and provide a lot of useful suggestions. The data used to produce results can be obtained from Guirong Xu (grxu@whihr.com.cn).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.
PY - 2015
Y1 - 2015
N2 - Atmospheric profiles of temperature (T), vapor density (ρv), and relative humidity (RH) retrieved from ground-based microwave radiometer (MWR) measurements are compared with radiosonde soundings at Wuhan, China. The MWR retrievals were averaged in the ±30 min period centered at sounding times of 00 and 12 UTC. A total of 403 and 760 profiles under clear and cloudy skies were selected. Based on the comparisons, temperature profiles have better consistency than the ρv and RH profiles, lower levels are better than upper levels, and the cloudy are better than the clear-sky profiles. Three cloud types (low, middle, and high) were identified by matching the infrared radiation thermometer-detected cloud base temperature to the MWR-retrieved temperature-height profiles. Temperature profile under high cloud has the highest correlation coefficient (R) and the lowest bias and RMS, but under low cloud is in the opposite direction. The ρv profile under middle cloud has the highest R and the lowest bias but under high cloud has the lowest R, the largest bias, and RMS. Based on the radiosonde soundings, both clear and cloudy wind speeds and drifting distances increase with height but increase much faster under clear than cloudy above 4 km. The increased wind speeds and drifting distances with height have resulted in decreased correlation coefficient and increased temperature biases and RMSs with height for both clear and cloudy skies. The differences in R, bias, and RMS between clear and cloudy skies are primarily resulted from their wind speeds and drifting distances.
AB - Atmospheric profiles of temperature (T), vapor density (ρv), and relative humidity (RH) retrieved from ground-based microwave radiometer (MWR) measurements are compared with radiosonde soundings at Wuhan, China. The MWR retrievals were averaged in the ±30 min period centered at sounding times of 00 and 12 UTC. A total of 403 and 760 profiles under clear and cloudy skies were selected. Based on the comparisons, temperature profiles have better consistency than the ρv and RH profiles, lower levels are better than upper levels, and the cloudy are better than the clear-sky profiles. Three cloud types (low, middle, and high) were identified by matching the infrared radiation thermometer-detected cloud base temperature to the MWR-retrieved temperature-height profiles. Temperature profile under high cloud has the highest correlation coefficient (R) and the lowest bias and RMS, but under low cloud is in the opposite direction. The ρv profile under middle cloud has the highest R and the lowest bias but under high cloud has the lowest R, the largest bias, and RMS. Based on the radiosonde soundings, both clear and cloudy wind speeds and drifting distances increase with height but increase much faster under clear than cloudy above 4 km. The increased wind speeds and drifting distances with height have resulted in decreased correlation coefficient and increased temperature biases and RMSs with height for both clear and cloudy skies. The differences in R, bias, and RMS between clear and cloudy skies are primarily resulted from their wind speeds and drifting distances.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84976426133&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84976426133&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1002/2015JD023438
DO - 10.1002/2015JD023438
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84976426133
SN - 0148-0227
VL - 120
SP - 10313
EP - 10323
JO - Journal of geophysical research
JF - Journal of geophysical research
IS - 19
ER -