HAMSTRAD-Tropo, A 183-GHz Radiometer Dedicated to Sound Tropospheric Water Vapor Over Concordia Station, Antarctica

• Published in: IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing
• Main Authors: Ricaud, Philippe, Gabard, Benjamin, Derrien, Solène, Chaboureau, Jean-Pierre, Rose, Thomas, Mombauer, Andreas, Czekala, Harald
• Other Authors: Communications, Médiations, Organisations, Savoirs (CIMEOS), Université de Bourgogne (UB), Laboratoire d'aérologie (LAERO), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP), Météo France-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Météo France-Centre National d'Études Spatiales Toulouse (CNES)-Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD)-Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier (UT3), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées, Centre de Recherches Atmosphériques (CRA), Université Fédérale Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Observatoire Midi-Pyrénées (OMP), Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology (Fraunhofer FIT), Fraunhofer (Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft), RPG Radiometer Physics GmbH
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2010
• Subjects: [PHYS.PHYS.PHYS-AO-PH]Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics [physics.ao-ph]; Concordia Station; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00995290; https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2009.2029345

International audience The H2O Antarctica Microwave Stratospheric and Tropospheric Radiometers (HAMSTRAD) program aims to develop two ground-based microwave radiometers to sound tropospheric and stratospheric water vapor (H2O) above Dome C (Concordia Station), Antarctica (75??06' S, 123??21'E, 3233 m asml), an extremely cold and dry environment, over decades. By using state-of-the-art technology, the HAMSTRAD-Tropo radiometer uses spectral information in the domains 51-59 GHz (oxygen line) and 169-197 GHz (water vapor line) to derive accurate tropospheric profiles of temperature (with accuracy ranging from 1 to 2 K) and low absolute humidity (with accuracy ranging from 0.02 to 0.05 g ?? m-3), together with integrated water vapor (with accuracy of about 0.008 kg ?? m-2) and liquid water path. Prior to its installation at Dome C in January 2009, the fully automated radiometer has been deployed at the Pic du Midi (PdM, 42??56'N, 0??08'E, 2877 m asml, France) in February 2008 and was in operation for five months. Preliminary comparisons with radio soundings particularly launched in the vicinity of PdM in February 2008 and the outputs from the mesoscale MESO-NH model show a great consistency to within 0.2-0.3 g ?? m-3 between all absolute humidity data sets whatever the atmosphere considered (extremely dry or wet).