Atmospheric water vapor over Antarctica derived from Special Sensor Microwave/Temperature 2 data
In polar regions, satellite microwave radiometry has not been successful in measuring the total water vapor (TWV) in the atmosphere. The difficulties faced in these regions arise from the very low water vapor burden of the atmosphere and the large and highly variable emissivities of ice surfaces in...
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ftnerc:oai:nora.nerc.ac.uk:20085 2023-05-15T13:45:12+02:00 Atmospheric water vapor over Antarctica derived from Special Sensor Microwave/Temperature 2 data Miao, Jungang Kunzi, Klaus Heygster, Georg Lachlan-Cope, Tom A. Turner, John 2001-05-27 http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/20085/ https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2000JD900811 unknown American Geophysical Union Miao, Jungang; Kunzi, Klaus; Heygster, Georg; Lachlan-Cope, Tom A. orcid:0000-0002-0657-3235 Turner, John orcid:0000-0002-6111-5122 . 2001 Atmospheric water vapor over Antarctica derived from Special Sensor Microwave/Temperature 2 data. Journal of Geophysical Research, 106 (D10). 10,187-10,203. https://doi.org/10.1029/2000JD900811 <https://doi.org/10.1029/2000JD900811> Publication - Article PeerReviewed 2001 ftnerc https://doi.org/10.1029/2000JD900811 2023-02-04T19:32:39Z In polar regions, satellite microwave radiometry has not been successful in measuring the total water vapor (TWV) in the atmosphere. The difficulties faced in these regions arise from the very low water vapor burden of the atmosphere and the large and highly variable emissivities of ice surfaces in the microwave frequency range. By exploiting the advantages of the Special Sensor Microwave/Temperature 2 (SSM/T2), a method is developed to retrieve TWV over Antarctica from satellite data. This method shows very low sensitivities to the change of surface emissivity and to the presence of water clouds. However, ice clouds may have considerable effects. Results of radiative transfer model simulation show that they may cause one to underestimate TWV using the proposed method and that the amount of underestimation is proportional to the ice water path of the ice cloud. Validations using radiosonde measurements and numerical model analyzes suggest that SSM/T2 retrievals have a high accuracy (maximum error <10%) as long as TWV is <4.0 kg m−2. Above this value, retrievals show a systematic overestimation. Presumably, this is a result of the seasonal difference between the validation and the training radiosonde data sets. TWV retrievals of 1 year's SSM/T2 data show clearly the seasonal variation of water vapor over Antarctica. Throughout the year the mean TWV over West Antarctica is nearly twice as high as that over East Antarctica; the temporal fluctuation of TWV over West Antarctica is also significantly stronger than over East Antarctica. This suggests that precipitation and water vapor transport in West Antarctica are more active than in East Antarctica. Using the same year's TWV data, we estimated the mean residence time of atmospheric water vapor over the Antarctica to be merely 3–4 days. This, however, is much shorter than the global mean of 9–10 days. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctica East Antarctica West Antarctica Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive East Antarctica West Antarctica Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 106 D10 10187 10203 |
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Open Polar |
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Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive |
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ftnerc |
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description |
In polar regions, satellite microwave radiometry has not been successful in measuring the total water vapor (TWV) in the atmosphere. The difficulties faced in these regions arise from the very low water vapor burden of the atmosphere and the large and highly variable emissivities of ice surfaces in the microwave frequency range. By exploiting the advantages of the Special Sensor Microwave/Temperature 2 (SSM/T2), a method is developed to retrieve TWV over Antarctica from satellite data. This method shows very low sensitivities to the change of surface emissivity and to the presence of water clouds. However, ice clouds may have considerable effects. Results of radiative transfer model simulation show that they may cause one to underestimate TWV using the proposed method and that the amount of underestimation is proportional to the ice water path of the ice cloud. Validations using radiosonde measurements and numerical model analyzes suggest that SSM/T2 retrievals have a high accuracy (maximum error <10%) as long as TWV is <4.0 kg m−2. Above this value, retrievals show a systematic overestimation. Presumably, this is a result of the seasonal difference between the validation and the training radiosonde data sets. TWV retrievals of 1 year's SSM/T2 data show clearly the seasonal variation of water vapor over Antarctica. Throughout the year the mean TWV over West Antarctica is nearly twice as high as that over East Antarctica; the temporal fluctuation of TWV over West Antarctica is also significantly stronger than over East Antarctica. This suggests that precipitation and water vapor transport in West Antarctica are more active than in East Antarctica. Using the same year's TWV data, we estimated the mean residence time of atmospheric water vapor over the Antarctica to be merely 3–4 days. This, however, is much shorter than the global mean of 9–10 days. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Miao, Jungang Kunzi, Klaus Heygster, Georg Lachlan-Cope, Tom A. Turner, John |
spellingShingle |
Miao, Jungang Kunzi, Klaus Heygster, Georg Lachlan-Cope, Tom A. Turner, John Atmospheric water vapor over Antarctica derived from Special Sensor Microwave/Temperature 2 data |
author_facet |
Miao, Jungang Kunzi, Klaus Heygster, Georg Lachlan-Cope, Tom A. Turner, John |
author_sort |
Miao, Jungang |
title |
Atmospheric water vapor over Antarctica derived from Special Sensor Microwave/Temperature 2 data |
title_short |
Atmospheric water vapor over Antarctica derived from Special Sensor Microwave/Temperature 2 data |
title_full |
Atmospheric water vapor over Antarctica derived from Special Sensor Microwave/Temperature 2 data |
title_fullStr |
Atmospheric water vapor over Antarctica derived from Special Sensor Microwave/Temperature 2 data |
title_full_unstemmed |
Atmospheric water vapor over Antarctica derived from Special Sensor Microwave/Temperature 2 data |
title_sort |
atmospheric water vapor over antarctica derived from special sensor microwave/temperature 2 data |
publisher |
American Geophysical Union |
publishDate |
2001 |
url |
http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/20085/ https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2000JD900811 |
geographic |
East Antarctica West Antarctica |
geographic_facet |
East Antarctica West Antarctica |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctica East Antarctica West Antarctica |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctica East Antarctica West Antarctica |
op_relation |
Miao, Jungang; Kunzi, Klaus; Heygster, Georg; Lachlan-Cope, Tom A. orcid:0000-0002-0657-3235 Turner, John orcid:0000-0002-6111-5122 . 2001 Atmospheric water vapor over Antarctica derived from Special Sensor Microwave/Temperature 2 data. Journal of Geophysical Research, 106 (D10). 10,187-10,203. https://doi.org/10.1029/2000JD900811 <https://doi.org/10.1029/2000JD900811> |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1029/2000JD900811 |
container_title |
Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres |
container_volume |
106 |
container_issue |
D10 |
container_start_page |
10187 |
op_container_end_page |
10203 |
_version_ |
1766216937071706112 |