Temperature and humidity profile retrievals from ground-based microwave radiometers during TUC

Authors: Cimini, Domenico; Hewison, Tim J.; Martin, Lorenz; Güldner, Jürgen; Gaffard, Catherine; Marzano, Frank S.

Source: Meteorologische Zeitschrift, Volume 15, Number 1, February 2006 , pp. 45-56(12)

Publisher: E. Schweizerbart'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung

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Abstract:

Thermodynamic atmospheric profiles have been retrieved from ground-based microwave radiometers during the Temperature, hUmidity, and Cloud (TUC) profiling campaign. A variety of inversion methods is presented, in terms of requirements, advantages, and limitations. Results confirm the theoretical expectation that retrievals' accuracy and resolution degrade steadily with height up to 3 km, then more rapidly. At higher levels the retrievals' accuracy does not improve on that of a Numerical Weather Prediction model, which provides a background for the variational technique. Most retrieval methods produce a bias in the temperature profile above 1 km, which may be due to a bias in the absorption model used and/or observations at 51-54 GHz. Elevation scanning is shown to improve the accuracy and resolution of the retrievals in the boundary layer, but is limited by technical shortcomings.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1127/0941-2948/2006/0099

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