Intercomparison of atmospheric water vapour measurements at a Canadian High Arctic site

Details

• Journal Title:
  Atmospheric Measurement Techniques
• Personal Author:
  Weaver, Dan ; Strong, Kimberly ; Schneider, Matthias ; Rowe, Penny M. ; Sioris, Chris ; Walker, Kaley A. ; Mariani, Zen ; Uttal, Taneil ; McElroy, C. Thomas ; Vömel, Holger ; Spassiani, Alessio ; Drummond, James R.
• NOAA Program & Office:
  OAR (Oceanic and Atmospheric Research) ; ESRL (Earth System Research Laboratory) ; PSL (Physical Sciences Laboratory)
• Description:
  Water vapour is a critical component of the Earth system. Techniques to acquire and improve measurements of atmospheric water vapour and its isotopes are under active development. This work presents a detailed intercomparison of water vapour total column measurements taken between 2006 and 2014 at a Canadian High Arctic research site (Eureka, Nunavut). Instruments include radiosondes, sun photometers, a microwave radiometer, and emission and solar absorption Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometers. Close agreement is observed between all combination of datasets, with mean differences ≤ 1.0 kg m−2 and correlation coefficients ≥ 0.98. The one exception in the observed high correlation is the comparison between the microwave radiometer and a radiosonde product, which had a correlation coefficient of 0.92.
  
  A variety of biases affecting Eureka instruments are revealed and discussed. A subset of Eureka radiosonde measurements was processed by the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) Reference Upper Air Network (GRUAN) for this study. Comparisons reveal a small dry bias in the standard radiosonde measurement water vapour total columns of approximately 4 %. A recently produced solar absorption FTIR spectrometer dataset resulting from the MUSICA (MUlti-platform remote Sensing of Isotopologues for investigating the Cycle of Atmospheric water) retrieval technique is shown to offer accurate measurements of water vapour total columns (e.g. average agreement within −5.2 % of GRUAN and −6.5 % of a co-located emission FTIR spectrometer). However, comparisons show a small wet bias of approximately 6 % at the high-latitude Eureka site. In addition, a new dataset derived from Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (AERI) measurements is shown to provide accurate water vapour measurements (e.g. average agreement was within 4 % of GRUAN), which usefully enables measurements to be taken during day and night (especially valuable during polar night).
  
  
• Keywords:
  Remote Sensing Water Vapor, Atmospheric Remote Sensing Water Vapor, Atmospheric
• Source:
  Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 2851–2880, 2017
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-2851-2017
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Canada, Northern
• Rights Information:
  CC BY
• Compliance:
  Submitted
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:67c88be83d2247c9e983e1b4d3489819b48d8afd65e43ac54ddc6807dad31495
• Download URL:
  https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/28123/noaa_28123_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 6.58 MB ]