Combining low- and high-frequency microwave radiometer measurements from the MOSAiC expedition for enhanced water vapour products

• Published in: Atmospheric measurement techniques 2024-10, Vol.17 (20), p.6223-6245
• Main Authors: Walbröl, Andreas, Griesche, Hannes J, Mech, Mario, Crewell, Susanne, Ebell, Kerstin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arctic climates; Arctic clouds; Arctic observations; Artificial satellites in remote sensing; Case studies; Clouds; Computation; Evaluation; Feedback; Humidity; Humidity profiles; Ice; Information retrieval; Infrared radiation; Inversions; Medium-range forecasting; Microwave imagery; Microwave radiometers; Moisture content; Multiship expeditions; Neural networks; Precipitation; Radiative transfer; Radiometers; Radiosondes; Relative humidity; Remote sensing; Research vessels; Root-mean-square errors; Satellite observation; Satellites; Specific humidity; Temperature; Temporal resolution; Trends; Water; Water content; Water quality; Water vapor; Water vapour; Weather forecasting; Weather stations; Winter
• ISSN: 1867-8548; 1867-1381; 1867-8548
• DOI: 10.5194/amt-17-6223-2024

In the central Arctic, high-quality water vapour observations are sparse due to the low density of meteorological stations and uncertainties in satellite remote sensing. Different reanalyses also disagree on the amount of water vapour in the central Arctic. The Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of the Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition provides comprehensive observations that are suitable for evaluating satellite products and reanalyses. Radiosonde observations provide high-quality water vapour estimates with a high vertical but a low temporal resolution. Observations from the microwave radiometers (MWRs) on board the research vessel Polarstern complement these observations through high temporal resolution. In this study, we demonstrate the high accuracy of the combination of the two MWRs HATPRO (Humidity and Temperature Profiler) and MiRAC-P (Microwave Radiometer for Arctic Clouds – Passive). For this purpose, we developed new retrievals of integrated water vapour (IWV) and profiles of specific humidity and temperature using a neural network approach, including observations from both HATPRO and MiRAC-P to utilize their different water vapour sensitivity. The retrievals were trained with the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) reanalysis version 5 (ERA5) and synthetic MWR observations simulated with the Passive and Active Microwave radiative TRAnsfer tool (PAMTRA). We applied the retrievals to synthetic and real observations and evaluated them with ERA5 and radiosondes launched during MOSAiC, respectively. To assess the benefit of the combination of HATPRO and MiRAC-P compared to single MWR retrievals, we compared the errors with respect to MOSAiC radiosondes and computed the vertical information content of the specific humidity profiles. The root mean squared error (RMSE) of IWV was reduced by up to 15 %. Specific humidity biases and RMSE were reduced by up to 75 % and 50 %, respectively. The vertical information content of specific humidity could be increased from 1.7 to 2.4 degrees of freedom. We also computed relative humidity from the retrieved temperature and specific humidity profiles and found that RMSE was reduced from 45 % to 15 %. Finally, we show a case study demonstrating the enhanced humidity profiling capabilities compared to the standard HATPRO-based retrievals. The vertical resolution of the retrieved specific humidity profiles is still low compared to radiosondes, but the case study revealed the p