Ground-Based Remote Sensing of Atmospheric Water Vapor Using High-Resolution FTIR Spectrometry

• Published in: Remote sensing (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2023-07, Vol.15 (14), p.3484
• Main Authors: Wu, Peng, Shan, Changgong, Liu, Chen, Xie, Yu, Wang, Wei, Zhu, Qianqian, Zeng, Xiangyu, Liang, Bin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accuracy; Air masses; Atmosphere; Atmospheric water; Climate change; Climate change mitigation; Correlation coefficient; Correlation coefficients; Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy; Fourier transforms; FTIR; Gallium arsenide; Global warming; ground-based remote sensing; High resolution; Indium antimonide; Infrared spectra; Infrared spectroscopy; Mass transport; Measurement techniques; Mercury cadmium telluride; Methods; MIR; Near infrared radiation; NIR; Remote sensing; Remote sensing systems; Seasonal distribution; Seasonal variations; Spectrometry; Surface temperature; Troposphere; Vertical distribution; vertical profile; Water vapor
• ISSN: 2072-4292; 2072-4292
• DOI: 10.3390/rs15143484

Understanding the distribution of atmospheric water vapor (H2O) is crucial for global warming studies and climate change mitigation. In this study, we retrieved the ground layer, tropospheric and total columns of H2O using ground-based high-resolution Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR). The H2O total columns are obtained from near-infrared (NIR) and mid-infrared (MIR) spectra, and the ground layer and tropospheric H2O columns are retrieved from the MIR spectrum. The total columns of H2O retrieved from NIR and MIR have a good consistency (R = 0.989). Additionally, the ground layer H2O columns have a similar seasonal variation to total columns and tropospheric columns but have a higher seasonal amplitude. The ground layer H2O columns are close to the total columns and tropospheric columns in winter; however, in summer, the average difference between the ground layer and total columns and the value between the ground layer and tropospheric columns are large. This is mostly due to temperature variation. The temperature has a linear response to H2O, and the relationship between surface temperature and ln(XH2O) values in the ground layer, the entire atmosphere and the troposphere show a significantly positive correlation, and the correlation coefficient R is 0.893, 0.882 and 0.683, respectively. Furthermore, we selected the HYSPLIT model to simulate the back trajectories of air parcels in the four seasons in Hefei and find that the air mass transport has a significant impact on the local H2O change. These results demonstrate that ground-based high-resolution FTIR technology has high accuracy and precision in observing the vertical distribution and seasonal changes of H2O in different atmospheres.