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Modeled and Empirical Approaches for Retrieving Columnar Water Vapor from Solar Transmittance Measurements in the 0.72, 0.82, and 0.94 Micrometer Absorption BandsA Sun photometer (18 channels between 300 and 1024 nm) has been used for measuring the columnar content of atmospheric water vapor (CWV) by solar transmittance measurements in absorption bands with channels centered at 719, 817, and 946 nm. The observable is the band-weighted transmittance function defined by the spectral absorption of water vapor and the spectral features of solar irradiance and system response. The transmittance function is approximated by a three-parameter model. Its parameters are determined from MODTRAN and LBLRTM simulations or empirical approaches using CWV data of a dual-channel microwave radiometer (MWR) or a Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS). Data acquired over a 2-year period during 1996-1998 at two different sites in Switzerland, Bern (560 m above sea level (asl)) and Jungfraujoch (3580 m asl) were compared to MWR, radiosonde (RS), and FTS retrievals. At the low-altitude station with an average CWV amount of 15 mm the LBLRTM approach (based on recently corrected line intensities) leads to negligible biases at 719 and 946 nm if compared to an average of MWR, RS, and GPS retrievals. However, at 817 nm an overestimate of 2.7 to 4.3 mm (18-29%) remains. At the high-altitude station with an average CWV amount of 1.4 mm the LBLRTM approaches overestimate the CWV by 1.0, 1.4. and 0.1 mm (58, 76, and 3%) at 719, 817, and 946 nm, compared to the ITS instrument. At the low-altitude station, CWV estimates, based on empirical approaches, agree with the MWR within 0.4 mm (2.5% of the mean); at the high-altitude site with a factor of 10 less water vapor the agreement of the sun photometers (SPM) with the ITS is 0.0 to 0.2 mm (1 to 9% of the mean CWV there). Sensitivity analyses show that for the conditions met at the two stations with CWV ranging from 0.2 to 30 mm, the retrieval errors are smallest if the 946 nm channel is used.
Document ID
20020066569
Acquisition Source
Ames Research Center
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
External Source(s)
Authors
Ingold, T.
(Bern Univ. Bern, Switzerland)
Schmid, B.
(Bay Area Environmental Research Inst. San Francisco, CA United States)
Maetzler, C.
(Bern Univ. Bern, Switzerland)
Demoulin, P.
(Liege Univ. Belgium)
Kaempfer, N.
(Bern Univ. Bern, Switzerland)
Date Acquired
August 20, 2013
Publication Date
December 16, 2000
Publication Information
Publication: Journal of Geophysical Research
Publisher: American Geophysical Union
Volume: 105
Issue: D19
ISSN: 0148-0227
Subject Category
Meteorology And Climatology
Report/Patent Number
Paper-2000JD900392
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NCC2-1094
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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