| Volumes and Issues Contents of Issue 5 |
www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/5/9493/2005/
© Author(s) 2005. This work is licensed
under a Creative Commons License.
Water vapour profiles by ground-based FTIR spectroscopy: study for an optimised retrieval and its validation
IMK-ASF, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe and Universität Karlsruhe, Germany
Abstract. The sensitivity of ground-based instruments measuring in the infrared with respect to tropospheric water vapour content is generally limited to the lower and middle troposphere. The large vertical gradients and variabilities avoid a better sensitivity for the upper troposphere/lower stratosphere region. In this work an optimised retrieval is presented and it is demonstrated that compared to a commonly applied method, it widely improves the performance of the FTIR technique with respect to upper tropospheric water vapour. Within a realistic error scenario it is estimated that the optimised method reduces the upper tropospheric uncertainties by about 25–30%, leading to a noise to signal ratio of 50%. The reasons for this improvement and the possible deficiencies of the method are discussed. The estimations are confirmed by a comparison of retrieval results based on real FTIR measurements with coinciding measurements of synoptical meteorological radiosondes.
Discussion Paper (PDF, 920 KB) Interactive Discussion (Closed, 3 Comments) Final Revised Paper (ACP)
Citation: Schneider, M., Hase, F., and Blumenstock, T.: Water vapour profiles by ground-based FTIR spectroscopy: study for an optimised retrieval and its validation, Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., 5, 9493-9545, 2005. Bibtex EndNote Reference Manager
