An In-Flight Calibration Method for Near-Real-Time Humidity Measurements with the Airborne MOZAIC Sensor

Abstract

Abstract A new in-flight calibration (IFC) method is described for the humidity sensor flown routinely since 1994 on the Measurement of Ozone and Water Vapor by Airbus In-Service Aircraft (MOZAIC) program’s aircraft. The IFC method corrects the potential drift of the sensor offset at zero relative humidity, which is the critical parameter in determining the uncertainty of the measurements. The sensor offset is determined from the measurements themselves as obtained during periods when the aircraft is flying in the lower stratosphere at or above the hygropause, where the H2O mixing ratio reaches well-defined minimum values of about 5 ppmv and the contribution of atmospheric H2O to the sensor signal is minimal. The selection of stratospheric data is achieved with the help of potential temperature, which can be calculated in situ from measured temperature and pressure. The IFC method is capable of providing humidity measurements in near–real time with an uncertainty of ±8% RH at the surface and ±7% RH in the upper troposphere. For validation, the IFC method was applied to 5 yr of archived raw signals from the MOZAIC aircraft. The resulting humidity data are in good agreement (within 2% RH) with the original MOZAIC data that used monthly pre- and postflight calibrations of the sensor. The standard deviation of the differences varies with altitude between ±4% and ±6% RH, which is comparable to the accuracy of the MOZAIC laboratory calibrations. Compared to MOZAIC operation based on monthly calibrations in the laboratory, the use of IFC will substantially reduce the efforts for maintenance and thus will enable operation of the sensor on a large fleet of in-service aircraft for near-real-time measurements of humidity in the troposphere. Because the IFC method will not work on aircraft that never enter the lower stratosphere, for example, aircraft that fly exclusively regional routes or in the tropics, regular offline calibrations will remain important for such aircraft.