An Integrated Assessment of Measured and Modeled Integrated Water Vapor in Switzerland for the Period 2001–03

Abstract

Abstract In this paper an integrated assessment of the vertically integrated water vapor (IWV) measured by radiosonde, microwave radiometer (MWR), and GPS and modeled by the limited-area mesoscale model of MeteoSwiss is presented. The different IWV measurement techniques are evaluated through intercomparisons of GPS to radiosonde in Payerne, Switzerland, and to the MWR operated at the Institute of Applied Physics at the University of Bern in Switzerland. The validation of the IWV field of the nonhydrostatic mesoscale Alpine Model (aLMo) of MeteoSwiss is performed against 14 GPS sites from the Automated GPS Network of Switzerland (AGNES) in the period of 2001–03. The model forecast and the nudging analysis are evaluated, with special attention paid to the diurnal cycle. The results from the GPS–radiosonde intercomparison are in agreement, but with a bimodal distribution of the day-to-night basis. At 0000 UTC, the bias is negative (−0.4 kg m−2); at 1200 UTC, it is positive (0.9 kg m−2) and the variability increases. The intercomparison of GPS to MWR shows better agreement (0.4 kg m−2), with a small increase of the daytime bias with 0.3 kg m−2. The intercomparison of MWR to the radiosonde gives a bimodal distribution of the bias, with an increase in the standard deviation at the daytime measurement. The relative bias is negative (−3%) at 0000 UTC and is positive (3%) at 1200 UTC. Based on this cross correlation, it can be concluded that the bimodal distribution is a result of radiosonde humidity measurements. Possible reasons are the solar-heating correction or sensor errors. The monthly bias and standard deviation of aLMo exhibit a strong seasonal dependence with a pronounced dry bias during the warm months of May–October 2002. The diurnal IWV cycle in 2001 shows good model performance between 0000 and 0900 UTC but IWV underestimation by up to 1.5 kg m−2 for the rest of the day. In 2002 the diurnal cycle shows a systematic dry bias in both the analysis and forecast that is more pronounced in the analysis. This substantial underestimation of IWV was found to correlate with overestimation of aLMo precipitation, especially light precipitation up to 0.1 mm (6 h)−1 in 2002. There is strong evidence that this underestimation can be related to the dry radiosonde bias in midday summer observations. The aLMo dry bias is about 1.0–1.5 kg m−2 greater in the nudging analysis as compared with the forecast initialized at 0000 UTC.