Multi-sensor study of precipitable water vapor and atmospheric profiling from microwave radiometer, GNSS/MET, radiosonde, and ECMWF reanalysis in Beijing

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We compare the precipitable water vapor (PWV) determined using a domestic ground-based microwave radiometer (MWR PWV) with PWV measurements from radiosondes (RS PWV), the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS PWV), and reanalysis from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) (EC PWV). The MWR PWV is affected by precipitation, and thus it differs greatly from the other three observations. The correlation coefficient between the MWR PWV and RS PWV (EC PWV) is 0.934 (0.933), and the root mean square error (RMSE) is 17.19 mm (16.05 mm), whereas the correlation coefficient between the GNSS PWV and RS PWV (EC PWV) is 0.989 (0.986), and the RMSE is 17.04 mm (15.83 mm). The scatter distributions of the MWR PWV and the other observations show a systematic deviation that is negatively correlated with the surface air temperature. After polynomial fitting and corrections are applied, the correlation coefficients between the MWR PWV and the RS PWV and EC PWV increase to 0.993 and 0.99, and the RMSEs decrease to 14.13 and 15.86 mm, respectively. The temperature and water vapor density profiles are retrieved from the bright temperature and can reflect the quality of the bright temperature. Because the PWV retrieved from the ground-based MWR has a linear relationship with the brightness temperature, the accuracy of the PWV can be analyzed in terms of the quality of the brightness temperature. We found that the differences in the temperature profile below 2000 m are smaller, whereas those in the water vapor density profile below 2000 m show the largest difference. This finding reflects the differences in the brightness temperature, which may be the cause of the inaccurate PWV observations.