New Gridded Product for the Total Columnar Atmospheric Water Vapor over Ocean Surface Constructed from Microwave Radiometer Satellite Data

Weifu Sun,Yuheng Li,Yujia Zhao,Junmin Meng,Peiqiang Wu,Jin Wang

doi:10.3390/rs13122402

Abstract

Based on the optimal interpolation (OI) algorithm, a daily fusion product of high-resolution global ocean columnar atmospheric water vapor with a resolution of 0.25° was generated in this study from multisource remote sensing observations. The product covers the period from 2003 to 2018, and the data represent a fusion of microwave radiometer observations, including those from the Special Sensor Microwave Imager Sounder (SSMIS), WindSat, Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer for Earth Observing System sensor (AMSR-E), Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2), and HY-2A microwave radiometer (MR). The accuracy of this water vapor fusion product was validated using radiosonde water vapor observations. The comparative results show that the overall mean deviation (Bias) is smaller than 0.6 mm; the root mean square error (RMSE) and standard deviation (SD) are better than 3 mm, and the mean absolute deviation (MAD) and correlation coefficient (R) are better than 2 mm and 0.98, respectively.

Highlights

Water vapor is an important indicator of Earth’s climate system and serves as the dominant greenhouse gas, having higher absorption than carbon dioxide
Columnar atmospheric water vapor denotes the total gaseous water contained in a vertical column of the atmosphere, which corresponds to the absolute amount of water dissolved in the air
The scanning range of the spaceborne microwave radiometer reaches approximately 1000 km, which could cover more than 90% of the global ocean area every day and provide important data to monitor the changes in columnar atmospheric water vapor over the global ocean surface

Summary

Introduction

Water vapor is an important indicator of Earth’s climate system and serves as the dominant greenhouse gas, having higher absorption than carbon dioxide. It is a rich and important radiative atmospheric component that occurs for short times in the atmosphere [1]. The scanning range of the spaceborne microwave radiometer reaches approximately 1000 km, which could cover more than 90% of the global ocean area every day and provide important data to monitor the changes in columnar atmospheric water vapor over the global ocean surface.

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion