A new climate data record of upper-tropospheric humidity from microwave 
observations

Lang, Theresa; Buehler, Stefan A.; Burgdorf, Martin; Hans, Imke; John, Viju O.

doi:10.1038/s41597-020-0560-1

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A new climate data record of upper-tropospheric humidity from microwave observations

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Lang, Theresa
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Drivers of tropical circulation (CLICCS JWG), The Atmosphere in the Earth System, MPI for Meteorology, Max Planck Society;
IMPRS on Earth System Modelling, MPI for Meteorology, Max Planck Society;

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Citation

Lang, T., Buehler, S. A., Burgdorf, M., Hans, I., & John, V. O. (2020). A new climate data record of upper-tropospheric humidity from microwave observations. Scientific Data, 7: 218. doi:10.1038/s41597-020-0560-1.

Cite as: https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-000C-27F1-8

Abstract

We generated a new Climate Data Record (CDR) of Upper Tropospheric Humidity (UTH) based on observations from the microwave sounders Special Sensor Microwave Temperature - 2 (SSMT-2), Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit - B (AMSU-B) and Microwave Humidity Sounder (MHS). The data record covers the time period between 1994 and 2017 and provides monthly mean 183.31 +/- 1 GHz brightness temperatures and derived UTH along with estimates of measurement uncertainty on a 1 degrees x 1 degrees latitude-longitude grid covering the tropical region (30 degrees S to 30 degrees N). For the UTH retrieval we introduce a new definition of UTH. Forgoing the use of the humidity Jacobian as a weighting function, it is easier to apply than the traditional definition without compromising the retrieval accuracy. The same definition can be used to derive UTH from infrared observations, allowing for a more synergistic use of infrared and microwave UTH in the future. The new UTH CDR is validated against an existing UTH data record.