HR: 0800h
AN: A51B-0760    [Abstracts]
TI: Comparison of Upper Tropospheric Water Vapor from AIRS and Cryogenic Frostpoint Hygrometers
AU: * Fetzer, E J
EM: Eric.J.Fetzer@jp.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, MS 169-237 4800 Oak Grove Dr., Pasadena, CA 91109 United States
AU: * Fetzer, E J
EM: Eric.J.Fetzer@jp.nasa.gov
AF: Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, and, Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory, NOAA, NOAA/CMDL 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80305-3228 United States
AB: Upper tropospheric water vapor (UTWV) from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) experiment on NASA's Aqua spacecraft has the potential of addressing several important climate questions. The specified AIRS system measurement uncertainty for water vapor is 20 percent absolute averaged over 2 km layers. Cryogenic frostpoint hygrometers (CFH) are balloon-borne water vapor sensors responsive from the surface into the lower stratosphere. Several dozen coincident, collocated CFH profiles have been obtained for AIRS validation. The combination of CFH sensitivity and sample size offers a statistically compelling picture of AIRS UTWV measurement capability. We present a comparison between CFH observations and AIRS retrievals. We focus on the altitude range from the middle troposphere up to heights at the limits of AIRS sensitivity to water vapor, believed to be around 100-150 hPa.
DE: 3360 Remote sensing
DE: 3362 Stratosphere/troposphere interactions
DE: 3394 Instruments and techniques
DE: 3309 Climatology (1620)
DE: 0355 Thermosphere--composition and chemistry
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting