A systematic assessment of water vapor products in the Arctic: from instantaneous measurements to monthly means

Crewell, Susanne; Ebell, Kerstin; Konjari, Patrick; Mech, Mario; Nomokonova, Tatiana; Radovan, Ana; Strack, David; Triana-Gómez, Arantxa M.; Noël, Stefan; Scarlat, Raul; Spreen, Gunnar; Maturilli, Marion; Rinke, Annette; Gorodetskaya, Irina; Viceto, Carolina; August, Thomas; Schröder, Marc

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-4829-2021

Articles | Volume 14, issue 7

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-4829-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

Arctic mixed-phase clouds as studied during the ACLOUD/PASCAL...

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-4829-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 14, issue 7

Research article

|

09 Jul 2021

Research article |

| 09 Jul 2021

A systematic assessment of water vapor products in the Arctic: from instantaneous measurements to monthly means

Susanne Crewell, Kerstin Ebell, Patrick Konjari, Mario Mech, Tatiana Nomokonova, Ana Radovan, David Strack, Arantxa M. Triana-Gómez, Stefan Noël, Raul Scarlat, Gunnar Spreen, Marion Maturilli, Annette Rinke, Irina Gorodetskaya, Carolina Viceto, Thomas August, and Marc Schröder

Data sets

ERA5 hourly data on single levels from 1979 to present H. Hersbach, B. Bell, P. Berrisford, G. Biavati, A. Horányi, J. Muñoz Sabater, J. Nicolas, C. Peubey, R. Radu, I. Rozum, D. Schepers, A. Simmons, C. Soci, D. Dee, and J.-N. Thépaut https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.adbb2d47

OCEANET-ATMOSPHERE Mircowave Radiometer Hatpro during POLARSTERN cruise PS106 H. Griesche, P. Seifert, R. Engelmann, M. Radenz, and J. Bühl https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.899898

CFSR data NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Prediction https://climatedataguide.ucar.edu/climate-data/climate-forecast-system-reanalysis-cfsr

ERAI dataset Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) https://www.ecmwf.int/en/forecasts/datasets/archive-datasets/reanalysis-datasets/era-interim

JRA-55 project Japan Meteorological Agency https://jra.kishou.go.jp/JRA-55/index_en.html

MERRA-2 instM_3d_asm_Np: 3d,Monthly mean,Instantaneous,Pressure-Level,Assimilation,Assimilated Meteorological Fields V5.12.4 Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) https://doi.org/10.5067/2E096JV59PK7

AIRS/Aqua L2 Standard Physical Retrieval (AIRS-only) V006 AIRS Science Team/Joao Teixeira https://doi.org/10.5067/Aqua/AIRS/DATA202

IASI Atmospheric Temperature Water Vapour and Surface Skin Temperature - Metop Eumetsat https://navigator.eumetsat.int/product/EO:EUM:DAT:METOP:IASIL2TWT?query=IASI&results=20&s=extended

Microwave Integrated Retrieval System Orbital Data NOAA https://www.avl.class.noaa.gov/saa/products/search?datatype_family=MIRS_ORB

Water vapor retrievals using moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) near-infrared channels (https://neo.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/view.php?datasetId=MYDAL2_M_SKY_WV&date=2017-12-01) B. Gao and Y. J. Kaufman https://doi.org/10.1029/2002JD003023

MOD05_L2 - MODIS/Terra Total Precipitable Water Vapor 5-Min L2 Swath 1km and 5km, NASA MODIS Adaptive Processing System B. Gao, et al. https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MOD05_L2.061

MYD05_L2 - MODIS/Aqua Total Precipitable Water Vapor 5-Min L2 Swath 1km and 5km, NASA MODIS Adaptive Processing System B. Gao, et al. https://doi.org/10.5067/MODIS/MYD05_L2.061

Short summary

Water vapor (WV) is an important variable in the climate system. Satellite measurements are thus crucial to characterize the spatial and temporal variability in WV and how it changed over time. In particular with respect to the observed strong Arctic warming, the role of WV still needs to be better understood. However, as shown in this paper, a detailed understanding is still hampered by large uncertainties in the various satellite WV products, showing the need for improved methods to derive WV.