Articles | Volume 15, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-117-2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-117-2022
Research article
 | 
05 Jan 2022
Research article |  | 05 Jan 2022

New sampling strategy mitigates a solar-geometry-induced bias in sub-kilometre vapour scaling statistics derived from imaging spectroscopy

Mark T. Richardson, David R. Thompson, Marcin J. Kurowski, and Matthew D. Lebsock

Related authors

How well can we quantify when 1.5 °C of global warming has been exceeded?
Peter W. Thorne, John M. Nicklas, John J. Kennedy, Bruce Calvert, Baylor Fox-Kemper, Mark T. Richardson, Adrian Simmons, Ed Hawkins, Robert Rhode, Kathryn Cowtan, Nerilie J. Abram, Axel Andersson, Simon Noone, Phillipe Marbaix, Nathan Lenssen, Dirk Olonscheck, Tristram Walsh, Stephen Outten, Ingo Bethke, Bjorn H. Samset, Chris Smith, Anna Pirani, Jan Fuglestvedt, Lavanya Rajamani, Richard A. Betts, Elizabeth C. Kent, Blair Trewin, Colin Morice, Tim Osborn, Samantha N. Burgess, Oliver Geden, Andrew Parnell, Piers M. Forster, Chris Hewitt, Zeke Hausfather, Valerie Masson-Delmotte, Jochem Marotzke, Nathan Gillett, Sonia I. Seneviratne, Gavin A. Schmidt, Duo Chan, Stefan Brönnimann, Andy Reisinger, Matthew Menne, Maisa Rojas Corradi, Christopher Kadow, Peter Huybers, David B. Stephenson, Emily Wallis, Joeri Rogelj, Andrew Schurer, Karen McKinnon, Panmao Zhai, Fatima Driouech, Wilfran Moufouma Okia, Saeed Vazifehkhah, Sophie Szopa, Christopher J. Merchant, Shoji Hirahara, Masayoshi Ishii, Francois A. Engelbrecht, Qingxiang Li, June-Yi Lee, Alex J. Cannon, Christophe Cassou, Karina von Schuckmann, Amir H. Delju, and Ellie Murtagh
Earth Syst. Sci. Data Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-825,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2025-825, 2026
Preprint under review for ESSD
Short summary
Trajectory enhancement of low-earth orbiter thermodynamic retrievals to predict convection: a simulation experiment
Mark T. Richardson, Brian H. Kahn, and Peter Kalmus
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 7699–7717, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-7699-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-7699-2023, 2023
Short summary
Boundary layer water vapour statistics from high-spatial-resolution spaceborne imaging spectroscopy
Mark T. Richardson, David R. Thompson, Marcin J. Kurowski, and Matthew D. Lebsock
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 5555–5576, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-5555-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-5555-2021, 2021
Short summary
Spectroscopic imaging of sub-kilometer spatial structure in lower-tropospheric water vapor
David R. Thompson, Brian H. Kahn, Philip G. Brodrick, Matthew D. Lebsock, Mark Richardson, and Robert O. Green
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 2827–2840, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2827-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2827-2021, 2021
Short summary

Cited articles

Arakawa, A., Jung, J.-H., and Wu, C.-M.: Toward unification of the multiscale modeling of the atmosphere, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 3731–3742, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-11-3731-2011, 2011. 
Bacmeister, J. T., Eckermann, S. D., Newman, P. A., Lait, L., Chan, K. R., Loewenstein, M., Proffitt, M. H., and Gary, B. L.: Stratospheric horizontal wavenumber spectra of winds, potential temperature, and atmospheric tracers observed by high-altitude aircraft, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 101, 9441–9470, https://doi.org/10.1029/95JD03835, 1996. 
Bedka, K. M., Nehrir, A. R., Kavaya, M., Barton-Grimley, R., Beaubien, M., Carroll, B., Collins, J., Cooney, J., Emmitt, G. D., Greco, S., Kooi, S., Lee, T., Liu, Z., Rodier, S., and Skofronick-Jackson, G.: Airborne lidar observations of wind, water vapor, and aerosol profiles during the NASA Aeolus calibration and validation (Cal/Val) test flight campaign, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 4305–4334, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-4305-2021, 2021. 
Berk, A., Conforti, P., Kennett, R., Perkins, T., Hawes, F., and van den Bosch, J.: MODTRAN6: a major upgrade of the MODTRAN radiative transfer code, in: Proceedings Volume 9088, Algorithms and Technologies for Multispectral, Hyperspectral, and Ultraspectral Imagery XX, edited by: Velez-Reyes, M. and Kruse, F. A., SPIE, Baltimore, MD, USA, 90880H, 2014. 
Berk, A., Conforti, P., and Hawes, F.: An accelerated line-by-line option for MODTRAN combining on-the-fly generation of line center absorption within 0.1 cm−1​​​​​​​ bins and pre-computed line tails, in: Proceedings Volume 9472, Algorithms and Technologies for Multispectral, Hyperspectral, and Ultraspectral Imagery XXI, edited by: Velez-Reyes, M. and Kruse, F. A., SPIE, Baltimore, MD, USA, 947217, 2015. 
Download
Short summary
Sunlight can pass diagonally through the atmosphere, cutting through the 3-D water vapour field in a way that smears 2-D maps of imaging spectroscopy vapour retrievals. In simulations we show how this smearing is towards or away from the Sun, so calculating across the solar direction allows sub-kilometre information about water vapour's spatial scaling to be calculated. This could be tested by airborne campaigns and used to obtain new information from upcoming spaceborne data products.
Share