Water vapour in the upper troposphere and middle atmosphere: a WCRP/SPARC satellite data quality assessment including biases, variability, and drifts (ACP/AMT/ESSD inter-journal SI)(ACP/AMT/ESSD inter-journal SI)
Water vapour in the upper troposphere and middle atmosphere: a WCRP/SPARC satellite data quality assessment including biases, variability, and drifts (ACP/AMT/ESSD inter-journal SI)(ACP/AMT/ESSD inter-journal SI)
Editor(s): J. Russell, K. Rosenlof, S. A. Buehler, and G. P. Stiller Special issue jointly organized between Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, and Earth System Science Data
The Water Vapour Phase II (WAVAS II), a SPARC activity, started in 2008 (SPARC Newsletter No. 30 (2008) p. 16: SPARC Water Vapour Initiative, by C. Schiller et al.). The activity includes satellite assessment and in situ comparison components. This international activity encompasses:

1) Providing a quality assessment of upper tropospheric to lower mesospheric satellite records since the early 1990s
2) Providing, as far as possible, absolute validation against ground-truth instruments
3) Assessing inter-instrument biases, depending on altitude, location, and season
4) Assessing the representation of temporal variations on various scales
5) Including data records on isotopologues
6) Providing recommendations for usage of available data records and for future observation systems


The main objective of WAVAS II is to assess and extend our knowledge and understanding of measurements of the vertical distribution of water vapor in the upper troposphere and middle atmosphere (UT/MA), where water has small concentrations, but significant radiative impact. This is a follow-up of the SPARC WAVAS activity, whose report was published in 2000 (SPARC Report No. 2 (2000) Upper Tropospheric and Stratospheric Water Vapour. D. Kley, J.M. Russell III, and C. Philips (eds.). WCRP-113, WMO/TD – No. 1043). Information gained from this activity will improve our ability to estimate long-term changes with associated uncertainties in UT/MA water as well as make recommendations as to what data would be most valuable for model validation and how such data should be used.

Papers will be accepted for this special issue according to the following guidelines, independent if they originate from the WAVAS II activity or other activities.

Guidelines for submissions:
  • Papers covering existing UT/MA satellite water vapour measurements;
  • Papers discussing comparisons of UT/MA satellite measurements, including discussion of quantities derived from these measurements, such as seasonal cycles, estimates of transport, or estimates of drifts, trends and variability.
  • Papers discussing merging of water vapour measurements will be considered, although this topic is not specifically part of the WAVAS-II activity.
  • Model papers that incorporate the datasets discussed and the uncertainty estimates resulting from the WAVAS-II activity will also be considered for inclusion.

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12 Oct 2023
The SPARC water vapour assessment II: biases and drifts of water vapour satellite data records with respect to frost point hygrometer records
Michael Kiefer, Dale F. Hurst, Gabriele P. Stiller, Stefan Lossow, Holger Vömel, John Anderson, Faiza Azam, Jean-Loup Bertaux, Laurent Blanot, Klaus Bramstedt, John P. Burrows, Robert Damadeo, Bianca Maria Dinelli, Patrick Eriksson, Maya García-Comas, John C. Gille, Mark Hervig, Yasuko Kasai, Farahnaz Khosrawi, Donal Murtagh, Gerald E. Nedoluha, Stefan Noël, Piera Raspollini, William G. Read, Karen H. Rosenlof, Alexei Rozanov, Christopher E. Sioris, Takafumi Sugita, Thomas von Clarmann, Kaley A. Walker, and Katja Weigel
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 4589–4642, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4589-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4589-2023, 2023
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30 Aug 2023
Technical note: On HALOE stratospheric water vapor variations and trends at Boulder, Colorado
Ellis Remsberg
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 9637–9646, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9637-2023,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9637-2023, 2023
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09 Jun 2022
The SPARC Water Vapor Assessment II: assessment of satellite measurements of upper tropospheric humidity
William G. Read, Gabriele Stiller, Stefan Lossow, Michael Kiefer, Farahnaz Khosrawi, Dale Hurst, Holger Vömel, Karen Rosenlof, Bianca M. Dinelli, Piera Raspollini, Gerald E. Nedoluha, John C. Gille, Yasuko Kasai, Patrick Eriksson, Christopher E. Sioris, Kaley A. Walker, Katja Weigel, John P. Burrows, and Alexei Rozanov
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 3377–3400, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3377-2022,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3377-2022, 2022
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27 Aug 2021
Improvement of Odin/SMR water vapour and temperature measurements and validation of the obtained data sets
Francesco Grieco, Kristell Pérot, Donal Murtagh, Patrick Eriksson, Bengt Rydberg, Michael Kiefer, Maya Garcia-Comas, Alyn Lambert, and Kaley A. Walker
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 5823–5857, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-5823-2021,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-5823-2021, 2021
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28 Jan 2020
A reassessment of the discrepancies in the annual variation of δD-H2O in the tropical lower stratosphere between the MIPAS and ACE-FTS satellite data sets
Stefan Lossow, Charlotta Högberg, Farahnaz Khosrawi, Gabriele P. Stiller, Ralf Bauer, Kaley A. Walker, Sylvia Kellmann, Andrea Linden, Michael Kiefer, Norbert Glatthor, Thomas von Clarmann, Donal P. Murtagh, Jörg Steinwagner, Thomas Röckmann, and Roland Eichinger
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 287–308, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-287-2020,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-287-2020, 2020
23 Jul 2019
Comparison of ground-based and satellite measurements of water vapour vertical profiles over Ellesmere Island, Nunavut
Dan Weaver, Kimberly Strong, Kaley A. Walker, Chris Sioris, Matthias Schneider, C. Thomas McElroy, Holger Vömel, Michael Sommer, Katja Weigel, Alexei Rozanov, John P. Burrows, William G. Read, Evan Fishbein, and Gabriele Stiller
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 4039–4063, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-4039-2019,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-4039-2019, 2019
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10 May 2019
The SPARC water vapour assessment II: profile-to-profile comparisons of stratospheric and lower mesospheric water vapour data sets obtained from satellites
Stefan Lossow, Farahnaz Khosrawi, Michael Kiefer, Kaley A. Walker, Jean-Loup Bertaux, Laurent Blanot, James M. Russell, Ellis E. Remsberg, John C. Gille, Takafumi Sugita, Christopher E. Sioris, Bianca M. Dinelli, Enzo Papandrea, Piera Raspollini, Maya García-Comas, Gabriele P. Stiller, Thomas von Clarmann, Anu Dudhia, William G. Read, Gerald E. Nedoluha, Robert P. Damadeo, Joseph M. Zawodny, Katja Weigel, Alexei Rozanov, Faiza Azam, Klaus Bramstedt, Stefan Noël, John P. Burrows, Hideo Sagawa, Yasuko Kasai, Joachim Urban, Patrick Eriksson, Donal P. Murtagh, Mark E. Hervig, Charlotta Högberg, Dale F. Hurst, and Karen H. Rosenlof
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 2693–2732, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-2693-2019,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-2693-2019, 2019
27 Feb 2019
The SPARC water vapour assessment II: profile-to-profile and climatological comparisons of stratospheric δD(H2O) observations from satellite
Charlotta Högberg, Stefan Lossow, Farahnaz Khosrawi, Ralf Bauer, Kaley A. Walker, Patrick Eriksson, Donal P. Murtagh, Gabriele P. Stiller, Jörg Steinwagner, and Qiong Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 2497–2526, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-2497-2019,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-2497-2019, 2019
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11 Sep 2018
Response of stratospheric water vapor and ozone to the unusual timing of El Niño and the QBO disruption in 2015–2016
Mohamadou Diallo, Martin Riese, Thomas Birner, Paul Konopka, Rolf Müller, Michaela I. Hegglin, Michelle L. Santee, Mark Baldwin, Bernard Legras, and Felix Ploeger
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 13055–13073, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-13055-2018,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-13055-2018, 2018
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25 Jul 2018
The SPARC water vapour assessment II: comparison of stratospheric and lower mesospheric water vapour time series observed from satellites
Farahnaz Khosrawi, Stefan Lossow, Gabriele P. Stiller, Karen H. Rosenlof, Joachim Urban, John P. Burrows, Robert P. Damadeo, Patrick Eriksson, Maya García-Comas, John C. Gille, Yasuko Kasai, Michael Kiefer, Gerald E. Nedoluha, Stefan Noël, Piera Raspollini, William G. Read, Alexei Rozanov, Christopher E. Sioris, Kaley A. Walker, and Katja Weigel
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 4435–4463, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-4435-2018,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-4435-2018, 2018
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14 Jun 2018
Trend differences in lower stratospheric water vapour between Boulder and the zonal mean and their role in understanding fundamental observational discrepancies
Stefan Lossow, Dale F. Hurst, Karen H. Rosenlof, Gabriele P. Stiller, Thomas von Clarmann, Sabine Brinkop, Martin Dameris, Patrick Jöckel, Doug E. Kinnison, Johannes Plieninger, David A. Plummer, Felix Ploeger, William G. Read, Ellis E. Remsberg, James M. Russell, and Mengchu Tao
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 8331–8351, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-8331-2018,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-8331-2018, 2018
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06 Dec 2017
The SPARC water vapor assessment II: intercomparison of satellite and ground-based microwave measurements
Gerald E. Nedoluha, Michael Kiefer, Stefan Lossow, R. Michael Gomez, Niklaus Kämpfer, Martin Lainer, Peter Forkman, Ole Martin Christensen, Jung Jin Oh, Paul Hartogh, John Anderson, Klaus Bramstedt, Bianca M. Dinelli, Maya Garcia-Comas, Mark Hervig, Donal Murtagh, Piera Raspollini, William G. Read, Karen Rosenlof, Gabriele P. Stiller, and Kaley A. Walker
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 14543–14558, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-14543-2017,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-14543-2017, 2017
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27 Sep 2017
An “island” in the stratosphere – on the enhanced annual variation of water vapour in the middle and upper stratosphere in the southern tropics and subtropics
Stefan Lossow, Hella Garny, and Patrick Jöckel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 11521–11539, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-11521-2017,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-11521-2017, 2017
16 Mar 2017
The SPARC water vapour assessment II: comparison of annual, semi-annual and quasi-biennial variations in stratospheric and lower mesospheric water vapour observed from satellites
Stefan Lossow, Farahnaz Khosrawi, Gerald E. Nedoluha, Faiza Azam, Klaus Bramstedt, John. P. Burrows, Bianca M. Dinelli, Patrick Eriksson, Patrick J. Espy, Maya García-Comas, John C. Gille, Michael Kiefer, Stefan Noël, Piera Raspollini, William G. Read, Karen H. Rosenlof, Alexei Rozanov, Christopher E. Sioris, Gabriele P. Stiller, Kaley A. Walker, and Katja Weigel
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 1111–1137, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-1111-2017,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-1111-2017, 2017
28 Sep 2016
The Stratospheric Water and Ozone Satellite Homogenized (SWOOSH) database: a long-term database for climate studies
Sean M. Davis, Karen H. Rosenlof, Birgit Hassler, Dale F. Hurst, William G. Read, Holger Vömel, Henry Selkirk, Masatomo Fujiwara, and Robert Damadeo
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 8, 461–490, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-8-461-2016,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-8-461-2016, 2016
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08 Sep 2016
Recent divergences in stratospheric water vapor measurements by frost point hygrometers and the Aura Microwave Limb Sounder
Dale F. Hurst, William G. Read, Holger Vömel, Henry B. Selkirk, Karen H. Rosenlof, Sean M. Davis, Emrys G. Hall, Allen F. Jordan, and Samuel J. Oltmans
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 4447–4457, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-4447-2016,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-4447-2016, 2016
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05 Sep 2016
Advancements, measurement uncertainties, and recent comparisons of the NOAA frost point hygrometer
Emrys G. Hall, Allen F. Jordan, Dale F. Hurst, Samuel J. Oltmans, Holger Vömel, Benjamin Kühnreich, and Volker Ebert
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 4295–4310, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-4295-2016,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-4295-2016, 2016
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16 Aug 2016
An update on the uncertainties of water vapor measurements using cryogenic frost point hygrometers
Holger Vömel, Tatjana Naebert, Ruud Dirksen, and Michael Sommer
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 3755–3768, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-3755-2016,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-3755-2016, 2016
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