Abstract
This paper presents an analysis of a technique for retrieving upper tropospheric relative humidity through the GMS-5 satellite’s 6.7-micron water vapor channel brightness temperature. NCEP analysis shows that a critical assumption of the retrieval theory, namely the constant temperature lapse rate, matches only in the tropical atmosphere. By statistical analyses of brightness temperature simulated by a radiative transfer model and of relative humidity, we examine the effect of lapse rate on this retrieval method and obtain retrieval parameters and error estimates applicable to the GMS-5 satellite over East Asia. If the retrieval parameters are properly chosen, the relative error of retrieving the upper tropospheric relative humidity in this region is less than 10%, and if applied to the low-latitude summer atmosphere, it is less than 5%.
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Huang, Y., Wang, M. & Mao, J. Retrieval of upper tropospheric relative humidity by the GMS-5 water vapor channel: A study of the technique. Adv. Atmos. Sci. 21, 53–60 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02915680
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02915680