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[1] We present a validation study for the ground-based Middle Atmospheric Water Vapour Radiometer (MIAWARA) operating at 22 GHz. MIAWARA measures the water vapor profile in the range of 20-80 km. The validation was conducted in two phases at different geographical locations. During the first operational period the radiometer was operated at middle latitudes in Bern, Switzerland, and the measured water vapor profiles were compared with the HALOE satellite instrument. The agreement between HALOE and MIAWARA was for most altitudes better than 10%. The agreement between the balloon instruments and MIAWARA was better than 2% for a total number of 10 comparable flights. This showed the potential of MIAWARA in water vapor retrieval down to 20 km. In addition, the northern Finland MIAWARA profiles were compared with POAM III water vapor profiles. This comparison confirmed the good agreement with the other instruments, and the difference between MIAWARA and POAM was generally less than 8%. Finally, the tipping curve calibration was validated with tipping curve measurements of the All-Sky Multi Wavelength Radiometer (ASMUWARA) which was operated 10 months side by side with MIAWARA. The agreement of the tropospheric opacity derived from these tipping curves agree within 1%.

Abstract. The STARTWAVE (STudies in Atmospheric Radiative Transfer and Water Vapour Effects) project aims to investigate the role which water vapour plays in the climate system, and in particular its interaction with radiation. Within this framework, an ongoing water vapour database project was set up which comprises integrated water vapour (IWV) measurements made over the last ten years by ground-based microwave radiometers, Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers and sun photometers located throughout Switzerland at altitudes between 330 and 3584 m. At Bern (46.95 • N, 7.44 • E) tropospheric and stratospheric water vapour profiles are obtained on a regular basis and integrated liquid water, which is important for cloud characterisation, is also measured. Additional stratospheric water vapour profiles are obtained by an airborne microwave radiometer which observes large parts of the northern hemisphere during yearly flight campaigns. The database allows us to validate the various water vapour measurement techniques. Comparisons between IWV measured by the Payerne radiosonde with that measured at Bern by two microwave radiometers, GPS and sun photometer showed instrument biases within ±0.5 mm. • E, 366 m), which is located on the south side of the Alps, the bias is +1.9 mm. The sun photometer at Locarno was found to have a bias of −2.2 mm (13% of the mean annual IWV) relative to the data from the closest radiosonde station at Milano. This result led to a yearly rotation of the sun photometer instruments between low and high altitude stations to improve the calibrations. In order to demonstrate the caCorrespondence to: J. Morland (june.morland@mw.iap.unibe.ch) pabilites of the database for studying water vapour variations, we investigated a front which crossed Switzerland between 18 November 2004 and 19 November 2004. During the frontal passage, the GPS and microwave radiometers at Bern and Payerne showed an increase in IWV of between 7 and 9 mm. The GPS IWV measurements were corrected to a standard height of 500 m, using an empirically derived exponential relationship between IWV and altitude. A qualitative comparison was made between plots of the IWV distribution measured by the GPS and the 6.2 µm water vapour channel on the Meteosat Second Generation (MSG) satellite. Both showed that the moist air moved in from a northerly direction, although the MSG showed an increase in water vapour several hours before increases in IWV were detected by GPS or microwave radiometer. This is probably due to the fact that the satellite instrument is sensitive to an atmospheric layer at around 320 hPa, which makes a contribution of one percent or less to the IWV.

Vertical profiles of stratospheric water vapour measured by the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) with the full resolution mode between September 2002 and March 2004 and retrieved with the IMK/IAA scientific retrieval processor were compared to a number of independent measurements in order to estimate the bias and to validate the existing precision estimates of the MIPAS data. The estimated precision for MIPAS is 5 to 10% in the stratosphere, depending on altitude, latitude, and season. The independent instruments were: the Halogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE), the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier Transform Spectrometer (ACE-FTS), the Improved Limb Atmospheric Spectrometer-II (ILAS-II), the Polar Ozone and Aerosol Measurement (POAM III) instrument, the Middle Atmospheric Water Vapour Radiometer (MIAWARA), the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding, balloon-borne version (MIPAS-B), the Airborne Microwave Stratospheric Observing System (AMSOS), the Fluorescent Stratospheric Hygrometer for Balloon (FLASH-B), the NOAA frostpoint hygrometer, and the Fast In Situ Hygrometer (FISH). For the in-situ measurements and the ground based, air-and balloon borne remote sensing instruments, the measurements are restricted to central and northern Europe. The comparisons to satellite-borne instruments are predominantly at mid-to high latitudes on both hemispheres. In the stratosphere there is no clear indication of a bias in MIPAS data, because the independent measurements in some cases are drier and in some cases are moister than the MIPAS measurements. Compared to the infrared measurements of MIPAS, measurements in the ultraviolet and visible have a tendency to be high, whereas microwave measurements have a tendency to be low. The results of chi(2)- based precision validation are somewhat controversial among the comparison estimates. However, for comparison instruments whose error budget also includes errors due to uncertainties in spectrally interfering species and where good coincidences were found, the chi(2) values found are in the expected range or even below. This suggests that there is no evidence of systematically underestimated MIPAS random errors

[1] In this study we present a simple relation between the tropospheric opacity t near 22.235 GHz and the integrated water vapor (IWV) content of the troposphere. The opacity is measured at Bern, Switzerland, by the radiometer Middle Atmospheric Water Vapour Radiometer (MIAWARA), designed for middle atmospheric water vapor profile measurements. In contrast to typical radiometers for tropospheric monitoring, this middle atmospheric water vapor radiometer only measures in the vicinity of the 22.235 GHz water vapor line with a bandwidth of 1 GHz. With this study we show that it is even possible to derive the integrated tropospheric water vapor (IWV) content of the atmosphere using this limited frequency range if the liquid water content of the atmosphere is negligible. IWV measurements of the tropospheric monitoring instruments Tropospheric Water Vapour Radiometer (TROWARA, two-channel radiometer), All-Sky Multi Wavelength Radiometer (ASMUWARA, multichannel radiometer), and GPS, which are operated next to MIAWARA, are used to derive a linear relation between the opacity and the water vapor content of the troposphere. In a second step, the mean tropospheric temperature is taken into account and a slight improvement of the linear relation is achieved. All instruments involved in this study are contributing to the Studies in Atmospheric Radiative Transfer and Water Vapour Effects (STARTWAVE) project of the Climate program of the National Competence Center in Research. The MIAWARA measurements in the subarctic winter in northern Finland during the Lapbiat Upper Tropospheric Lower Stratospheric Water Vapor Validation Project (LAUTLOS/WAVVAP) campaign in 2004 are compared to radiosonde measurements by the Finnish Meteorological Institute using the same algorithm that was derived for Bern. The agreement of MIAWARA IWV and radiosonde IWV is of the same order as for Bern. Finally, Payerne radiosonde measurements and model simulation using the Atmospheric Radiative Transfer Simulator (ARTS) software and the continuum absorption models of Rosenkranz (1998) and Liebe (MPM87/MPM93) confirm the derived opacity-IWV relation. This study shows that the integrated water vapor content of the troposphere can be measured by a radiometer operating near the 22.235 GHz water vapor line using a bandwidth of 1 GHz, if the liquid water content of the atmosphere is negligible.Citation: Deuber, B., J. Morland, L. Martin, and N. Kämpfer (2005), Deriving the tropospheric integrated water vapor from tipping curve -derived opacity near 22 GHz, Radio Sci., 40, RS5011,