Measuring Total Column Water Vapor by Pointing an Infrared Thermometer at the Sky

Mims, Forrest M.; Chambers, L. H.; Brooks, David R.

doi:10.1175/2011bams3215.1

Cited by 12 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 23 publications

(15 reference statements)

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“…The PW, however, was higher in the Tmin events than in the Tmax events, suggesting that the Tmin events are more related to downward longwave fluxes, as mediated by moisture (and temperatures) aloft. This hypothesis is supported by the relationship between PW and infrared sky temperature measured by an IR thermometer (Mims et al 2011). While this relationship was not statistically significant in the composites that included all of the days in the event, the evolution composites indicated statistically significant differences in PW between the Tmax and Tmin events, and the composites that removed the overlapping events showed a greater distinction in moisture between the two types.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 86%

History of Pacific Northwest Heat Waves: Synoptic Pattern and Trends

Bumbaco

Dello

Bond

2013

Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology

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A historical record of Pacific Northwest (defined here as west of the Cascade Mountains in Washington and Oregon) heat waves is identified using the U.S. Historical Climate Network, version 2, daily data (1901–2009). Both daytime and nighttime events are examined, defining a heat wave as three consecutive days above the 99th percentile for the maximum and minimum temperature anomalies separately. Although the synoptic characteristics of the daytime and nighttime heat events are similar, they do indicate some differences between the two types of events. Most notable is a stronger influence of downslope warming over the Cascade Mountains for the daytime events versus a more important role of precipitable water content for the nighttime events, presumably through its impact on downward longwave radiative fluxes. Current research suggests that the frequency and duration of heat waves are expected to increase in much of the United States, and analysis of the heat events reveals that a significant, increasing trend in the frequency of the nighttime events is already occurring in the Pacific Northwest. A heat wave occurred in 2009 that set all-time-record maximum temperatures in many locations and ranked as the second strongest daytime event and the longest nighttime event in the record.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 86%

History of Pacific Northwest Heat Waves: Synoptic Pattern and Trends

Bumbaco

Dello

Bond

2013

Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology

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“…It presents an exponential function relationship, which was consistent with previous studies. 19 The T sky in the atmospheric window (i.e., SRF 2) mainly ranges from 165 to 290 K, whereas that covering 6.3 μm water vapor absorption bands (i.e., SRF 1) ranges from 210 to 290 K. This indicated that a larger dynamic range (i.e., 165 to 290 K) is required for T sky measurements if the thermometers or infrared radiometers operate in atmospheric window bands. In contrast, it is required to cover 170 to 280 K if the radiometer works in a wider spectral range, which includes water vapor and ozone absorption bands.…”

Section: Pwv Retrieval Algorithm By Neural Network Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…18 Mims proposed a simple method for PWV estimation from the zenith clear sky brightness temperature (T sky ) by a handheld infrared thermometer. 19 Their results showed that the T sky is related to the GPS PWV. The exponential function was used to convert T sky to PWV, the RMSE of PWV estimation is ∼4.0 mm.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…In contrast, infrared thermometers and infrared radiometers have the advantages of small volume and low cost, and are convenient to carry, which provides a possible way for low-cost PWV sounding. 18,19 At present, a number of studies have been carried out to estimate PWV using ground-based infrared observations. Maghrabi and Clay used the clear sky temperature obtained by an IR radiometer observation and air temperature to estimate PWV.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Sensitivity analyses of precipitable water vapor retrieval from the ground-based infrared measurements in clear sky conditions

Zhou

Liu

Zhang

et al. 2019

J. Appl. Rem. Sens.

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Feasibility of precipitable water vapor (PWV) retrieval from the ground-based infrared measurements in clear sky conditions was performed based on the radiative transfer simulation and retrieval experiments. The effects of aerosol, view zenith angle, and instrument spectral response function (SRF) on clear-sky infrared brightness temperature (T sky) were analyzed. The results showed that atmospheric aerosol and SRF have obvious influence on T sky measurements and PWV retrievals. The relationship between T sky and PWV under low aerosol loading conditions is better than that of high aerosol loading conditions. Aerosol information is necessary for the inversion of high-precision PWV using a single-angle T sky measurement. T sky at the infrared atmospheric window (i.e., 10 to 12 μm) has a better exponential relationship with PWV than that covers 6.3 μm water vapor and 9.6 μm ozone absorption bands. Furthermore, a neural network (NN)-based PWV retrieval algorithm was proposed using dual-angle T sky measurements and near-surface air temperature (T air). The results showed that the introduction of multiangle T sky can effectively reduce the influence of aerosol on PWV retrieval and improve the PWV retrieval accuracy. The determination coefficient, root-mean-square error, and bias of the NN model using dual-angle T sky (i.e., 0 deg and 30 deg) and T air were 0.989, 0.191, and 0.002 cm, respectively. © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.

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“…Although TPW can be obtained from infrared measurements on satellite platforms such as GOES-R (Schmit et al, 2018(Schmit et al, , 2017, potentially large observation angles can result in degraded spatial resolution, and may not provide adequate information for numerical weather prediction models to take into account local variations in TPW. Building upon a method using low-cost materials to determine TPW based on infrared temperature measurements of the zenith sky (Mims et al, 2011), we examined whether similar tech-1 https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2021-130 Preprint. Discussion started: 20 May 2021 c Author(s) 2021.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Atmospheric Precipitable Water and its Correlation with Clear Sky Infrared Temperature Observations

Kelsey

Riley

Minschwaner

2021

Preprint

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Abstract. Total precipitable water (TPW) in the atmosphere is the vertically integrated amount of atmospheric water in all of its phases. TPW is a valuable predictor for weather forecasting, and it is routinely measured using radiosondes, ground-based global positioning systems (GPS), sun photometers, or microwave radiometers. The use of these sophisticated instruments limits the number of TPW measurement sites, which affects the accuracy of forecast models in regards to storm formation, strength, and the potential for precipitation. We have analyzed this relationship for the much drier climate zone found in the Desert Southwest, specifically over Socorro, New Mexico (34° N, 107° W). Daily measurements of the ground and zenith sky temperatures have been made at Socorro for two complete annual cycles using infrared thermal sensors. Radiosonde TPW measurements from National Weather Service stations located in nearby Albuquerque, and Santa Theresa, New Mexico, are input into our dataset and analysed via a newly developed computational tool. Our results show that an exponential relationship between TPW and zenith sky temperature also holds for the Desert Southwest, but with parameters that are different than those obtained for the Gulf Coast. Model simulations can accurately reproduce the observed relationship between TPW and temperature, and the results suggest that half of the signal in temperature is directly related to direct changes in opacity due to changes in TPW, while the other half is due to changes in air temperature that usually accompany changes in TPW.

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Measuring Total Column Water Vapor by Pointing an Infrared Thermometer at the Sky

Cited by 12 publications

References 23 publications

History of Pacific Northwest Heat Waves: Synoptic Pattern and Trends

History of Pacific Northwest Heat Waves: Synoptic Pattern and Trends

Sensitivity analyses of precipitable water vapor retrieval from the ground-based infrared measurements in clear sky conditions

Atmospheric Precipitable Water and its Correlation with Clear Sky Infrared Temperature Observations

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