Toward a long-term homogenized UTH data set derived from satellite microwave measurements

Abstract

This article presents some ideas and issues related to the creation of a long-term upper tropospheric humidity (UTH) data set using satellite based microwave measurements. Polar orbiting satellites have been measuring UTH for more than a decade now. There are three microwave instruments which can measure UTH from Space: Special Sensor Microwave/Temperature-2 (SSM/T2), Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-B (AMSU-B), and Microwave Humidity Sounder (MHS). These instruments have channels at 183.31±1.00 GHz which are sensitive to UTH. Retrieval of UTH and cloud issues are discussed in detail. Advantage of microwave measurements of UTH over infrared measurements are demonstrated. Preliminary results on the inter-calibration of these instruments are also shown.