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http://dx.doi.org/10.7780/kjrs.2008.24.4.309

Estimation of Total Precipitable Water from MODIS Infrared Measurements over East Asia  

Park, Ho-Sun (ROKAF 73rd Weather Group)
Sohn, Byung-Ju (School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Seoul National University)
Chung, Eui-Seok (School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Seoul National University)
Publication Information
Korean Journal of Remote Sensing / v.24, no.4, 2008 , pp. 309-324 More about this Journal
Abstract
In this study the retrieval algorithms have been developed to retrieve total precipitable water (TPW) from Terra/Aqua Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) infrared measurements using a physical iterative retrieval method and a split-window technique over East Asia. Retrieved results from these algorithms were validated against Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) over ocean and radiosonde observation over land and were analyzed for investigating the key factors affecting the accuracy of results and physical processes of retrieval methods. Atmospheric profiles from Regional Data Assimilation and Prediction System (RDAPS), which produces analysis and prediction field of atmospheric variables over East Asia, were used as first-guess profiles for the physical retrieval algorithm. We used RTTOV-7 radiative transfer model to calculate the upwelling radiance at the top of the atmosphere. For the split-window technique, regression coefficients were obtained by relating the calculated brightness temperature to the paired radiosonde-estimated TPW. Physically retrieved TPWs were validated against SSM/I and radiosonde observations for 14 cases in August and December 2004 and results showed that the physical method improves the accuracy of TPW with smaller bias in comparison to TPWs of RDAPS data, MODIS products, and TPWs from split-window technique. Although physical iterative retrieval can reduce the bias of first-guess profiles and bring in more accurate TPWs, the retrieved results show the dependency upon initial guess fields. It is thought that the dependency is due to the fact that the water vapor absorption channels used in this study may not reflect moisture features in particular near surface.
Keywords
Total Precipitable Water (TPW); MODIS; infrared measurements; physical iterative method; split-window technique;
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