Jennifer Wei

Multiyear Observations of the Tropical Atlantic Atmosphere: Multidisciplinary Applications of the NOAA Aerosols and Ocean Science Expeditions

This paper gives an overview of a unique set of ship-based atmospheric data acquired over the tropical Atlantic Ocean during boreal spring and summer as part of ongoing National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Aerosols and Ocean Science Expedition (AEROSE) field campaigns. Following the original 2004 campaign onboard the Ronald H. Brown, AEROSE has operated on a yearly basis since 2006 in collaboration with the NOAA Prediction and Research Moored Array in the Tropical Atlantic (PIRATA) Northeast Extension (PNE). In this work, attention is given to atmospheric soundings of ozone, temperature, water vapor, pressure, and wind obtained from ozonesondes and radiosondes launched to coincide with low earth orbit environmental satellite overpasses [MetOp and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) A-Train]. Data from the PNE/ AEROSE campaigns are unique in their range of marine meteorological phenomena germane to the satellite missions in question, including dust and smoke outflows ...

Seven Years' Observation of Mid-Upper Tropospheric Methane from Atmospheric Infrared Sounder

NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, USA; E-Mail: Thomas.s.pagano@jpl.nasa.gov * Author to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mail: Xiaozhen.xiong@noaa.gov; Tel.: +1-301-316-5020; Fax: +1-301-238-2398. Received: 20 September 2010; in revised form: 28 October 2010 / Accepted: 5 November 2010 / Published: 9 November 2010 Abstract: The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) on EOS/Aqua platform provides a measurement of global methane (CH

Ozone Profile Retrieval from an Advanced Infrared Sounder: Experiments with Tropopause-Based Climatology and Optimal Estimation Approach

Abstract Motivated by a significant potential for retrieving atmospheric ozone profile information from advanced satellite infrared sounders, this study investigates various methods to optimize ozone retrievals. A set of retrieval experiments has been performed to assess the impact of different background states (or the a priori states) and retrieval algorithms on the retrieved ozone profiles in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) using Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) measurements. A new tropopause-based ozone climatology, using publicly available global ozonesonde data to construct the a priori state, is described. Comparisons are made with the AIRS version 5 (v5) ozone climatology. The authors also present the result of a newly implemented optimal estimation (OE) algorithm and compare it to the current AIRS science team (AST) algorithm used in version 5. The ozone climatology using tropopause-referenced coordinates better preserves the shape and the magnitude of the ozone gradient ac...

Alternative cloud clearing methodologies for the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS)

Traditional cloud clearing methods utilize a clear estimate of the atmosphere inferred from a microwave sounder to extrapolate cloud cleared radiances (CCRs) from a spatial interpolation of multiple cloudy infrared footprints. Unfortunately, sounders have low information content in the lower atmosphere due to broad weighting functions, interference from surface radiance and the microwave radiances can also suffer from uncorrected side-lobe contamination. Therefore, scenes with low altitude clouds can produce errant CCRs that, in-turn, produce errant sounding products. Radiances computed from the corrupted products can agree with the measurements within the error budget making detection and removal of the errant scenes impractical; typically, a large volume of high quality retrievals are rejected in order to remove a few errant scenes. In this paper we compare and contrast the yield and accuracy of the traditional approach with alternative methods of obtaining CCRs. The goal of this research is three-fold: (1) to have a viable approach if the microwave instruments fail on the EOS-AQUA platform; (2) to improve the accuracy and reliability of infrared products derived from CCRs; and (3) to investigate infrared approaches for geosynchronous platforms where microwave sounding is difficult. The methods discussed are (a) use of assimilation products, (b) use of a statistical regression trained on cloudy radiances, (c) an infrared multi-spectral approach exploiting the non-linearity of the Planck function, and (d) use of clear MODIS measurements in the AIRS sub-pixel space. These approaches can be used independently of the microwave measurements; however, they also enhance the traditional approach in the context of quality control, increased spatial resolution, and increased information content.

Validation of Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) temperature, water vapor, and ozone retrievals with matched radiosonde and ozonesonde measurements and forecasts

An evaluation of the temperature, water vapor, and ozone profile retrievals from the AIRS data is performed with more than three years of collocated radiosondes (RAOBs) and ozonesonde (O3SND) measurements. The Aqua-AIRS version 4.0 retrievals, global RAOB and O3SND measurements, forecast data from the NCEP_GFS, ECMWF, and the NOAA- 16 ATOVS retrievals are used in this validation and relative performance assessment. The results of the inter-comparison of AIRS temperature, water vapor and ozone retrievals reveal very good agreement with the measurements from RAOBs and O3SND s. The temperature RMS difference is close to the expected product goal accuracies, viz. 1oK in 1 km layers for the temperature and close to 15% in 2-km layers for the water vapor in the troposphere. The AIRS temperature retrieval bias is a little larger than the biases shown by the ATOVS, NCEP_GFS, and ECMWF forecasts. With respect to the ozone profile retrieval, the retrieval bias and RMS difference with O3SNDs is less than 5% and 20% respectively for the stratosphere. The total ozone from the AIRS retrievals matches very well with the Dobson/Brewer station measurements with a bias less than 2%. Overall, the analysis performed in this paper show a remarkable degree of confidence in the AIRS retrievals.

Intercomparison of AIRS Ozone Profiles and Total Ozone Retrievals with Matched Ozonesonde Measurements and ECMWF Forecast Data

An evaluation of the ozone profiles and the total ozone retrievals from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder data is performed using matched World Ozone and Ultraviolet Radiation Data Center global ozonesonde profiles and total ozone measurements.