A review of the remote sensing of lower tropospheric thermodynamic profiles and its indispensable role for the understanding and the simulation of water and energy cycles. Authors: Volker Wulfmeyer, R. Michael Hardesty, David D. Turner, Andreas Behrendt, Maria P. Cadeddu, Paolo Di Girolamo, Peter Schlüssel, Joël Van Baelen, Florian Zus
Journal: Review of Geophysics. Publication Date: Online 8/27/15
Important Conclusions: Observations of temperature and humidity profiles in the lowest three kilometers of the troposphere are not uniformly distributed horizontally across the U.S. or in time. This results in huge gaps that limit progress in weather and climate research and operational weather forecasting. Ground-based passive and active remote sensing systems can close these gaps and provide valuable data. NOAA’s National Severe Storms Laboratory is leading the way to evaluate sensor capabilities by testing these tools in field experiments and testbed networks.
Significance: This is a review article on measuring water vapor in the lower troposphere. The article first reviews many applications to understand the level of accuracy and resolution in the water vapor measurements that is needed. It then presents the currently available technologies, outlining their basic approach to measuring water vapor, and detailing the accuracy and resolution of the different technologies.