Remote Sens. 2010, 2(5), 1320-1330; doi:10.3390/rs2051320
Article

Global Evaluation of Radiosonde Water Vapor Systematic Biases using GPS Radio Occultation from COSMIC and ECMWF Analysis

Shu-peng Ho 1,2,* email, Xinjia Zhou 1 email, Ying-Hwa Kuo 1,2 email, Douglas Hunt 1 email and Jun-hong Wang 2 email
1 University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, P.O. Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307-3000, USA 2 National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, P.O. Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80307-3000, USA
* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Received: 24 February 2010; in revised form: 30 April 2010 / Accepted: 5 May 2010 / Published: 7 May 2010
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and Applications)
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Abstract: In this study, we compare specific humidity profiles derived from Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC) radio occultation (RO) from August to November 2006 with those from different types of radiosonde and from ECMWF global analysis. Comparisons show that COSMIC specific humidity data agree well with ECMWF analysis over different regions of the world for both day and night times. On the contrary, evaluation against COSMIC specific humidity shows a distinct dry bias of Shang-E radiosonde (China) and an obvious wet bias of VIZ-type (USA). No obvious specific humidity biases are found for MRZ (Russia) and MEISEI (Japan) radiosondes. These results demonstrate the usefulness of COSMIC water vapor for quantifying the dry/wet biases among different sensor types.
Keywords: COSMIC; GPS radio occultation; global evaluation of radiosonde water vapor systematic biases; ECMWF analysis

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MDPI and ACS Style

Ho, S.-P.; Zhou, X.; Kuo, Y.-H.; Hunt, D.; Wang, J.-H. Global Evaluation of Radiosonde Water Vapor Systematic Biases using GPS Radio Occultation from COSMIC and ECMWF Analysis. Remote Sens. 2010, 2, 1320-1330.

AMA Style

Ho S-P, Zhou X, Kuo Y-H, Hunt D, Wang J-H. Global Evaluation of Radiosonde Water Vapor Systematic Biases using GPS Radio Occultation from COSMIC and ECMWF Analysis. Remote Sensing. 2010; 2(5):1320-1330.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Ho, Shu-peng; Zhou, Xinjia; Kuo, Ying-Hwa; Hunt, Douglas; Wang, Jun-hong. 2010. "Global Evaluation of Radiosonde Water Vapor Systematic Biases using GPS Radio Occultation from COSMIC and ECMWF Analysis." Remote Sens. 2, no. 5: 1320-1330.

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