Water vapor satellite products in the European Arctic: An inter-comparison against GNSS data.

The European Arctic is a region of high interest for climate change. Water vapor plays a fundamental role in global warming; therefore, high-quality water vapor monitoring is essential for assimilation in forecast simulations. The seven analyzed instruments on-board satellite platforms are: Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), Global Ozone Monitoring Instrument 2 (GOME-2), Moderate-Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI), SCanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Carthography (SCIAMACHY) and Polarization and Directionality of the Earth's Reflectances (POLDER).

Comparison of integrated water vapor from GNSS and radiosounding at four GRUAN stations.

Integrated water vapor (IWV) data from Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) and radiosounding (RS) are compared over four sites (Lindenberg, Ny-Ålesund, Lauder and Sodankylä), which are part of the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) Reference Upper Air Network (GRUAN). Both datasets show an excellent agreement, with a high degree of correlation (R over 0.98).

Validation of integrated water vapor from OMI satellite instrument against reference GPS data at the Iberian Peninsula.

This paper shows the validation of integrated water vapor (IWV) measurements retrieved from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI), using as reference nine ground-based GPS stations in the Iberian Peninsula. The study period covers from 2007 to 2009. The influence of two factors, - solar zenith angle (SZA) and IWV -, on OMI-GPS differences was studied in detail, as well as the seasonal dependence.