Comparison of ground-based IR spectrometer and radio sounding total column water vapor measurements
A.O. Semenov, Ya.A. Virolainen, Yu.M. Timofeyev, A.V. Poberovsky
Saint Petersburg State University, 1, Ulyanovskaya str., Petrodvorets, St. Petersburg, 198504, Russia
Keywords: water vapor, Fourier spectrometry, radio sounding
Abstract
We compared two datasets of total column water vapor measurements near St. Petersburg (obtained in 2009–2012): ground-based IR spectrometer measurements at Peterhof station and radio sounding measurements at Voeikovo station. Despite a good correlation of daily measurements in Peterhof and Voeikovo, RMS mismatch is significant, reaching 20% or more for most subsets taken for the comparison. Strong mismatch is, mainly, due to the natural spatial variability of total water vapor content, accounting for the 50 km distance between Peterhof and Voeikovo. This variability needs to be considered in validating the satellite measurements of water vapor content by ground-based measurements.
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