Articles | Volume 9, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-1-2016
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-1-2016
Research article
 | 
15 Jan 2016
Research article |  | 15 Jan 2016

Assessment of adequate quality and collocation of reference measurements with space-borne hyperspectral infrared instruments to validate retrievals of temperature and water vapour

X. Calbet

Abstract. A method is presented to assess whether a given reference ground-based point observation, typically a radiosonde measurement, is adequately collocated and sufficiently representative of space-borne hyperspectral infrared instrument measurements. Once this assessment is made, the ground-based data can be used to validate and potentially calibrate, with a high degree of accuracy, the hyperspectral retrievals of temperature and water vapour.

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Short summary
Comparison of satellite based retrieved atmospheric profiles of temperature and water vapor with other, more traditional, ground based measurements, like radiosondes, is not trivial. There are many issues, like collocation, spatial inhomogeneities of the atmospheric parameters or others, that may render the comparison of little use. In this paper a method is presented to asses if the comparison is adequate.