Articles | Volume 9, issue 9
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-4673-2016
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-4673-2016
Research article
 | 
21 Sep 2016
Research article |  | 21 Sep 2016

The Zugspitze radiative closure experiment for quantifying water vapor absorption over the terrestrial and solar infrared – Part 2: Accurate calibration of high spectral-resolution infrared measurements of surface solar radiation

Andreas Reichert, Markus Rettinger, and Ralf Sussmann

Abstract. Quantitative knowledge of water vapor absorption is crucial for accurate climate simulations. An open science question in this context concerns the strength of the water vapor continuum in the near infrared (NIR) at atmospheric temperatures, which is still to be quantified by measurements. This issue can be addressed with radiative closure experiments using solar absorption spectra. However, the spectra used for water vapor continuum quantification have to be radiometrically calibrated. We present for the first time a method that yields sufficient calibration accuracy for NIR water vapor continuum quantification in an atmospheric closure experiment. Our method combines the Langley method with spectral radiance measurements of a high-temperature blackbody calibration source (<  2000 K). The calibration scheme is demonstrated in the spectral range 2500 to 7800 cm−1, but minor modifications to the method enable calibration also throughout the remainder of the NIR spectral range. The resulting uncertainty (2σ) excluding the contribution due to inaccuracies in the extra-atmospheric solar spectrum (ESS) is below 1 % in window regions and up to 1.7 % within absorption bands. The overall radiometric accuracy of the calibration depends on the ESS uncertainty, on which at present no firm consensus has been reached in the NIR. However, as is shown in the companion publication Reichert and Sussmann (2016), ESS uncertainty is only of minor importance for the specific aim of this study, i.e., the quantification of the water vapor continuum in a closure experiment. The calibration uncertainty estimate is substantiated by the investigation of calibration self-consistency, which yields compatible results within the estimated errors for 91.1 % of the 2500 to 7800 cm−1 range. Additionally, a comparison of a set of calibrated spectra to radiative transfer model calculations yields consistent results within the estimated errors for 97.7 % of the spectral range.

Short summary
Quantitative knowledge of infrared absorption by water vapor is crucial for remote sensing and climate simulations. Near-infrared (NIR) continuum absorption currently still lacks quantification by atmospheric measurements but can be investigated with radiative closure experiments using radiometrically calibrated solar spectra. We demonstrate for the first time a calibration method with sufficient accuracy (1.0–1.7 %) for continuum quantification in the 2500 to 7800 cm−1spectral range.