Potential of dual-frequency radar and microwave radiometer synergy for water vapor profiling in the cloudy trade wind environment

Abstract

High-resolution boundary layer water vapor profile observations are essential for understanding the inter-play between shallow convection, cloudiness, and climate in the trade wind atmosphere. As current observation techniques can be limited by low spatial or temporal resolution, the synergistic benefit of combining ground-based microwave radi-ometer (MWR) and dual-frequency radar is investigated by analyzing the retrieval information content and uncertainty. Synthetic MWR brightness temperatures, as well as simulated dual-wavelength ratios of two radar frequencies are gen-erated for a combination of Ka and W band (KaW), as well as differential absorption radar (DAR) G-band frequencies (167 and 174.8 GHz, G2). The synergy analysis is based on an optimal estimation scheme by varying the configuration of the observation vector. Combining MWR and KaW only marginally increases the retrieval information content. The synergy of MWR with G2 radar is more beneficial due to increasing degrees of freedom (4.5), decreasing retrieval errors, and a more realistic retrieved profile within the cloud layer. The information and profile below and within the cloud is driven by the radar observations, whereas the synergistic benefit is largest above the cloud layer, where information content is enhanced compared to an MWR-only or DAR-only setup. For full synergistic benefits, however, G-band radar sensitivities need to allow full-cloud profiling; in this case, the results suggest that a combined retrieval of MWR and G-band DAR can help close the observational gap of current techniques.