Review of tropospheric temperature, absolute humidity and integrated water vapour from the HAMSTRAD radiometer installed at Dome C, Antarctica, 2009-14

Abstract

The HAMSTRAD (H2O Antarctica Microwave Stratospheric and Tropospheric Radiometers) instrument is a microwave radiometer installed at Dome C (Antarctica, 75°06'S, 123°21'E, 3233 m a.m.s.l.) dedicated to the tropospheric measurements of temperature, absolute humidity and integrated water vapour (IWV). The aim of the present paper is to review the entire HAMSTRAD dataset from 2009 to 2014 with a 7-minute integration time from 0 to 10 km by comparison with coincident radiosondes launched at 12h00 UTC at Dome C. Based upon an extensive evaluation of biases and time correlation coefficients (r), we can state: i) IWV is of excellent quality (r>0.98) and can be used without retrieving significant bias, ii) temperature is suitable for scientific analyses over 0-10 km with a high time correlation with radiosondes (r>0.80) and iii) absolute humidity is suitable for scientific analyses over 0-4 km with a moderate time correlation against radiosondes (r>0.70). The vertical distribution of temperature (0-10 km) and absolute humidity (0-4 km) is subject to biases that need to be removed if the analyses require the use of vertical profiling. The HAMSTRAD dataset is provided in open access to the scientific community.