Reply to the comment on "Uncertainties in the temperature dependence of the line-coupling parameters of the microwave oxygen band: impact study"

For original paper see Boukabara et al., ibid., vol. 43, no. 5, p.1109 (2005) and for comment see Rosenkranz., p. 2160 (2005).The impact study described by Boukabar is, in essence, a theoretical sensitivity analysis of the temperature dependence of the line coupling coefficients in the microwave oxygen absorption band as accounted for in the millimeter-wave propagation model (MPM). The study was driven by emerging highly demanding requirements in terms of accuracy of the brightness temperatures measurements and therefore equally demanding requirements for models that simulate them. The main conclusions of the study are twofold: 1) the need to extend experimental measurements to the lower range of the atmospheric temperatures and 2) that errors due to uncertainties in the temperature dependence, are not necessarily entirely removable by a bias correction. The spectral region, where most of the impact was found, is located at the edge of the absorption band, especially in dry conditions. Rosenkranz commented on the work by Boukabara et al. and they now reply to these comments.