Advancing Earth’s Planetary Boundary Layer Sounding from Space Using Hyperspectral Microwave Measurements

We present a comprehensive Earth Planetary Boundary Layer temperature and water vapor retrieval improvement demonstration by the use of hyperspectral microwave measurements. Our results indicate that the use of a hyperspectral sampling in the oxygen and water vapor sounding lines alone provides significant improvements in the lower and free tropospheric thermodynamic fields (up to 40%), when compared against the program of record (i.e., the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder, ATMS). Our experiments also demonstrate the essential role played by extending the coverage in the so called spectral window regions, leading to an overall PBL temperature and water vapor improvement of up to 50%.