Profiling of atmospheric water vapor with MIR and SSM/T-2 measurements

Nearly concurrent measurements with the millimeter-wave Imaging Radiometer (MIR) aboard the NASA ER-2 aircraft and the SSM/T-2 aboard the DMSP F-11 satellite have been made in a number of occasions between May 1992 and October 1993. The data from these measurements were used to retrieve water vapor concentrations at five different levels between the surface and 10 km altitude. The retrieved values from both sensors were found to compare well at all five levels. The SSM/T-2 retrieved values were also compared with those estimated from the TOVS at three layers of 1000-700, 700-500, and 500-300 mb. In general, the TOVS-estimated results were found to be smaller than those of SSM/T-2 at all three layers.