Global ECMWF Analysis Data for Estimating the Water Vapor Content Between Two LEO Satellites Through NDSA Measurements

The normalized differential spectral attenuation (NDSA) approach was proposed years ago as an effective way to estimate the integrated water vapor (IWV) along a tropospheric propagation path between two low Earth orbit satellites. Two applications are possible: the retrieval of vertical profiles of WV if the sense of rotation is opposite and the retrieval of 2-D fields of WV over vertical tropospheric sections if the sense is the same. The method relies on the measurement of the so-called spectral sensitivity S at given frequencies, and on IWV-S relationships that convert S into an estimate of IWV along the radio link where S is measured. In this paper, we recompute the IWV-S relationships using synthetic atmospheres generated by means of European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) analysis data instead of radiosonde profiles as done by ourselves in the past. Thanks to the uniform spatial distribution of the ECMWF data on a global Earth scale, we were able to validate the IWV-S relationships in the Ku/K band previously found through synthetic atmospheres generated by means of the aforementioned irregularly spaced radiosonde data, and to define the IWV-S relationships at 179 and 181 GHz that are exploitable in the upper troposphere. Since the ECMWF data also include information about the liquid water (LW) content, we then show that an additional S channel at 32 GHz can be exploited to detect and correct the bias induced by LW on IWV estimates made by applying the NDSA in the Ku/K band.