Improving tropospheric and stratospheric moisture analysis with hyperspectral infrared radiances

The accurate analysis of humidity fields on a global scale is essential in numerical weather prediction to forecast extreme weather and for monitoring and predicting climate. Tropospheric humidity is not well observed by the conventional observing system where radiosonde and aircraft based observations still leave large volumes unobserved, particularly over the southern oceans and in the tropics. As a result, use of satellite remote sensing is essential to produce accurate humidity fields. Through use of hyperspectral infrared radiances and a nine month Observing System Experiment (OSE) from 1 March to 30 November 2010, we show results demonstrating considerably improved analysis and short-term forecast humidity fields when verified against radiosonde data. This improvement of analysed moisture fields is potentially an important precursor to improved modeling of moisture fields and, as a result, improved prediction of severe weather, rainfall and cloud cover in a number of circumstances.