Refractivity and temperature climate records from multiple radio occultation satellites consistent within 0.05%

Data consistency is an important prerequisite to build radio occultation (RO) climatologies based on a combined record of data from different satellites. The presence of multiple RO receiving satellites in orbit over the same time period allows for testing this consistency. We used RO data from CHAMP (CHAllenging Minisatellite Payload for geoscientific research), six FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC satellites (Formosa Satellite Mission 3/Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate, F3C), and GRACE-A (Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment). We show latitude-altitude-resolved results for an example month (October 2007) and the temporal evolution of differences in a climate record of global and monthly means from January 2007 to December 2009. Latitude- and altitude-resolved refractivity and dry temperature climatologies clearly show the influence of different sampling characteristics; monthly mean deviations from the multi-satellite mean over the altitude domain 10 km to 30 km typically reach 0.1% and 0.2 K, respectively. Nevertheless, the 3-yr average deviations (shorter for CHAMP) are less than 0.03% and 0.05 K, respectively. We find no indications for instrument degradation, temporal inhomogeneities in the RO records, or temporal trends in sampling patterns. Based on analysis fields from ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts), we can estimate – and subtract – the sampling error from each monthly climatology. After such subtraction, refractivity deviations are found reduced to <0.05% in almost any month and dry temperature deviations to <0.05 K (<0.02% relative) for almost every satellite and month. 3-yr average deviations are even reduced to <0.01% and <0.01 K (CHAMP: −0.05 K), respectively, establishing an amazing consistency of RO climatologies from different satellites. If applying the same processing scheme for all data, refractivity and dry temperature records from individual satellites with similar bending angle noise can be safely combined up to 30 km altitude (refractivity also up to 35 km) to a consistent single climate record of substantial value for climate monitoring in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere

An assessment of differences in lower stratospheric temperature records from (A)MSU, radiosondes, and GPS radio occultation

Uncertainties for upper-air trend patterns are still substantial. Observations from the radio occultation (RO) technique offer new opportunities to assess the existing observational records there. Long-term time series are available from radiosondes and from the (Advanced) Microwave Sounding Unit (A)MSU. None of them were originally intended to deliver data for climate applications. Demanding intercalibration and homogenization procedures are required to account for changes in instrumentation and observation techniques. In this comparative study three (A)MSU anomaly time series and two homogenized radiosonde records are compared to RO data from the CHAMP, SAC-C, GRACE-A and F3C missions for September 2001 to December 2010. Differences of monthly anomalies are examined to assess the differences in the datasets due to structural uncertainties. The difference of anomalies of the (A)MSU datasets relative to RO shows a statistically significant trend within about (−0.2±0.1) K/10 yr (95% confidence interval) at all latitudes. This signals a systematic deviation of the two datasets over time. The radiosonde network has known deficiencies in its global coverage, with sparse representation of most of the southern hemisphere, the tropics and the oceans. In this study the error that results from sparse sampling is estimated and accounted for by subtracting it from radiosonde and RO datasets. Surprisingly the sampling error correction is also important in the Northern Hemisphere (NH), where the radiosonde network is dense over the continents but does not capture large atmospheric variations in NH winter. Considering the sampling error, the consistency of radiosonde and RO anomalies is improving substantially; the trend in the anomaly differences is generally very small. Regarding (A)MSU, its poor vertical resolution poses another problem by missing important features of the vertical atmospheric structure. This points to the advantage of homogeneously distributed measurements with high vertical resolution

Revisiting the Mystery of Recent Stratospheric Temperature Trends

Simulated stratospheric temperatures over the period 1979–2016 in models from the Chemistry-Climate Model Initiative are compared with recently updated and extended satellite data sets. The multimodel mean global temperature trends over 1979–2005 are -0.88 ± 0.23, -0.70 ± 0.16, and -0.50 ± 0.12 K/decade for the Stratospheric Sounding Unit (SSU) channels 3 (~40–50 km), 2 (~35–45 km), and 1 (~25–35 km), respectively (with 95% confidence intervals). These are within the uncertainty bounds of the observed temperature trends from two reprocessed SSU data sets. In the lower stratosphere, the multimodel mean trend in global temperature for the Microwave Sounding Unit channel 4 (~13–22 km) is -0.25 ± 0.12 K/decade over 1979–2005, consistent with observed estimates from three versions of this satellite record. The models and an extended satellite data set comprised of SSU with the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-A show weaker global stratospheric cooling over 1998–2016 compared to the period of intensive ozone depletion (1979–1997). This is due to the reduction in ozone-induced cooling from the slowdown of ozone trends and the onset of ozone recovery since the late 1990s. In summary, the results show much better consistency between simulated and satellite-observed stratospheric temperature trends than was reported by Thompson et al. (2012, https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11579) for the previous versions of the SSU record and chemistry-climate models. The improved agreement mainly comes from updates to the satellite records; the range of stratospheric temperature trends over 1979–2005 simulated in Chemistry-Climate Model Initiative models is comparable to the previous generation of chemistry-climate models

Observed temperature changes in the troposphere and stratosphere from 1979 to 2018

Temperature observations of the upper-air atmosphere are now available for more than 40 years from both ground- and satellite-based observing systems. Recent years have seen substantial improvements in reducing long-standing discrepancies among datasets through major reprocessing efforts. The advent of radio occultation (RO) observations in 2001 has led to further improvements in vertically resolved temperature measurements, enabling a detailed analysis of upper-troposphere/lower-stratosphere trends. This paper presents the current state of atmospheric temperature trends from the latest available observational records. We analyze observations from merged operational satellite measurements, radiosondes, lidars, and RO, spanning a vertical range from the lower troposphere to the upper stratosphere. The focus is on assessing climate trends and on identifying the degree of consistency among the observational systems. The results show a robust cooling of the stratosphere of about 1–3 K, and a robust warming of the troposphere of about 0.6–0.8 K over the last four decades (1979– 2018). Consistent results are found between the satellite-based layer-average temperatures and vertically resolved radiosonde records. The overall latitude–altitude trend patterns are consistent between RO and radiosonde records. Significant warming of the troposphere is evident in the RO measurements available after 2001, with trends of 0.25–0.35 K per decade. Amplified warming in the tropical upper-troposphere compared to surface trends for 2002–18 is found based on RO and radiosonde records, in approximate agreement with moist adiabatic lapse rate theory. The consistency of trend results from the latest upper-air datasets will help to improve understanding of climate changes and their drivers