The development of a new 22 GHz microwave spectrometer for monitoring middle atmospheric water vapour at polar latitudes

Abstract

Water vapour is a crucial element of the climate system. Accurate observations of stratospheric humidity are needed in the equatorial belt, where water vapour crosses the tropopause, and in the Polar regions, that are affected the most by climate change trends [IPCC, 2007; Solomon et al., 2010]. Satellite-based observations provide atmospheric composition data with extensive spatial and temporal coverage, but these need to be validated and integrated by ground-based networks like GAW and NDACC Changes in middle atmospheric water vapour on time scales longer than the a satellite mission have been successfully observed by ground-based instruments [Nedoluha et al., 2009]. Several ground-based spectrometers have been developed in the last decades to detect the water vapour rotational emission line at 22.235 GHz with heterodyne microwave receivers [e.g., Nedoluha et al., 2009; Straub et al., 2011, Forkman et al., 2003, De Wachter et al., 2011] (see map on the left). The proposed sites for long-term installation of the new spectrometer are Concordia Station, Antarctica (3233 m asl 75.10°S, 123.3°E, NDACC site) or Thule Air Base, Greenland (76.5°N, 68.8°W; NDACC site) for polar monitoring, or Mount Chacaltaya, Bolivia (5.320 m asl, 16.2ºS, 68.1ºW, GAW site) for tropical observations.