All-Weather Retrieval of Total Column Water Vapor From Aura OMI Visible Observations

Total column water vapor (TCWV), retrieved from satellite remotely sensed measurements, plays a critically important role in monitoring Earth's weather and climate. The ozone monitoring instrument (OMI) can obtain daily near-global TCWV observations using the visible spectra. The observat...

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Main Authors: Jiafei Xu, Zhizhao Liu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2025-01-01
Series:IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing
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Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10816453/
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author Jiafei Xu
Zhizhao Liu
author_facet Jiafei Xu
Zhizhao Liu
author_sort Jiafei Xu
collection DOAJ
description Total column water vapor (TCWV), retrieved from satellite remotely sensed measurements, plays a critically important role in monitoring Earth's weather and climate. The ozone monitoring instrument (OMI) can obtain daily near-global TCWV observations using the visible spectra. The observational accuracy of OMI-estimated TCWV under cloudy-sky conditions is much poorer than OMI-measured clear-sky TCWV. Satellite-based OMI-derived TCWV data, observed with little cloud contamination, are solely used, which, in general, are limited and discontinuous observations. We propose a practical machine learning-based TCWV retrieval algorithm to derive TCWV over land from OMI visible observations under all weather conditions, considering multiple dependable factors linked with OMI TCWV and air mass factor. The global TCWV data, observed from 6000 global navigation satellite system (GNSS)-based training stations in 2017, are utilized as the expected TCWV estimates in the algorithm training process. The retrieval approach is validated in 2018–2020 across the world using ground-based TCWV from additional 4,465 GNSS-based verification stations and 783 radiosonde-based verification stations. The newly retrieved TCWV estimates remarkably outperform operational OMI-retrieved water vapor data, regardless of cloud fraction and TCWV levels. In terms of root-mean-square error, it is overall reduced by 90.44% from 56.38 to 5.39 mm and 90.19% from 53.23 to 5.22 mm compared with GNSS and radiosonde TCWV, respectively. The retrieval algorithm stays stable, both temporally and spatially. This research provides a valuable technique to precisely retrieve OMI-based TCWV data records under all weather conditions, which could be applicable to other satellite-borne visible sensors like GOME-2, SCIAMACHY, and TROPOMI.
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spelling doaj-art-f46b9233f6c2488fac05159ae3454dce2025-01-21T00:00:25ZengIEEEIEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing1939-14042151-15352025-01-01183057307010.1109/JSTARS.2024.352304810816453All-Weather Retrieval of Total Column Water Vapor From Aura OMI Visible ObservationsJiafei Xu0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7500-870XZhizhao Liu1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6822-9248Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong KongDepartment of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong KongTotal column water vapor (TCWV), retrieved from satellite remotely sensed measurements, plays a critically important role in monitoring Earth's weather and climate. The ozone monitoring instrument (OMI) can obtain daily near-global TCWV observations using the visible spectra. The observational accuracy of OMI-estimated TCWV under cloudy-sky conditions is much poorer than OMI-measured clear-sky TCWV. Satellite-based OMI-derived TCWV data, observed with little cloud contamination, are solely used, which, in general, are limited and discontinuous observations. We propose a practical machine learning-based TCWV retrieval algorithm to derive TCWV over land from OMI visible observations under all weather conditions, considering multiple dependable factors linked with OMI TCWV and air mass factor. The global TCWV data, observed from 6000 global navigation satellite system (GNSS)-based training stations in 2017, are utilized as the expected TCWV estimates in the algorithm training process. The retrieval approach is validated in 2018–2020 across the world using ground-based TCWV from additional 4,465 GNSS-based verification stations and 783 radiosonde-based verification stations. The newly retrieved TCWV estimates remarkably outperform operational OMI-retrieved water vapor data, regardless of cloud fraction and TCWV levels. In terms of root-mean-square error, it is overall reduced by 90.44% from 56.38 to 5.39 mm and 90.19% from 53.23 to 5.22 mm compared with GNSS and radiosonde TCWV, respectively. The retrieval algorithm stays stable, both temporally and spatially. This research provides a valuable technique to precisely retrieve OMI-based TCWV data records under all weather conditions, which could be applicable to other satellite-borne visible sensors like GOME-2, SCIAMACHY, and TROPOMI.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10816453/Global navigation satellite system (GNSS)machine learningozone monitoring instrument (OMI)radiosonderetrievaltotal column water vapor
spellingShingle Jiafei Xu
Zhizhao Liu
All-Weather Retrieval of Total Column Water Vapor From Aura OMI Visible Observations
IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing
Global navigation satellite system (GNSS)
machine learning
ozone monitoring instrument (OMI)
radiosonde
retrieval
total column water vapor
title All-Weather Retrieval of Total Column Water Vapor From Aura OMI Visible Observations
title_full All-Weather Retrieval of Total Column Water Vapor From Aura OMI Visible Observations
title_fullStr All-Weather Retrieval of Total Column Water Vapor From Aura OMI Visible Observations
title_full_unstemmed All-Weather Retrieval of Total Column Water Vapor From Aura OMI Visible Observations
title_short All-Weather Retrieval of Total Column Water Vapor From Aura OMI Visible Observations
title_sort all weather retrieval of total column water vapor from aura omi visible observations
topic Global navigation satellite system (GNSS)
machine learning
ozone monitoring instrument (OMI)
radiosonde
retrieval
total column water vapor
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10816453/
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