Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics www.atmos-chem-phys.net 1680-7316 1680-7324 8 12 2008 10.5194/acp-8-3169-2008 http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/8/3169/2008/ http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/8/3169/2008/acp-8-3169-2008.html http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/8/3169/2008/acp-8-3169-2008.pdf 3169 3183 2008-06-24 Validation of stratospheric water vapour measurements from the airborne microwave radiometer AMSOS S. C. Müller stefan.mueller@mw.iap.unibe.ch N. Kämpfer D. G. Feist A. Haefele M. Milz N. Sitnikov C. Schiller C. Kiemle J. Urban University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland Max-Planck-Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany Institut für Meteorologie und Klimaforschung, Karlsruhe, Germany Central Aerological Observatory, Moscow Region, Russia Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Jülich, Germany DLR, Institut fuer Physik der Atmosphaere, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, Sweden now at: Luleå Technical University, Kiruna, Sweden We present the validation of a water vapour dataset obtained by the Airborne Microwave Stratospheric Observing System AMSOS, a passive microwave radiometer operating at 183 GHz. Vertical profiles are retrieved from spectra by an optimal estimation method. The useful vertical range lies in the upper troposphere up to the mesosphere with an altitude resolution of 8 to 16 km and a horizontal resolution of about 57 km. 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