D. Lubin et al., SPECTRAL LONGWAVE EMISSION IN THE TROPICS - FTIR MEASUREMENT AT THE SEA-SURFACE AND COMPARISON WITH FAST RADIATION CODES, Journal of climate, 8(2), 1995, pp. 286-295
Longwave emission by the tropical western Pacific atmosphere has been
measured at the ocean surface by a Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) s
pectroradiometer deployed aboard the research vessel John Vickers as p
art of the Central Equatorial Pacific Experiment. The instrument opera
ted throughout a Pacific Ocean crossing, beginning on 7 March 1993 in
Honiara, Solomon Islands, and ending on 29 March 1993 in Los Angeles,
and recorded longwave emission spectra under atmospheres associated wi
th sea surface temperatures ranging from 291.0 to 302.8 K. Precipitabl
e water vapor abundances ranged from 1.9 to 5.5 column centimeters. Me
asured emission spectra (downwelling zenith radiance) covered the midd
le infrared (5-20 mu m) with one inverse centimeter spectral resolutio
n. FTIR measurements made under an entirely clear field of view are co
mpared with spectra generated by LOWTRAN 7 and MODTRAN 2, as well as d
ownwelling flux calculated by the NCAR Community Climate Model (CCM-2)
radiation code, using radiosonde profiles as input data for these cal
culations. In the spectral interval 800-1000 cm(-1), these comparisons
show a discrepancy between FTIR data and MODTRAN 2 having an overall
variability of 6-7 mW m(-2) sr(-1) cm and a concave shape that may be
related to the representation of water vapor continuum emission in MOD
TRAN 2. Another discrepancy appears in the spectral interval 1200-1300
cm(-1), where MODTRAN 2 appears to overestimate zenith radiance by 5
mW m(-2) sr(-1) cm. These discrepancies appear consistently; however,
they become only slightly larger at the highest water vapor abundances
. Because these radiance discrepancies correspond to broadband (500-20
00 cm(-1)) flux uncertainties of around 3 W m(-2), there appear to be
no serious inadequacies with the performance of MODTRAN 2 or LOWTRAN 7
at high atmospheric temperatures and water vapor abundances. On avera
ge, CCM-2 flux calculations agree to within 1 W m(-2) with downwelling
flux estimates from the FTIR data over all sea surface temperatures,
although this result has a scatter of +/-12 W m(-2) at high sea surfac
e temperatures.