Evaluation of ground-based infrared and microwave spectral observations and calculations using six years of ARM data

The U.S. Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program has been collecting an extensive dataset of radiometric and atmospheric state observations for the last decade that can be used to evaluate and improve radiative transfer models. We have performed an extensive comparison of the radiance observations made by the Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (AERI) and microwave radiometer (MWR) at the ARM Southern Great Plains (SGP) site from 2000 through 2005 with calculations from state-of-the-art line-by-line radiative transfer models developed at Atmospheric and Environmental Research Inc. (AER). During a large fraction of this period, there were two AERIs and two MWRs deployed simultaneously at the SGP site, which allow extended instrument intercomparisons to be performed. The size of the dataset allows robust statistics to be determined on the accuracy of the radiometric observations, the input water vapor profiles, and on the accuracy of the radiative transfer models.