Liu, Hailei; Tang, Shihao; Zhang, Shenglan; Hu, Juyang (2015). Evaluation of MODIS water vapour products over China using radiosonde data. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF REMOTE SENSING, 36(2), 680-690.

Abstract
Radiosonde data collected from 83 stations in China from January to December 2012 were used to evaluate Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) near-infrared (NIR) and thermal infrared (IR) total precipitable water vapour (PWV) products. The results indicate that MODIS NIR PWV products shows better agreement with radiosonde data than with IR PWV products, with the correlation coefficients up to 0.95. The root mean square errors (RMSEs) of NIR PWV range from 2 to 8 mm with different stations, which shows significant regional differences over China. The mean RMSE is about 5.03 mm (similar to 35%) with a positive deviation of 2.56 mm (similar to 18%), indicating the occurrence of a slight overestimation. Moreover, MODIS IR PWV during night-time has a better agreement with radiosonde PWV than that during daytime. The mean RMSE of IR PWV during daytime was similar to 6.02 mm (similar to 42%), with a positive deviation of 1.54 mm (similar to 11%). The mean RMSE of IR PWV during night-time was similar to 5.81 mm (similar to 40%), with a negative deviation of approximately -0.04 mm (similar to 0.25%). Both the NIR and IR PWV products during daytime tend to be higher than radiosonde PWV.

DOI:
10.1080/01431161.2014.999884

ISSN:
0143-1161