Atmospheric soundings using the Vaisala RS92 radiosonde were intensively conducted during the field experiment MISMO (Mirai Indian Ocean cruise for the Study of the MJO-convection Onset) in the central and eastern equatorial Indian Ocean from October to December 2006. By comparing the RS92 relative humidity data with that from the Meteolabor Snow White (SW) chilled-mirror dew/frost-point hygrometers launched on the same ship around the local noon time, the dry bias was found to increase significantly with height. In addition, it was also revealed that the dry bias had a clear diurnal variation with its maximum at local noon and near-zero at night from the comparison of precipitable water vapor (PWV) with that derived from the shipboard Global Positioning System (GPS) data. Therefore, the dry bias of the RS92 data could be attributed to a solar radiation-induced error that was recently discussed by Vömel et al. (2007).
In this study, we developed a correction scheme for the MISMO RS92 humidity data as a function of pressure and local time using SW data, and then confirmed its validity with GPS-derived PWV.