Water vapour and cloud liquid water effective profiles retrievals over sea using TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI)

A numerical monochromatic polarized plane-parallel radiative transfer code over sea has been developed for a non-scattering atmosphere in local thermodynamical equilibrium. In present work a non-linear inversion technique has been applied, based on the Levenberg-Marquardt Method, to a TMI late summer scene over the South of Mediterranean Sea. Temperature, water vapour and cloud liquid water atmospheric profiles have been retrieved over a wind-roughened sea surface. Eventually, integrated water vapour and cloud liquid water content have been estimated. A quasi-contemporary SSM/I acquisition over the same region has been utilized to derive integrated water vapour and cloud liquid water burden, using a statistical well-known algorithm. The TMI and SSM/I derived estimates are then compared for the selected scene.