Temperature and humidity profiles from a microwave profiler (RPG HATPRO-G3) in Innsbruck (2012-2025)

Abstract

This dataset provides quality-controlled passive microwave radiometer temperature and humidity measurements collected between August 2012 and June 2025. The instrument is installed on the roof of a nine-floor university building in Innsbruck as part of the i-Box project and provides temperature and humidity values at 39 height levels from the height of the instrument up to 10 km.

Dataset Description

1.    Spatial Coverage and Location

The RPG HATPRO-G3 Humidity And Temperature PROfiler (HATPRO), a passive microwave radiometer developed by Radiometer Physics (RPG 2011), is installed on the rooftop of a university building of height 38 m close to the centre of the city of Innsbruck, Austria (612 m above sea level; 47.2643°N, 11.3853°E) as part of the i-Box project (Rotach et al. 2017). The HATPRO measures temperature and humidity at 39 vertical levels, extending up to 10,000 m above the instrument.

2.    Temporal Coverage

The dataset contains HATPRO measurements at 10-minute intervals from 21 August 2012 to 5 June 2025 (ACINN 2025a). Due to frequent instrument breakdowns and maintenance periods, substantial gaps exist, and when all available measurements are summed at 10-minute resolution, the dataset comprises 6.39 years of actual data.

3.    Data Retrieval

Microwave radiometers detect thermal radiation mainly emitted by atmospheric oxygen, water vapour, and liquid water. The measured signal depends on the gases’ distribution and temperature. Because oxygen is uniformly mixed in the troposphere and emissions from water vapour and liquid water are also captured, retrieval algorithms can be used to derive tropospheric profiles (Decker et al. 1978). However, raindrops can distort the signal, making data collected during rainfall unusable (Sheppard 1996; Ware et al. 2004). For this dataset, the retrieval algorithm of Massaro et al. (2015) is applied, offering improvements over the original algorithm provided by the manufacturer.

4.    Quality Flags

An automated quality control procedure was developed for this long-term HATPRO dataset (Scheiber 2025b) to ensure the reliability of temperature and humidity measurements. The main objectives of this QC procedure are to remove unphysical data and filter out measurements affected by rainfall.

Some quality control tests are based on comparisons with a nearby weather station (TAWES Universität Innsbruck) operated by GeoSphere Austria (2025) in cooperation with the Department of Atmospheric and Cryospheric Sciences (ACINN 2025b) that provides a reference dataset close to the surface.

When proximity to the HATPRO instrument is crucial, measurements from the small weather station installed directly on the HATPRO unit are used instead.

Quality flags for temperature and humidity are recorded in binary format and are summarized in Table 1. Each flag applies to all height levels for a given timestep. Overall, 20.9% of temperature measurements and 23.5% of humidity measurements are flagged, with the majority of these cases flagged due to precipitation events. A detailed description of the quality control procedure is provided in Scheiber (2025a).

Table 1: HATPRO data quality flags description.

Flag

Variable

Meaning

0

Temperature and Humidity

Good quality data

1

Temperature and Humidity

Rain flag: data not reliable due to a precipitation event.

2

Temperature

Temperature range flag: retrieved HATPRO temperature outside physically plausible range.

2

Humidity

Humidity range flag: retrieved HATPRO humidity is negative.

4

Temperature

Zigzag flag: “zigzagging” of the HATPRO temperature without the same behaviour in weather station data.

4

Humidity

Pressure flag: HATPRO weather station pressure (used in the humidity retrieval algorithm) differs substantially from the reference weather station.

8

Temperature and Humidity

Level 1 flag: retrieved HATPRO temperature/humidity at Level 1 differs substantially from the reference weather station.

16

Temperature and Humidity

Spike flag: spikes in the HATPRO data.

32

Temperature and Humidity

Unphysical period flag: data shows physically not plausible behaviour over longer periods.

5.    Data File Structure

File format: netCDF.

Data: The netCDF file (HATPRO Innsbruck humidity temperature.nc) contains HATPRO temperature and humidity measurements at each height level with a 10-minute resolution (corresponding to the end of the averaging period) for the entire dataset period, along with the associated quality flags, temperature flag and humidity flag. Timestamps are not continuous; they are only recorded when data for at least one of the two variables is available. In cases where only one variable is measured, the other variable and its corresponding quality flag are set to NaN.

6.    Contact

For questions regarding the HATPRO dataset contact: manuela.lehner|AT|uibk.ac.at.

References

ACINN, 2025a: HATPRO UIBK Met. ACINN Weather Station Portal. https://acinn-data.uibk.ac.at/pages/hatpro-uibk-met.html. Accessed: 19.10.2025.

ACINN, 2025b: TAWES UIBK. ACINN Weather Station Portal. https://acinn-data.uibk.ac.at/pages/tawes-uibk.html. Accessed: 19.10.2025.

Decker, M., E.Westwater, and F. Guiraud, 1978: Experimental Evaluation of Ground-Based Microwave Radiometric Sensing of Atmospheric Temperature and Water Vapor Profiles. Journal of Applied Meteorology, 17 (12), 1788–1795, doi:10.1175/1520-0450(1978)017¡1788:EEOGBM¿2.0.CO;2.

GeoSphere Austria, 2025: GeoSphere Austria data hub. doi: https://doi.org/10.60669/8fya-7x87.

Massaro, G., I. Stiperski, B. Pospichal, and M. W. Rotach, 2015: Accuracy of retrieving temperature and humidity profiles by ground-based microwave radiometry in truly complex terrain. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, 8 (8), 3355–3367, doi:10.5194/amt-8-3355-2015.

Rotach, M. W., et al., 2017: Investigating Exchange Processes over Complex Topography: The Innsbruck Box (i-Box). Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 98 (4), 787–805, doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-15-00246.1.

RPG, 2011: Instrument Operation and Software Guide. Principle or Operation and Software Description for RPG standard single-polarization radiometers. 129 pp.

Scheiber, H., 2025a: Boundary Layer Structures above Innsbruck. Measured by a Passive Microwave Radiometer. University of Innsbruck, Master’s thesis.

Scheiber, H., 2025b: HATPRO Quality Control Script. https://git.uibk.ac.at/c7071114/hatproqualitycontrol.

Sheppard, B. E., 1996: Effect of Rain on Ground-Based Microwave Radiometric Measurements in the 20-90-GHz Range. Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, 13 (6), 1139–1151, doi:10.1175/1520-0426(1996)013<1139:EOROGB>2.0.CO;2.

Ware, R., Cimini, D. P. Herzegh, F. Marzano, J. Vivekanandan, and E. Westwater, 2004: Ground-based microwave radiometer measurements during precipitation. Presented at the 8th Specialist Meeting on Microwave Radiometry, 24-27 Feb 2004, Rome, Italy.

**摘要**
本数据集提供经过质量控制的被动微波辐射计（passive microwave radiometer）温湿度观测数据，采集时段为2012年8月至2025年6月。该仪器作为i-Box项目的组成部分，安装于因斯布鲁克一栋9层高校建筑的楼顶，可在从仪器安装高度至10 km的范围内，提供39个高度层的温湿度观测值。

**数据集描述**
1. 空间覆盖范围与观测位置
RPG HATPRO-G3温湿度廓线仪（Humidity And Temperature PROfiler, HATPRO）是由Radiometer Physics（RPG，2011）研发的被动微波辐射计，作为i-Box项目（Rotach等，2017）的组成部分，安装于奥地利因斯布鲁克市中心附近一栋高38 m的高校建筑楼顶，观测点海拔612 m，坐标为47.2643°N，11.3853°E。该HATPRO仪器可在距仪器安装高度向上延伸至10000 m的范围内，测量39个垂直高度层的温湿度数据。

2. 时间覆盖范围
本数据集包含2012年8月21日至2025年6月5日期间、以10分钟为间隔的HATPRO观测数据（ACINN，2025a）。由于仪器频繁出现故障与维护时段，数据存在大量缺失；若以10分钟分辨率统计所有可用观测数据，本数据集的有效实际时长为6.39年。

3. 数据反演
微波辐射计主要探测大气中氧气、水汽与液态水发射的热辐射，观测信号取决于这些气体的分布与温度。由于氧气在对流层中混合均匀，且仪器可同时捕获水汽与液态水的辐射信号，因此可通过反演算法推导对流层温湿度廓线（Decker等，1978）。但雨滴会对观测信号造成干扰，导致降雨时段采集的数据无法使用（Sheppard，1996；Ware等，2004）。本数据集采用Massaro等（2015）提出的反演算法，相较于仪器厂商提供的原始算法，该算法具有更优的性能。

4. 质量标记
针对本长期HATPRO数据集，研究人员开发了自动化质量控制流程（Scheiber，2025b），以保障温湿度观测数据的可靠性。该质量控制（QC）流程的核心目标为剔除非物理异常数据，并过滤受降雨影响的观测值。
部分质量控制测试基于与附近气象站的对比：该气象站为TAWES因斯布鲁克大学站，由奥地利地球物理空间局（GeoSphere Austria，2025）与大气与冰冻圈科学系（ACINN，2025b）联合运营，可提供近地面的参考观测数据集。当观测数据与HATPRO仪器的位置相关性至关重要时，则采用直接安装在HATPRO主机上的小型气象站的观测数据。
温湿度的质量标记以二进制格式记录，详情见表1。每个标记适用于单个时间步长内的所有高度层数据。总体而言，20.9%的温度观测数据与23.5%的湿度观测数据被标记为异常，其中大部分异常情况由降水事件导致。质量控制流程的详细说明参见Scheiber（2025a）。

表1：HATPRO数据质量标记说明
| 标记值 | 变量类型 | 含义 |
| ---- | ---- | ---- |
| 0 | 温度与湿度 | 数据质量合格 |
| 1 | 温度与湿度 | 降雨标记：因降水事件导致数据不可靠 |
| 2 | 温度 | 温度范围标记：反演得到的HATPRO温度超出物理合理范围 |
| 2 | 湿度 | 湿度范围标记：反演得到的HATPRO湿度为负值 |
| 4 | 温度 | 锯齿状波动标记：HATPRO温度出现锯齿状波动，但参考气象站数据无此异常 |
| 4 | 湿度 | 气压标记：HATPRO内置气象站的气压（用于湿度反演算法）与参考气象站数据存在显著偏差 |
| 8 | 温度与湿度 | 第1层标记：HATPRO第1层反演的温湿度与参考气象站数据存在显著偏差 |
| 16 | 温度与湿度 | 尖峰标记：HATPRO数据存在尖峰异常 |
| 32 | 温度与湿度 | 非物理时段标记：数据在较长时段内表现出不符合物理规律的特征 |

5. 数据文件结构
文件格式：netCDF。
数据内容：本数据集的netCDF文件（HATPRO Innsbruck humidity temperature.nc）包含全时段内各高度层的HATPRO温湿度观测数据，时间分辨率为10分钟（对应平均时段的结束时刻），同时附带关联的质量标记、温度标记与湿度标记。时间戳并非连续记录，仅当两个变量中至少有一个存在有效数据时才会生成对应时间戳。若仅观测到一个变量的数据，则另一个变量及其对应的质量标记将被设为NaN（非数字值）。

6. 联系方式
若对本HATPRO数据集有疑问，请联系：manuela.lehner|AT|uibk.ac.at（注：实际使用时请将|AT|替换为@）。

**参考文献**
ACINN，2025a：HATPRO UIBK气象站门户。https://acinn-data.uibk.ac.at/pages/hatpro-uibk-met.html。访问时间：2025年10月19日。
ACINN，2025b：TAWES UIBK。ACINN气象站门户。https://acinn-data.uibk.ac.at/pages/tawes-uibk.html。访问时间：2025年10月19日。
Decker, M., E. Westwater, F. Guiraud，1978：地基微波辐射遥感大气温度与水汽廓线的实验评估。《应用气象学杂志》，17(12)，1788–1795，doi:10.1175/1520-0450(1978)017<1788:EEOGBM>2.0.CO;2。
GeoSphere Austria，2025：GeoSphere Austria数据中心。doi: https://doi.org/10.60669/8fya-7x87。
Massaro, G., I. Stiperski, B. Pospichal, M. W. Rotach，2015：复杂地形下地基微波辐射计反演温湿度廓线的精度。《大气测量技术》，8(8)，3355–3367，doi:10.5194/amt-8-3355-2015。
Rotach, M. W. 等，2017：复杂地形下的交换过程研究：因斯布鲁克箱（i-Box）。《美国气象学会公报》，98(4)，787–805，doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-15-00246.1。
RPG，2011：仪器操作与软件指南。RPG标准单极化辐射计的工作原理与软件说明。共129页。
Scheiber, H.，2025a：因斯布鲁克上空的边界层结构：基于被动微波辐射计的观测。因斯布鲁克大学硕士学位论文。
Scheiber, H.，2025b：HATPRO质量控制脚本。https://git.uibk.ac.at/c7071114/hatproqualitycontrol。
Sheppard, B. E.，1996：降雨对20-90 GHz频段地基微波辐射观测的影响。《大气与海洋技术杂志》，13(6)，1139–1151，doi:10.1175/1520-0426(1996)013<1139:EOROGB>2.0.CO;2。
Ware, R., D. Cimini, P. Herzegh, F. Marzano, J. Vivekanandan, E. Westwater，2004：降水期间的地基微波辐射计观测。发表于2004年2月24-27日意大利罗马举办的第8届微波辐射学专题会议。