An approach for retrieving marine boundary layer refractivity from GPS occultation data in the presence of superrefraction

Abstract The global positioning system (GPS) radio occultation (RO) technique has demonstrated the ability to precisely probe earth’s atmosphere globally with high vertical resolution. However, the lowermost troposphere still presents some challenges for the technique. Over moist marine areas, especially in subtropical regions, a very large negative moisture gradient often exists across the thermal inversion capping the marine boundary layer (MBL), which frequently causes superrefraction (SR), or ducting. In the presence of SR, the reconstruction of refractivity from RO data becomes an ill-posed inverse problem. This study shows that one given RO bending angle profile is consistent with a continuum (an infinite number) of refractivity profiles. The standard Abel retrieval gives the minimum refractivity solution of the continuum and thus produces the largest negative bias, consistent with a negative bias often present in the retrieved refractivity profiles in the moist lower troposphere. By applying a simp...