The Pacific Subtropical Cloud Transition: A MAGIC Assessment of AIRS and ECMWF Thermodynamic Structure

We use radiosonde data from the ship-based Marine ARM GPCI Investigation of Clouds (MAGIC) campaign in the northeast Pacific to validate temperature and moisture profiles from the satellite-based Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument and from European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) ERA-Interim reanalysis data. We find that AIRS and ECMWF rms errors and biases are largest near the boundary layer inversion. In the mean vertical profile over the entire MAGIC track, the largest AIRS biases for T and q are 0.4 K and -0.6 g kg^-1 at 516 hPa and 866 hPa, respectively. We also find that AIRS and ECMWF slightly underestimate the boundary layer height in the region.