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A method is presented for deducing lower troposphere moisture fields from radiances measured by the operational polar orbiting NOAA satellites. Statistical evaluation of the technique demonstrates the viability of the approach. A case study with TIROS-N observations shows substantial improvement over current operational methods, and a qualitatively reasonable product. High moisture gradients are clearly defined and horizontal consistency is achieved. The technique appears useful for the initialization of subsynoptic forecast models.
Hayden et al. (1981) studied this question.