A Study of Variability in Tropical Tropospheric Water Vapor
Abstract
Water vapor plays a significant role in climate forcing, but is challenging to characterize due to variability on short spatial and temporal scales. The recent Costa Rica Aura Validation Experiment (CR-AVE) and Ticosonde/CR-AVE 2006 Project characterized water vapor, temperature, and ozone (among other species) in the tropical troposphere and lower stratosphere over Costa Rica and the Eastern Pacific Ocean in the January- February timeframe. We will analyze the variability of water vapor in the tropical troposphere from these new observations, as well as A-Train satellite water retrievals. Measurements are provided by the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) on the EOS Aura platform, ozonesondes and hygrometers launched during Ticosonde, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Laser Hygrometer (JLH) on the NASA WB-57F high- altitude research aircraft. The statistical distribution of tropical tropospheric water vapor will also be characterized for the northern winter season.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2006
- Bibcode:
- 2006AGUFM.A51A0054H
- Keywords:
-
- 0365 Troposphere: composition and chemistry;
- 1616 Climate variability (1635;
- 3305;
- 3309;
- 4215;
- 4513);
- 3305 Climate change and variability (1616;
- 1635;
- 3309;
- 4215;
- 4513);
- 3360 Remote sensing;
- 3374 Tropical meteorology