An upper tropospheric and stratospheric water vapor data set produced by combining records from multiple satellite platforms

Vertical profiles of humidity from the upper troposphere to stratosphere have been retrieved from several different limb sounding and solar occultation satellite instruments since the 1980’s. Instruments retrieving water vapor include the SAGE and POAM instruments, UARS MLS, UARS HALOE, and more recently, ACE-FTS and Aura MLS. Here, we present ongoing work aimed at combining these measurements into a geographically gridded data set that can be used for quantifying variability and long-term changes in water vapor, and also for assessing the radiative impact of changes in upper tropospheric and stratospheric humidity. At the present time, we have combined the newest V20 HALOE retrieval and the MLS version 2 retrieval and have compared tropical water with that inferred from the newest NCEP reanalysis, the Climate Forecast System Reanalysis. Results from that comparison, comparisons with the Boulder water vapor sonde data set, and discussion of the radiative and climate impact of trends and decadal variability in UTLS water vapor will be presented.