A-Train Observations of Atmospheric Water Vapor and Temperature within Cloud Classes

Instruments in the A-Train satellite constellation are providing a detailed record of climate and climate processes. Here we classify AIRS fields-of-view by the dominant CloudSat-defined cloud classes, for those scenes where the two instruments are collocated. The resulting AIRS sampling rates, along with summaries of temperature and water vapor, show large differences between cloud classes. These differences illustrate varied physical processes, and have important implications about our ability to observe from space the moist thermodynamics of some important cloud types.