Enhanced positive water vapor feedback associated with tropical deep convection: New evidence from Aura MLS

Abstract

Recent simultaneous observations of upper tropospheric (UT) water vapor and cloud ice from the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) on the Aura satellite provide new evidence for tropical convective influence on UT water vapor and its associated greenhouse effect. The observations show that UT water vapor increases as cloud ice water content increases. They also show that, when sea surface temperature (SST) exceeds ∼300 K, UT cloud ice associated with tropical deep convection increases sharply with increasing SST. The moistening of the upper troposphere by deep convection leads to an enhanced positive water vapor feedback, about 3 times that implied solely by thermodynamics. Over tropical oceans when SST greater than ∼300 K, the ‘convective UT water vapor feedback’ inferred from the MLS observations contributes approximately 65% of the sensitivity of the clear‐sky greenhouse parameter to SST.