Total Column Precipitable Water Research Articles

High Ice Water Content Conditions Associated with Wintertime Elevated Convection in the Midwest

AbstractAircraft flying through areas of high ice water content (HIWC) can experience engine damage and/or failure. HIWC is typically associated with convection and the microphysical properties of tropical oceanic and coastal convection are well documented as a result of several field campaigns in the past decade. HIWC appears to be less common in extratropical convection, but instances of HIWC-related aircraft issues have been recorded in extratropical weather, even during winter. The present study documents the microphysical properties of HIWC between −25° and 0°C and the meteorological and thermodynamic conditions around that HIWC from five flights from the In-Cloud Icing and Large-Drop Experiment (ICICLE) in the midwestern United States in February 2019. All five cases contained elevated convection above a strong low-level temperature inversion. Values for top-of-inversion mixing ratios and total column precipitable water were about 5 g kg−1and 20 mm, respectively, according to soundings near each case. A maximum ice water content of 2.1 g m−3was observed over a length scale of about 500 m, and ice particle size distributions had mean volume equivalent diameters around 1000μm. Supercooled drizzle droplets were also observed in the vicinity of the HIWC, raising questions about the possible role of secondary ice production via the freezing and shattering of supercooled large droplets in HIWC formation. The generalizability of these results is limited by the small number of cases, but they provide some of the first in situ observations of extratropical winter HIWC and highlight the need for continued research on these conditions.Significance StatementHigh ice water content (HIWC) conditions can cause engine damage, stall, and failure in aircraft and can cause air data probes to report erroneous values. Most research on HIWC has focused on tropical convection. This paper serves to draw more attention to the aviation hazard posed by extratropical winter HIWC and the need for additional research into these environments. The cases examined also contained supercooled precipitation-sized liquid droplets. Combined with other recent research, these observations may help to motivate laboratory experiments investigating the role of secondary ice production via droplet freezing and shattering in the formation of HIWC.

Retrieval of total columnar precipitable water vapour using radio occultation technique over the Indian region

Total column precipitable water vapour (PWV) is retrieved using radio occultation retrievals of water vapour from COSMIC satellites over four regions of India. This analysis is carried out to assess the accuracy of the radio occultation technique for estimating PWV and to observe the PWV variation over these regions. The impact points of radio occultation are investigated for one year to select those points which are very near to the surface for the four regions. Total column PWV is estimated using these points data and further compared to the PWV values obtained from AIRS instrument and reanalysis data from MERRA2. The findings obtained using the radio occultation technique show that the vertical profile of PWV from COSMIC provides almost similar results at different pressure levels with AIRS and MERRA2 PWVs. The PWV values obtained from COSMIC are 16 mm, 17 mm, 27 mm, and 52 mm approximately for region1, region2, region3, and region4 respectively having differences in the range of 0.2 mm–7 mm with respect to PWV values estimated from AIRS and MERRA2. On the surface level, the average difference is estimated to be less than 1 mm. It is inferred that a good estimation of total column PWV is obtained using the radio occultation technique which can be further used for rainfall prediction, its impact on climate change and to study hydrological cycle more efficiently.

Atmospheric Correction to Passive Microwave Brightness Temperature in Snow Cover Mapping Over China

Variable atmospheric conditions are typically ignored in the retrieval of geophysical parameters of the Earth’s surface when using spaceborne passive microwave observations. However, high frequencies, for example, 91.7 GHz, are sensitive to variable atmospheric absorption, even in winter’s dry conditions. In this article, the influence of variable atmospheric absorption on snow cover extent (SCE) mapping was quantitatively investigated. A physical method was derived to enable atmospheric correction for variable atmospheric conditions. The total column precipitable water vapor (TPWV) from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) was parametrized into transmittances in this correction method. The corrected brightness temperature at 19 and 91.7 GHz from the Special Sensor Microwave Imager Sounder (SSMIS) was applied to the threshold algorithm for snow mapping over China. Compared with the Interactive Multisensor Snow and Ice Mapping System (IMS) data in winter from 2012 to 2013, for Qinghai–Tibet plateau (QTP), a significant improvement after correction was obtained from February to March over ephemeral and shallow snow, where the largest daily improvement of accuracy is up to 20%. The accuracy (incl. precision, recall, and F1 index) improved on average is from 0.77 (0.60, 0.68, and 0.63) to 0.79 (0.69, 0.7, and 0.68) over the full winter time from December to March. Over forest-rich Northeast China, where snow in winter is thicker, small improvement was observed at the onset of the snow season and over snow margin area. It was evidenced that high frequency is a promising way of snow cover mapping with the proposed atmospheric correction method.

Comparison of short‐period daytime convective rainfall accumulations with total column precipitable water: Derivation of an operational forecasting technique

AbstractA major forecasting challenge is predicting the likely intensity of rainfall in convective situations in which intense short‐period rainfall can lead to surface water flooding. The study demonstrates a useful correlation between precipitable water and 1 hr gauge‐derived rainfall accumulations in situations with deep instability and relatively slack flow in depth. The correlation forms the basis of a forecasting technique, independent of numerical weather prediction (NWP) model forecasts of rainfall, being applied at the UK's Met Office Flood Forecasting Centre (FFC).

Future Changes in East Asian Summer Monsoon Circulation and Precipitation Under 1.5 to 5 °C of Warming

AbstractUnderstanding the link between future changes in East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) and global warming levels is of great importance for regional climate change adaptation and mitigation in East Asia. Here, we analyze the projected changes in EASM circulation and precipitation under different warming levels from 1.5 to 5 °C above the preindustrial global mean temperature, using large‐ensemble simulations conducted with Canadian Earth System Model version 2. We find that the model projects enhanced monsoon circulation and precipitation with global warming. The 850‐hPa meridional winds, precipitation, and 500‐hPa vertical ascending motion will be enhanced nonlinearly, while the total column precipitable water will increase quasi‐linearly. The increase in precipitable water in the wet EASM region is only slightly greater than global average but the increase in precipitation is much greater than global one, with enhanced 500‐hPa vertical ascending motion contrary to global mean. The increased low‐level land‐sea thermal contrast leads to the enhanced EASM meridional circulation and thus bring a large amount of moisture into Eastern China, providing favorable conditions for additional increase in precipitation. A simplified moisture budget analysis shows that the dynamic component related to strengthening monsoon circulation plays dominant role in the increase in EASM precipitation when the global temperature increases by more than approximately 2 °C, while the thermodynamic component caused by increased water vapor is important when the warming is smaller.

An observationally based method for stratifying a priori passive microwave observations in a Bayesian‐based precipitation retrieval framework

Estimation of precipitation from space‐based passive microwave (PMW) radiometric brightness temperature (TB) observations that adapts to the wide variety of Earth surface background and environmental conditions is a long‐standing issue. Since these conditions are generally unknown from the TB observations, PMW‐based precipitation estimation techniques commonly utilize independent ancillary data sources, such as interpolated prognostic variables from numerical weather prediction forecast models, and discrete surface emissivity classifications. In some situations, the selection of these variables may restrain the algorithm performance under particular surface and atmospheric conditions. The objective of this article is to examine the emissivity principal component (EPC) analysis as a common stratification method for indexing, searching and weighting candidate precipitation profiles from a priori databases, adaptable for Bayesian‐based precipitation estimation algorithms applied to the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Microwave Imager (GMI) or other PMW sensors, to minimize dependence upon ancillary data sources. The EPC has been previously shown to track the joint variability between the 10–89 GHz surface emissivity, total column precipitable water vapour (TPW) and surface temperature (Ts) conditions directly from the TB observations, and identify global locations of similar conditions. A parallel GMI precipitation retrieval was carried out where the identical a priori database was indexed by TPW, Ts and a surface emissivity class index. An independent validation of each precipitation retrieval scheme was carried out using GMI pixel‐matched Multi‐Radar Multi‐Source (MRMS) ground radar data over the continental USA and surrounding ocean waters. While the EPC‐based estimates demonstrated similar performance to the TPW‐based estimates over ocean backgrounds, a markedly improved detection, and reduction in bias, was found for moderate and higher (>5 mm/hr) rainfall rates over other backgrounds, especially vegetated surfaces and coastlines.

Анализ особенностей связи общего содержания озона и водяного пара над европейской частью России с Североатлантическим колебанием летом 2010 г.

Анализ особенностей связи общего содержания озона и водяного пара над европейской частью России с Североатлантическим колебанием летом 2010 г.

Temporal variability of observed and simulated hyperspectral reflectance

AbstractMultivariate analysis techniques were used to quantify and compare the spectral and temporal variability of observed and simulated shortwave hyperspectral Earth reflectance. The observed reflectances were measured by the Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography (SCIAMACHY) instrument between 2002 and 2010. The simulated reflectances were calculated using climate Observing System Simulation Experiments (OSSEs), which used two Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change AR4 scenarios (constant CO2 and A2 emission) to drive Moderate Resolution Atmospheric Transmission simulations. Principal component (PC) spectral shapes and time series exhibited evidence of physical variables including cloud reflectance, vegetation and desert albedo, and water vapor absorption. Comparing the temporal variability of the OSSE‐simulated and SCIAMACHY‐measured hyperspectral reflectance showed that their Intertropical Convergence Zone‐like Southern Hemisphere (SH) tropical PC1 ocean time series had a 90° phase difference. The observed and simulated PC intersection quantified their similarity and directly compared their temporal variability. The intersection showed that despite the similar spectral variability, the temporal variability of the dominant PCs differed as in, for example, the 90° phase difference between the SH tropical intersection PC1s. Principal component analysis of OSSE reflectance demonstrated that the spectral and centennial variability of the two cases differed. The A2 PC time series, unlike the constant CO2 time series, exhibited centennial secular trends. Singular spectrum analysis isolated the A2 secular trends. The A2 OSSE PC1 and PC4 secular trends matched those in aerosol optical depth and total column precipitable water, respectively. This illustrates that time series of hyperspectral reflectance may be used to identify and attribute secular climate trends with a sufficiently long measurement record and high instrument accuracy.

A feasibility study for the retrieval of the total column precipitable water vapour from satellite observations in the blue spectral range

Abstract. We present a new algorithm for satellite retrievals of the atmospheric water vapour column in the blue spectral range. The water vapour absorption cross section in the blue spectral range is much weaker than in the red spectral range. Thus the detection limit and the uncertainty of individual observations are systematically larger than for retrievals at longer wavelengths. Nevertheless, water vapour retrievals in the blue spectral range have also several advantages: since the surface albedo in the blue spectral range is similar over land and ocean, water vapour retrievals are more consistent than for longer wavelengths. Compared to retrievals at longer wavelengths, the sensitivity for atmospheric layers close to the surface is higher due to the (typically 2 to 3 times) higher ocean albedo in the blue. Water vapour retrievals in the blue spectral range are also possible for satellite sensors, which do not measure at longer wavelengths of the visible spectral range like the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI). We investigated details of the water vapour retrieval in the blue spectral range based on radiative transfer simulations and observations from the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment 2 (GOME-2) and OMI. It is demonstrated that it is possible to retrieve the atmospheric water vapour column density in the blue spectral range over most parts of the globe. The findings of our study are of importance also for future satellite missions (e.g. Sentinel 4 and 5).

Water-vapor content in the atmosphere over European Russia during the summer 2010 fires

We study the water vapor (WV) content over European Russia (ER) during the period of forest and peatbog fires in July–August 2010 using total column water vapor observations from MODIS instruments (both Aqua and Terra platforms) as well as aerological data and NCEP/NCAR reanalysis. It is found that the spatial distribution of total column water vapor (TCWV) over ER in this period was anomalous, with the WV excess in the north of the territory and its deficit in the south of ER. The relationship between WV variations, atmospheric dynamics and the fire situation is analyzed. Along with the processes of the WV advection and evaporation we evaluate the contribution of pyrogenic emission of WV in spatial-temporal evolution of WV over ER during wildfires. The changes of water vapor at different heights in the troposphere and stratosphere are investigated. The results of a comparative analysis of WV contents during the periods of summertime atmospheric blockings in 1972 and 2010 are also presented. The near-infrared total-column precipitable water MODIS products (L3) are validated by upper-air radiosonde data.

Water vapour over the western maritime Arctic: surface inversions, intrusions and total column

A composite year of hourly microwave radiometric water vapour (WV) density profiles from November 2007 to July 2008 and August to November 2009 over the unconsolidated sea-ice surface of the southeastern Beaufort Sea–Amundsen Gulf region was analysed. The annual cycle of monthly median total column precipitable water (PW) ranged from 1.4 mm in January to 16.8 mm in August. For all months, greater than 92% of the PW was below 5000 m. Peak PW in WV intrusions ranged from 3.4 mm in November to 37.3 mm in August. An L-shaped relationship was found between the monthly percentages of PW in near surface WV inversions and the median total column PW. This suggested that WV inversions have a greater impact on atmospheric downwelling longwave radiation, and in turn on the climate of the western maritime Arctic, in the winter early spring and late autumn when the median PW is low than in warmer months when it is relatively high. This result, consistent with the results of others, was supported by an analysis of hourly profiles for January (low PW month), and July (high PW month); 89% of the variability in the percentage of PW in near surface inversions was explained by the height of the top of the highest inversion which was generally much higher in the January than in July. In addition, near surface WV inversions occurred more frequently in the lower PW month than in the higher PW month. Copyright © 2012 Royal Meteorological Society

Characteristics of water-vapour inversions observed over the Arctic by Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and radiosondes

Abstract. An accurate characterization of the vertical structure of the Arctic atmosphere is useful in climate change and attribution studies as well as for the climate modelling community to improve projections of future climate over this highly sensitive region. Here, we investigate one of the dominant features of the vertical structure of the Arctic atmosphere, i.e. water-vapour inversions, using eight years of Atmospheric Infrared Sounder data (2002–2010) and radiosounding profiles released from the two Arctic locations (North Slope of Alaska at Barrow and during SHEBA). We quantify the characteristics of clear-sky water vapour inversions in terms of their frequency of occurrence, strength and height covering the entire Arctic for the first time. We found that the frequency of occurrence of water-vapour inversions is highest during winter and lowest during summer. The inversion strength is, however, higher during summer. The observed peaks in the median inversion-layer heights are higher during the winter half of the year, at around 850 hPa over most of the Arctic Ocean, Siberia and the Canadian Archipelago, while being around 925 hPa during most of the summer half of the year over the Arctic Ocean. The radiosounding profiles agree with the frequency, location and strength of water-vapour inversions in the Pacific sector of the Arctic. In addition, the radiosoundings indicate that multiple inversions are the norm with relatively few cases without inversions. The amount of precipitable water within the water-vapour inversion structures is estimated and we find a distinct, two-mode contribution to the total column precipitable water. These results suggest that water-vapour inversions are a significant source to the column thermodynamics, especially during the colder winter and spring seasons. We argue that these inversions are a robust metric to test the reproducibility of thermodynamics within climate models. An accurate statistical representation of water-vapour inversions in models would mean that the large-scale coupling of moisture transport, precipitation, temperature and water-vapour vertical structure and radiation are essentially captured well in such models.

Characterization of aerosols and pre-cursor gases over Maitri during 24th Indian Antarctica Expedition

Within the framework of the 24th Indian Antarctica Expedition (IAE), observations of total column aerosol optical depth (AOD), ozone (TCO) and precipitable water content (TCW) using a multi-channel solar-radiometer (MICROTOPS-II: Microprocessor-controlled Total Ozone Portable Spectrometer-II), and observations of short-wave global radiative flux using a wide-band pyranometer have been carried out over the Indian Antarctica station Maitri (70.76° S, 11.74° E) and the southern Indian Ocean during December 2004–February 2005. These extensive datasets have been utilized to investigate the aerosol optical, physical and radiative properties, and their interface with simultaneously measured gases. Data over the Oceanic region have been collected from the ship front deck. The daily mean AOD at a characteristic wavelength of 500 nm was found to be 0.042 with an average Angstrom coefficient of 0.24, revealing an abundance of coarse-mode particles. Interestingly, the January fluxes were found to be less by about 20% compared with those in February. The average short-wave direct radiative forcing due to aerosols showed cooling at the surface with an average value of −0.47 Wm−2. The TCO increased from about 252 DU around 38° S to about 312 DU at 70° S, showing a gradual increase in ozone with increasing latitude. The TCO measured by the surface-based ozone monitor matched reasonably well with that observed by the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) satellite sensor within 5%. Variability in ozone on a daily scale during the study period was less than 4% over the Antarctica region.

Observed and Modeled Growing-Season Diurnal Precipitable Water Vapor in South-Central Canada

Abstract High-temporal-resolution total-column precipitable water vapor (PWV) was measured using a Radiometrics Corporation WVR-1100 Atmospheric Microwave Radiometer (AMR). The AMR was deployed at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada, during the 2003 and 2006 growing seasons (mid-May–end of August). PWV data were examined 1) to document the diurnal cycle of PWV and to provide insight into the various processes controlling this cycle and 2) to assess the accuracy of the Canadian regional Global Environmental Multiscale (GEM) model analysis and forecasts (out to 36 h) of PWV. The mean daily PWV was 22.6 mm in 2003 and 23.8 mm in 2006, with distinct diurnal amplitudes of 1.5 and 1.8 mm, respectively. It was determined that the diurnal cycle of PWV about the daily mean value was controlled by evapotranspiration (ET) and the occurrence/timing of deep convection. The PWV in both years reached its hourly maximum later in the afternoon as opposed to at solar noon. This suggested that the surface and atmosphere were well coupled, with ET primarily being controlled by the vapor pressure deficit between the vegetation/surface and atmosphere. The decrease in PWV during the evening and overnight periods of both years was likely the result of deep convection, with or without precipitation, which drew water vapor out of the atmosphere, as well as the nocturnal decline in ET. The results did not change for days on which low-level winds were light (i.e., maximum winds from the surface to 850 hPa were below 20 km h−1), which supports the notion that the diurnal PWV pattern was associated with the daily cycles of local ET and convection/precipitation and was not due to advection. Comparison of AMR PWV with the Canadian GEM model for the growing seasons of 2003 and 2006 indicated that the model error was 3 mm (13%) or more even in the first 12 h, with mean absolute errors ranging from 2 to 3.5 mm and root-mean-square errors from 3 to 4.5 mm over the full 36-h forecast period. It was also found that the 3–9-h forecast period of GEM had better error scores in 2006 than in 2003.

An assessment of the absolute accuracy of the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder v5 precipitable water vapor product at tropical, midlatitude, and arctic ground‐truth sites: September 2002 through August 2008

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) is the first of a series of satellite sensors that exploit high spectral resolution and broad spectral coverage of the midinfrared to improve the retrieval accuracy of passive infrared sounding. The AIRS atmospheric retrieval goals are to obtain 1 K accuracy for 1 km layers below 100 mb for temperature and 10% for 2 km layers for water vapor in clear and most cloud conditions. The AIRS total column precipitable water vapor (PWV) is obtained by integrating the vertical profile of water vapor mixing ratio derived from cloud‐cleared radiances. The accuracy goal of the AIRS PWV product is 5%. This paper provides a validation of the AIRS PWV product at three distinct climate sites over the nearly full range of total water amounts observed on Earth (between 0.1 and 6.5 cm). Six years (September 2002 to August 2008) of AIRS v5 retrievals of PWV are evaluated against ground‐based microwave radiometer (MWR) data at three Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement program (ARM) sites. The accuracy of the MWR PWV retrieval is estimated to be between 1% and 3%. This study shows that the agreement between the MWR and AIRS retrievals of PWV is within 5% at all three ARM climate sites for most conditions. The notable exceptions are (1) very dry cases (PWV < 1 cm) over the Southern Great Plains (SGP) land site during both daytime and nighttime, where AIRS is too moist by 15%–30% and (2) nighttime observations over the SGP land site for PWV > 1 cm, where AIRS is too dry by about 10%. The moist bias for low water amounts (usually observed during the winter) over land could be a surface emissivity–related error since very little bias is seen at the ARM Arctic site for similar water amounts. The cause of the dry bias at nighttime over land for moderate water amounts is not determined by this study. However, a spatial map of the diurnal bias in monthly AIRS water amount suggests that this effect is related to meteorological conditions in the U. S. Great Plains, which in the summertime is characterized by a moist boundary layer. The diurnal error in AIRS PWV at the SGP site seen with respect to the MWR data are confirmed by PWV amounts derived from a coincident ground‐based GPS receiver.

Univariate and Multivariate Assimilation of AIRS Humidity Retrievals with the Local Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter

Abstract This study uses the local ensemble transform Kalman filter to assimilate Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) specific humidity retrievals with pseudo relative humidity (pseudo-RH) as the observation variable. Three approaches are tested: (i) updating specific humidity with observations other than specific humidity (“passive q”), (ii) updating specific humidity only with humidity observations (“univariate q”), and (iii) assimilating the humidity and the other observations together (“multivariate q”). This is the first time that the performance of the univariate and multivariate assimilation of q is compared within an ensemble Kalman filter framework. The results show that updating the humidity analyses by either AIRS specific humidity retrievals or nonhumidity observations improves both the humidity and wind analyses. The improvement with the multivariate-q experiment is by far the largest for all dynamical variables at both analysis and forecast time, indicating that the interaction between the specific humidity and the other dynamical variables through the background error covariance during data assimilation process yields more balanced analysis fields. In the univariate assimilation of q, the humidity interacts with the other dynamical variables only through the forecast process. The univariate assimilation produces more accurate humidity analyses than those obtained when no humidity observations are assimilated, but it does not improve the accuracy of the zonal wind analyses. The 6-h total column precipitable water forecast also benefits from the improved humidity analyses, with the multivariate q experiment having the largest improvement.

Impact of Satellite Observations on the Tropical Cyclone Track Forecasts of the Navy Operational Global Atmospheric Prediction System

Abstract The tropical cyclone (TC) track forecasts of the Navy Operational Global Atmospheric Prediction System (NOGAPS) were evaluated for a number of data assimilation experiments conducted using observational data from two periods: 4 July–31 October 2005 and 1 August–30 September 2006. The experiments were designed to illustrate the impact of different types of satellite observations on the NOGAPS TC track forecasts. The satellite observations assimilated in these experiments consisted of feature-track winds from geostationary and polar-orbiting satellites, Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) total column precipitable water and wind speeds, Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-A (AMSU-A) radiances, and Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) and European Remote Sensing Satellite-2 (ERS-2) scatterometer winds. There were some differences between the results from basin to basin and from year to year, but the combined results for the 2005 and 2006 test periods for the North Pacific and Atlantic Ocean basins indicated that the assimilation of the feature-track winds from the geostationary satellites had the most impact, ranging from 7% to 24% improvement in NOGAPS TC track forecasts. This impact was statistically significant at all forecast lengths. The impact of the assimilation of SSM/I precipitable water was consistently positive and statistically significant at all forecast lengths. The improvements resulting from the assimilation of AMSU-A radiances were also consistently positive and significant at most forecast lengths. There were no significant improvements/degradations from the assimilation of the other satellite observation types [e.g., Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) winds, SSM/I wind speeds, and scatterometer winds]. The assimilation of all satellite observations resulted in a gain in skill of roughly 12 h for the NOGAPS 48- and 72-h TC track forecasts and a gain in skill of roughly 24 h for the 96- and 120-h forecasts. The percent improvement in these forecasts ranged from almost 20% at 24 h to over 40% at 120 h.

Global trends (1996–2003) of total column precipitable water observed by Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) on ERS‐2 and their relation to near‐surface temperature

We have analyzed global trends of total column precipitable water from measurements of the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) on the European Research Satellite (ERS‐2) for the period January 1996 to June 2003. In contrast to other satellite retrieval methods of total column precipitable water, our analysis does not rely on a priori assumptions or additional information; thus it is particularly well suited to trend studies. The chosen wavelength range in the red spectral region ensures similar sensitivity for observations over land and ocean and thus a consistent global picture. To minimize the influence of clouds on the water vapor trends, we selected observations under mainly clear‐sky conditions. The temporal evolution of the monthly or yearly averaged total column precipitable water, especially in the tropics, is highly correlated to that of the near‐surface temperature, indicating that the global atmospheric humidity is mainly driven by Clausius‐Clapeyron's principle. The magnitude of the dependence on near‐surface temperature indicates a strong water vapor feedback. The spatial patterns of the water vapor trends show both positive and negative signs. Especially over the oceans, trend patterns very similar to those of near‐surface temperature are found. In contrast, over Northern Hemispheric continents the trend patterns are much less correlated, and even opposite trends for water vapor and the near‐surface temperatures are found. During the period 1996–2002 the globally and yearly averaged total column precipitable water increased by 2.8 ± 0.8% (excluding the ENSO period).

El Niño induced anomalies in global data sets of total column precipitable water and cloud cover derived from GOME on ERS‐2

Global data sets of total column precipitable water and cloud cover derived from the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) are analyzed with respect to anomalies induced by the strong El Niño 1997/1998. In contrast to other satellite observations of water vapor, the GOME nadir observations in the visible spectral range are of similar sensitivity over both land and ocean. In addition, they are sensitive in particular to the water vapor concentration close to the surface where a major fraction of the water vapor column is present. Information on the atmospheric cloud cover was derived from the observed broadband intensity as well as the oxygen (O2) absorption. While the first quantity is mainly a measure of geometrical cloud fraction, the latter also yields information on the cloud altitude. We investigated the time series of monthly mean values as well as anomalies calculated for a 6‐month period during the El Niño 1997/1998. For all three quantities we found strong anomalies over large areas and for extended periods. Especially for the total column precipitable water, significant anomalies were found even in mid and high latitudes indicating substantial changes in the hydrological cycle and the global circulation patterns.

Nighttime cirrus detection using Atmospheric Infrared Sounder window channels and total column water vapor

A method of cirrus detection at nighttime is presented that utilizes 3.8 and 10.4 μm infrared (IR) window brightness temperature differences (dBT) and total column precipitable water (PW) measurements. This technique is applied to the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit A (AMSU‐A) instrument suite on board EOS‐Aqua, where dBT is determined from sets of carefully selected AIRS window channels, while PW is derived from the synergistic AIRS and AMSU‐A water vapor retrievals. Simulated and observed dBT for a particular value of PW are not constant; several physical factors impact dBT, including the variability in temperature and relative humidity profiles, surface emissivity, instrument noise, and skin/near‐surface air temperature differences. We simulate clear‐sky dBT over a realistic range of PWs using 8350 radiosondes that have varying temperature and relative humidity profiles. Thresholds between cloudy and uncertain sky conditions are derived once the scatter in the clear‐sky dBT is determined. Simulations of optically thin cirrus indicate that this technique is most sensitive to cirrus optical depth in the 10 μm window of 0.1–0.15 or greater over the tropical and subtropical oceans, where surface emissivity and skin/near‐surface air temperature impacts on the IR radiances are minimal. The method at present is generally valid over oceanic regions only, specifically, the tropics and subtropics. The detection of thin cirrus, and other cloud types, is validated using observations at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program site located at Manus Island in the tropical western Pacific for 89 coincident EOS‐Aqua overpasses. Even though the emphasis of this work is on the detection of thin cirrus at nighttime, this technique is sensitive to a broad cloud morphology. The cloud detection technique agrees with ARM‐detected clouds 82–84% of the time, which include thin cirrus, as well as other cloud types. Most of the disagreements are well explained by AIRS footprint‐scale heterogeneity compared to ARM point measurements, cirrus overlying lower‐layer water clouds, possible mixed phase microphysics in midlevel clouds, and significant IR channel noise for cold BT scenes over deep convective towers.