Upper tropospheric water vapor observations for climate and global change studies
- NOAA/ERL Climate Diagnostics Center, Boulder, CO (United States)
This paper proposes that the global hydrological cycle, in particular the cycling of water vapor through the global monsoon system, and not the radiative balance, that primarily controls the equilibrium temperature of the Earth`s surface. The relationships between integrated water vapor and sea surface temperature and between upper tropospheric water vapor and temperature are examined to determine whether model simulations of climate and global change agree with observations. The observational relationships are found to be stable on time scales ranging from seasonal to a decade and more. These observations do provide compelling evidence that upper tropospheric water vapor changes forced by anomalous deep convection in the tropics can lead to a negative water vapor feedback and that current models do have considerable difficulties in the treatment of upper tropospheric water vapor and deep convection. 5 refs., 4 figs.
- OSTI ID:
- 535152
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-960146--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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