A satellite-derived upper-tropospheric water vapor transport index for climate studies

Journal of Applied Meteorology

Volumn 39, Issue 1, 2000, Pages 15-41

  Jedlovec, Gary J ^a   Lerner, Jeffrey A ^b   Atkinson, Robert J ^c  

^a Global Hydrology and Climate Center   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA IN HUNTSVILLE   (United States)

^c Lockheed Martin Corporation   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ATMOSPHERIC TRANSPORT; GEOSTATIONARY SATELLITE; TROPOSPHERE; WATER VAPOR;

EID: 0034035928     PISSN: 08948763     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1175/1520-0450(2000)039<0015:ASDUTW>2.0.CO;2     Document Type: Article

References (56)

1. Arkin, P. A., 1988: The global climate for June-August 1987: Mature phase of an ENSO warm episode persists. J. Climate, 1, 306-324.
2. Atkinson, R. J., 1984: Automated mesoscale winds determined from satellite imagery. Interim Report on NAS8-34596, General Electric Company, Huntsville, AL, 51 pp. [Available from LMC/ GHCC, 977 Explorer Blvd., Huntsville, AL 35806.]
3. _, 1987: Automated mesoscale winds determined from satellite imagery. Final Report on NAS8-34596, General Electric Company, Huntsville, AL, 50 pp. [Available from LMC/GHCC, 977 Explorer Blvd., Huntsville, AL 35806.]
4. Bates, J. J., X. Wu, and D. L. Jackson, 1996: Interannual variability of upper-tropospheric water vapor band brightness temperature. J. Climate, 9, 427-438.
5. Bell, G. D., and M. S. Halpert, 1998: Climate assessment for 1997. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 79, S1-S50.
6. Blackwell, K. G., and J. P. McGuirk, 1996: Tropical upper-tropospheric dry regions from TOVS and rawinsondes. J. Appl. Meteor., 35, 464-481.
7. Bony, S., Y. Sud, K. M. Lau, J. Susskind, and S. Saha, 1997: Comparison and satellite assessment of NASA/DAO and NCEP-NCAR reanalyses over tropical ocean: Atmospheric hydrology and radiation. J. Climate, 10, 1441-1462.
8. Del Genio, A. D., 1994: Climate implications of the seasonal variation of upper tropospheric water vapor. Geophys. Res. Lett., 21, 2701-2704.
9. Eigenwillig, N., and H. Fischer, 1982: Determination of midtropospheric wind vectors by tracking pure water vapor structures in METEOSAT water vapor image sequences. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 63, 44-58.
10. Elliot, W. P., and D. J. Gaffen, 1991: On the utility of rawinsonde humidity archived for climate studies. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 72, 1507-1520.
11. Endlich, R. M., and D. E. Wolf, 1981: Automatic cloud tracking applied to GOES and METEOSAT observations. J. Appl. Meteor., 20, 309-319.
12. Fischer, H., N. Eigenwillig, and H. Muller, 1981: Information content of METEOSAT and Nimbus/THIR water vapor channel data: Altitude association of observed phenomena. J. Appl. Meteor., 20, 1344-1352.
13. Fritz, S., and J. S. Winston, 1962: Synoptic use of radiation measurements from satellite TIROS-II. Mon. Wea. Rev., 90, 1-9.
14. Fuelberg, H. E., and P. J. Meyer, 1984: An analysis of the AVE-SESAME I period using statistical structure and correlation functions. Mon. Wea. Rev., 112, 1562-1576.
15. Gray, W. M., 1984: Atlantic seasonal hurricane frequency. Part I: El Niño and 30 mb quasi-biennial oscillation influences. Mon. Wea. Rev., 112, 1649-1668.
16. Hillger, D. W., and T. H. Vonder Haar, 1988: Estimating noise levels of remotely sensed measurements from satellites using spatial structure analysis. J. Atmos. Oceanic Technol., 5, 206-214.
17. Janowiak, J. E., 1988: The global climate for March-May 1988: The end of the 1986-87 Pacific warm episode and the onset of widespread drought in the United States. J. Climate, 1, 1019-1040.
18. Jedlovec, G. J., and R. J. Atkinson, 1996: Quality and control of water vapor winds. Preprints, Eighth Conf. on Satellite Meteorology and Oceanography, Atlanta, GA, Amer. Meteor. Soc., 5-8.
19. Kalnay, E., and Coauthors, 1996: The NCEP/NCAR 40-year Reanalysis Project. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 77, 437-471.
20. Kousky, V. E., and A. Leetmaa, 1989: The 1986-87 Pacific warm episode: Evolution of oceanic and atmospheric anomaly fields. J. Climate, 2, 254-267.
21. Laurent, H., 1993: Wind extraction from Meteosat water vapor channel image data. J. Appl. Meteor., 32, 1124-1133.
22. Lindzen, R. S., and A. Y. Hou, 1988: Hadley circulations for zonally averaged heating centered off the equator. J. Atmos. Sci., 45, 2416-2427.
23. Menzel, W. P., and J. F. W. Purdom, 1994: Introducing GOES-I: The first of a new generation of geostationary operational environmental satellites. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 75, 757-780.
24. _, W. L. Smith, and T. R. Stewart, 1983: Improved cloud motion wind vector and altitude assignment using VAS. J. Climate Appl. Meteor., 22, 377-384.
25. Merrill, R. T., 1989: Advances in the automated production of wind estimates from geostationary satellite imagery. Preprints, Fourth Conf. on Satellite Meteorology and Oceanography, San Diego, CA, Amer. Meteor. Soc., 246-249.
26. _, W. P. Menzel, W. Baker, J. Lynch, and E. Legg, 1991: A report on the recent demonstration of NOAA's upgraded capability to derive cloud motion satellite winds. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 72, 372-376.
27. Montgomery, H. E., and L. W. Uccellini, 1985: VAS demonstration: (VISSR Atmospheric Sounder) description and final report. NASA Reference Publication 1151, 198 pp. [Available from NASA Center for Aerospace Information, P.O. Box 8757, Baltimore/Washington International Airport, Baltimore, MD 21240.]
28. Nieman, S. J., W. P. Menzel, C. M. Hayden, D. Gray, S. T. Wanzong, C. S. Velden, and J. Daniels, 1997: Fully automated cloud-drift winds in NESDIS operations. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 78, 1121-1133.
29. Oort, A. H., and E. M. Rasmusson, 1970: The annual variation of the monthly mean meridional circulation. Mon. Wea. Rev., 98, 423-442.
30. Peixoto, J. P., and A. H. Oort, 1996: The climatology of relative humidity in the atmosphere. J. Climate, 9, 3443-3463.
31. Picon, L., and M. Desbois, 1990: Relation between METEOSAT water vapor radiance fields and large scale tropical circulation features. J. Climate, 3, 865-876.
32. Rind, D., E. W. Chiou, W. Chu, J. Larsen, S. Oltmans, J. Lerner, M. P. McCormick, and L. McMaster, 1991: Positive water vapour feedback in climate models confirmed by satellite data. Nature, 349, 500-503.
33. Ropelewski, C. F., 1988: The global climate for June-August 1988: A swing to the positive phase of the Southern Oscillation, drought in the United States, and abundant rain in the monsoon areas. J. Climate, 1, 1153-1177.
34. Salathe, E. P., and D. L. Hartmann, 1997: A trajectory analysis of tropical upper-tropospheric moisture and convection. J. Climate, 19, 2533-2547.
35. Schmetz, J., and O. M. Turpeinen, 1988: Estimation of the upper tropospheric relative humidity field from METEOSAT water vapor image data. J. Appl. Meteor., 27, 889-899.
36. _, K. Holmlund, J. Hoffman, B. Strauss, B. Mason, V. Gaertner, A. Koch, and L. van de Berg, 1993: Operational cloud-motion winds from Meteosat infrared images. J. Appl. Meteor., 32, 1206-1225.
37. _, C. Geijo, W. P. Menzel, K. Strabala, L. van de Berg, K. Holmlund, and S. Tjemkes, 1995a: Satellite observations of upper tropospheric relative humidity, clouds and wind field divergence. Contrib. Atmos. Phys., 68, 345-357.
38. _, and Coauthors, 1995b: Monthly mean large-scale analyses of upper-tropospheric humidity and wind field divergence derived from three geostationary satellites. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 76, 1578-1584.
39. Schubert, S. D., R. B. Rood, and J. Pfaendtner, 1993: An assimilated dataset for earth science applications. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 74, 2331-2342.
40. Schwartz, B. E., and C. A. Doswell III, 1991: North American rawinsonde observations: Problems, concerns, and a call to action. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 72, 1885-1896.
41. Soden, B. J., 1998: Tracking upper tropospheric water vapor radiances from satellite. J. Geophys. Res., 103, 17 069-17 081.
42. _, and F. P. Bretherton, 1993: Upper tropospheric relative humidity from the GOES 6.7-μm channel: Method and climatology for July 1987. J. Geophys. Res., 96, 16 669-16 688.
43. _, and _, 1994: Evaluation of water vapor distribution in general circulation models using satellite observations. J. Geophys. Res., 99, 1187-1210.
44. _, and _, 1996: Interpretation of TOVS water vapor radiances in terms of layer-average relative humidities: Method and climatology for the upper, middle, and lower troposphere. J. Geophys. Res., 101, 9333-9343.
45. _, and J. R. Lanzante, 1996: An assessment of satellite and radiosonde climatologies of upper-tropospheric water vapor. J. Climate, 9, 1235-1250.
46. Spencer, R. W., and W. D. Braswell, 1997: How dry is the tropical free troposphere? Implications for global warming theory. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 78, 1097-1106.
47. Stephens, G. L., D. L. Jackson, and I. Wittmeyer, 1996: Global observations of upper-tropospheric water vapor derived from TOVS radiance data. J. Climate, 9, 305-326.
48. Stewart, T. R., C. M. Hayden, and W. L. Smith, 1985: A note on water-vapor wind tracking using VAS data on McIDAS. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 66, 1111-1115.
49. Sun, D. Z., and R. S. Lindzen, 1993: Distribution of tropical tropospheric water vapor. J. Atmos. Sci., 50, 1643-1660.
50. Trenberth, K. E., 1997: Short-term climate variations: Recent accomplishments and issues for future progress. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 78, 1081-1096.
51. van de Berg, L., A. Pyomjamsri, and J. Schmetz, 1991: Monthly mean upper tropospheric humidities in cloud-free areas from METEOSAT observations. Int. J. Climatol., 11, 819-826.
52. Velden, C. S., C. M. Hayden, S. J. Nieman, W. P. Menzel, S. Wanzong, and J. S. Goerss, 1997: Upper-tropospheric winds derived from geostationary satellite water vapor observations. Bull. Amer. Meteor. Soc., 78, 173-195.
53. _, T. L. Olander, and S. Wanzong, 1998: The impact of multi-spectral GOES-8 wind information on Atlantic tropical cyclone track forecasts in 1995. Part I: Dataset methodology, description, and case analysis. Mon. Wea. Rev., 126, 1202-1218.
54. Weinreb, M. P., H. E. Fleming, L. M. McMillin, and A. C. Nuendorffer, 1981: Transmittances for the TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder. NOAA Tech. Rep. TR NESS 85, NOAA, Washington, DC, 60 pp. [NTIS PB82-155920.]
55. Weldon, R. B., and S. J. Holmes, 1991: Water vapor imagery: Interpretation and applications to weather analysis and forecasting. NOAA Tech. Rep. NESDIS 67, 213 pp. [Available from NOAA/ NESDIS, 5200 Auth Rd., Washington, DC 20233.]
56. Young, J. T., J. W. Hagens, and D. M. Wade, 1995: GOES Pathfinder product generation system. Preprints, Ninth Conf. on Applied Climatology, Dallas, TX, Amer. Meteor. Soc., 176-180.