Atmospheric precipitable water vapor and its correlation with clear-sky infrared temperature observations

A clear-sky radiance archive from Meteosat ”water vapor” observations

An analysis of the dependence of clear-sky top-of-atmosphere outgoing longwave radiation on atmospheric temperature and water vapor

[1] We have analyzed observations of clear-sky top-of-atmosphere outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) measured by the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES). These measurements were obtained during March 2005 at night and over the ocean and cover latitudes from 70 N to 70 S. First, we compare the OLR measurements to OLR calculated from two radiative transfer models. The models use as...

An investigation of the sensitivity of the clear-sky outgoing longwave radiation to atmospheric temperature and water vapor

[1] The rate at which the outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) responds to perturbations in temperature and moisture plays a fundamental role in determining climate sensitivity. This study examines the clear-sky OLR sensitivities to temperature and water vapor, as quantified by its partial derivatives (radiative Jacobians). The Jacobians, as computed by the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (G...

Cloud and aerosol properties, precipitable water, and profiles of temperature and water vapor from MODIS

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) is an earth-viewing sensor that flies on the Earth Observing System (EOS) Terra and Aqua satellites, launched in 1999 and 2002, respectively. MODIS scans a swath width of 2330 km that is sufficiently wide to provide nearly complete global coverage every two days from a polar-orbiting, sun-synchronous, platform at an altitude of 705 km. M...

Comparison of upper tropospheric water vapor observations from theMicrowave Limb Sounder and Atmospheric Infrared Sounder

[1] We compare matched retrievals of upper tropospheric water vapor (UTWV) mixing ratios from the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) instrument on the Aura satellite, and the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on the Aqua satellite. Because each instrument’s sampling is affected by tropical conditions, about half of mutually observed scenes in the tropics yield simultaneous successful ret...