HR: 0830h
AN: A21C-0990    [PDF]
TI: Potential applications of Aura data in determining the influences of convective type and Rossby wave breaking on tropical and subtropical upper tropospheric water vapor
AU: * Fu, R
EM: fu@eas.gatech.edu
AF: Georgia Institute of Technology, 311 Ferst Dr., Atlanta, GA 30332 United States
AU: Wright, J S
EM: jswright@eas.gatech.edu
AF: Georgia Institute of Technology, 311 Ferst Dr., Atlanta, GA 30332 United States
AU: Petersen, W
EM: walt.petersen@msfc.nasa.gov
AF: University of Alabama-Huntsville, ESSC/NSSTC, Huntsville, AL 35899 United States
AB: The relative climate scale influences of continental and maritime convection on upper tropospheric (UT) water vapor is not as clearly understood as the influence of convection type on stratospheric entry mixing ratio. In the last decade, our ability to characterize the global distribution of convective system types and the associated temporal variabilities has been greatly improved, especially through the use of Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) precipitation radar (PR) and Lightning Imaging Sensor (LIS) retrievals. Such advancement offers us an unprecedented opportunity to examine the impact of convective system types on the UT water vapor distribution in conjunction with the observations of clouds and water vapor that Aura will provide, especially MLS measurements of water vapor in both cloudy and clear sky. As a prototype of such analyses, we have used TRMM data in conjunction with HALOE water vapor retrievals to explore the relationship between the distribution of convective types and the UT water vapor distribution. We will also examine the physical implications of the observed relationship, particularly, whether they represents the influence of different cloud microphysical properties between maritime-like and continental-like convection on UT water vapor, or merely represents the influence of the frequency of convection, by joint use with ISCCP and MODIS retrievals of cloud effective radius. Water vapor feedbacks are most sensitive to the driest UT, such as that observed in the subtropical eastern Pacific. Waugh and Polvani (2000) have shown that equatorward incursions of stratospheric air occur frequently over the central and eastern Pacific. The contributions of these stratospheric incursions to the dryness of the UT remains unclear, especially relative to those of the subsidence of air detrained from convective areas. We will use UARS MLS water vapor data to demonstrate the potential of Aura data for clarifying this question.
DE: 0320 Cloud physics and chemistry
DE: 0368 Troposphere--constituent transport and chemistry
DE: 1640 Remote sensing
DE: 1655 Water cycles (1836)
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting