HR: 1340h
AN: A13B-0919    [Abstracts]
TI: A Comparative Study of Relative Humidity Distributions Inside and Outside of Clouds at Both the Middle and Tropical Latitudes
AU: * Troy, R F
EM: rftroy@adelphia.net
AF: University of California at Los Angeles, Department of Earth and Space Sciences, Los Angeles, CA 90095 United States
AU: Herman, R L
EM: robert.l.herman@jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109 United States
AU: Eldering, A
EM: annmarie.eldering@jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109 United States
AU: Gettleman, A
EM: andrew@ucar.edu
AF: National Center for Atmospheric Research, 1850 Table Mesa Dr., Boulder, CO 80305 United States
AU: Flesch, G J
EM: greg.flesch@jpl.nasa.gov
AF: Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109 United States
AU: Bui, P
EM: pbui@arc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA Ames Research Center, Earth Science Division, MS 245-5, Moffett Field, CA 94035 United States
AU: Thompson, T
EM: tlt@al.noaa.gov
AF: NOAA Aeronomy Laboratory, 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80303 United States
AU: Rosenlof, K H
EM: karen.h.rosenlof@noaa.gov
AF: NOAA Aeronomy Laboratory, 325 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80303 United States
AB: The distribution of relative humidity in the upper troposphere is not well characterized, particularly the relative humidity within ice clouds. To address this, we present results from two recent aircraft studies of the upper troposphere using measurements by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Laser Hygrometer (JLH) as well as retrievals from the AIRS instrument suite on EOS Aqua. JLH is one of a very few instruments which can make accurate measurements of water vapor inside of clouds. Relative humidity was calculated using data from water vapor concentrations measured by JLH and temperature measurements provided either by the NOAA Pressure-Temperature (PT) instrument, or the Meteorological Measurement System (MMS) instrument. The Pre-Aura Validation Experiment (Pre-AVE) was a NASA aircraft mission to characterize the composition of the Tropical Tropopause Layer (TTL). In January 2004, a high-altitude NASA WB-57 aircraft made three flights from San Jose, Costa Rica, into the equatorial TTL. These flights were characterized by unusually cold and highly supersaturated conditions near the tropical tropopause. Additionally, we report here relative humidity from the NASA WB-57 Middle Latitude Cirrus Experiment (MidCiX) in April and May of 2004. The MidCiX campaign focused on high altitude tropospheric cirrus clouds in the middle latitudes over the continental United States. We present comparisons of relative humidity inside ice clouds with measurements outside clouds in each of the two campaigns, and also with AIRS. We will discuss possible mechanisms for the distribution of relative humidity that is seen.
DE: 0365 Troposphere: composition and chemistry
DE: 1655 Water cycles (1836)
DE: 1836 Hydrological cycles and budgets (1218, 1655)
DE: 3360 Remote sensing
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005