HR: 09:15h
AN: H21I-06    [Abstracts]
TI: Combining The Monthly-Mean MODIS And SSMI Data To Form A Global Water Vapor Data Set
AU: * Gao, B
EM: gao@nrl.navy.mil
AF: Naval Research Laboratory, 4555 Overlook Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20375 United States
AB: Water vapor plays an important role in earth's hydrological processes. At present, the column amount of atmospheric water vapor over clear land surfaces and over oceanic areas with sun glint is operationally retrieved from radiances measured with near-IR channels of the Moderate Resolution Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MODIS) instruments on board the NASA Terra and Aqua Spacecraft platforms. TPW over oceans has also been derived operationally from radiances measured by the Special Sensor Microwave Imagers (SSMI) on board different spacecraft. By merging the monthly-mean MODIS near-IR TPW data over land and the SSMI TPW data over water surfaces, a global water vapor data product with improved quality is obtained. Major characteristics of the seasonal variations of TPW are described. Examples of water vapor anomalies associated with the 2002 El Nino event are presented. It is expected that the merged TPW data product will have important applications for the study of the global hydrological cycle.
DE: 1655 Water cycles (1836)
DE: 1836 Hydrologic budget (1655)
DE: 1894 Instruments and techniques
DE: 1610 Atmosphere (0315, 0325)
DE: 1640 Remote sensing
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting