An examination of convective moistening of the lower stratosphere using satellite data

Earth and Space Science

Ying Sun¹ 

[1] Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

关键词: deep convection;    satellite data;    stratospheric water vapor;   

DOI  :  10.1002/2015EA000115

来源: Wiley

【 摘 要 】

Abstract

In this paper, we use satellite data to test the hypothesis that deep convection moistens the lower stratosphere. Water vapor measurements from Earth Observing System-Microwave Limb Sounder and Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment-Fourier Transform Spectrometer over North America are binned according to the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project deep convection indices. The results show that in the North American region (50–112°W, 10–50°N) the convection-impacted samples are significantly moister than the nonimpact samples in the lowermost stratospheric layer right above the tropopause, and a drier tendency is also noticed right above this moistened layer. Trajectory modeling is used to aid the identification of deep convection-impacted water vapor samples. However, we find that a substantial fraction of high-concentration (>8 ppmv) samples at 100 hPa cannot be attributed to nearby deep convections.

【 授权许可】

CC BY-NC-ND   
©2015. The Authors.

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.