Tropospheric Precipitable Water: A Radiosonde-Based Climatology

摘要

This report presents a description of a global climatology of troposphericprecipitable water based on radiosonde data for the 23 year period, 1973-1995. The climatological variables are the mean monthly precipitable water in several layers, the standard deviations of these monthly means and the average within-month standard deviations. Also recorded are the number of years of data and the average number of observations per month. The data are listed by station for each month at 7 layers from the surface to 300 mb. Data are listed separately for 00 UTC and 12 UTC observations and also combined. A set of maps showing data values for some months and layers are included in this report examples of the data fields. Limitations of the data set are discussed, especially the effects of humidity sensor type and changes in sensors. The structure and format of the data files that form the global climatology are fully described here. These files may be obtained from the authors at the Air Resources Laboratory.