AIRS Satellite Feed
Total Water Vapor
This map shows AIRS observations of the total amount of water vapor present in the atmospheric column above each point of the Earth's surface, where one end of the column is Earth s surface and the other end is the top of the atmosphere. If all the water vapor in the column were forced to fall as rain, the depth of the resulting puddle on the surface at that point is equal to the value shown on the map. Fifty millimeters (mm) is about 2.5 inches. The atmosphere can hold very little water vapor at extremely cold temperatures, which results in the strong correspondence between dry areas in this map and cold areas in the temperature maps. The large area of maximum water vapor in the neighborhood of the equator is the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), a region of strong convection and powerful thunderstorms.
