Jet Propulsion Labratory

AIRS moisture fields differ from 6 major climate models such that the models are too dry below 800 mb in the tropics compared with AIRS, and too moist between 300 mb and 600 mb especially in the extra-tropics. This affects model predictions of future climate warming.

Pierce D. W., T. P. Barnett, E. J. Fetzer, P. J. Gleckler (2006), Three-dimensional tropospheric water vapor in coupled climate models compared with observations from the AIRS satellite system, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L21701, doi:10.1029/2006GL027060.

John, V.O. and Soden, B. J., Temperature and humidity biases in global climate models and their impact on climate feedbacks, Geophys.Res. Lett., 34, L18704, doi:10.1029/2007GL030429

Gettleman, Collins, Fetzer, Eldering, Irion (2006), Climatology of Upper-Tropospheric Relative Humidity from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder and Implications for Climate, J. Climate, 19, 6104-6121. DOI: 10.1175/JCLI3956.1

The existence of radiance biases of opposite signs in different spectral regions suggests that the apparent good agreement of a climate model's broadband longwave flux with observations may be due to a fortuitous cancellation of spectral errors.

Huang, Y., Ramaswamy, V., Huang, X.L., Fu, Q., Bardeen, C., A strict test in climate modeling with spectrally resolved radiances: GCM simulation versus AIRS observations, Geophys.Res.Lett., 2007, 34, 24, L24707

Finding of a repeatable annual cycle in relative humidity over the polar continent and super saturation with respect to ice, particularly in winter, where it might occur almost half the time in the troposphere. This may affect the quantity and isotopic composition of ice over Antarctica.

Gettelman, A., Kinnison, D.E., The global impact of supersaturation in a coupled chemistry climate model, Atmospheric Chemistry & Physics, 2007, 7, 6, 1629-1643

Discovery of a trimodal temperature vertical structure and a low-level moisture and temperature preconditioning associated with the MJO. Discovery of the poor representation of the low-level moisture and temperature structure associated with the MJO in the NCEP/NCAR and NCEP/DOE reanalyses which have been widely used as true observations to validate MJO theories and model simulations

Discovery of the physical cause of the low-level moisture preconditioning of the MJO. This finding helped to verify MJO theories.

Tian, B., D. E. Waliser, E. J. Fetzer, B. H. Lambrigtsen, Y. Yung, and B. Wang (2006), Vertical moist thermodynamic structure and spatial-temporal evolution of the MJO in AIRS observations,. J. Atmos. Sci., 63, 2462-2485 (2006). DOI: 10.1175/JAS3782.1

Tian, B., D. E. Waliser, X. S. Xie, W. T. Liu, and E. J. Fetzer (2008), On the low-level moisture preconditioning of the Madden-Julian Oscillation, Geophys. Res. Lett., submitted

The transient convective events in the Asian summer monsoon anticyclone are associated with the vertical transport of low ozone and high water vapor into the upper troposphere-lower stratosphere region.

Randel W. J., M. Park (2006), Deep convective influence on the Asian summer monsoon anticyclone and associated tracer variability observed with Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS), J. Geophys. Res., 111, D12314, doi:10.1029/2005JD006490.

The onset of the severe thunderstorm activity lags the top-of-atmosphere incident solar flux by about two months, while the sea surface temperature lags by about three months.

Aumann, H.H., Gregorich, D., Broberg, S., Elliott, D.Seasonal correlations of SST, water vapor, and convective activity in tropical oceans: a new hyperspectral data set for climate modeling. Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L15813, doi: 10.1029/2006GL029191

AIRS high-resolution spectra provides the first global view of small-particle-dominated cirrus clouds.

Kahn B. H., A. Eldering, S. A. Clough, E. J. Fetzer, E. Fishbein, M. R. Gunson, S.-Y. Lee, P. F. Lester, V. J. Realmuto (2003), Near micron-sized cirrus cloud particles in high-resolution infrared spectra: An orographic case study, Geophys. Res. Lett., 30 (8), 1441, doi:10.1029/2003GL01690

Correlations between ice cloud effective diameter, optical depth, and relative humidity in the tropical upper troposphere, results of which are consistent with many aircraft observations. Suggests that preferred ice crystal habit distributions explain the best-fit model simulations when fit to AIRS radiances.

Kahn, B. H., C. K. Liang, A. Eldering, A. Gettelman, Q. Yue, and K. N. Liou (2008), Tropical thin cirrus and relative humidity observed by the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 8, 1501-1518.

Shows the feasibility of a fast radiative transfer model to retrieve ice cloud effective diameter and optical depth from AIRS radiances. Furthermore, this study shows that the high spectral resolution and coverage of AIRS will help constrain ice crystal size and habit distribution assumptions used in radiative transfer simulations of ice clouds.

Yue, Q., K. N. Liou, S. C. Ou, B. H. Kahn, P. Yang, and G. G. Mace (2007), Interpretation of AIRS data in thin cirrus atmospheres based on a fast radiative transfer model, J. Atmos. Sci. 64, 3827-3842.

4-D assimilation of observations from the major humidity observing systems show improvements in simulated wind and temperature fields. AIRS is shown to have an especially significant impact in simulations of the upper troposphere.

Andersson, E., E. Holm, P. Bauer, A. Bejaars, G. A. Kelly, A. P. McNally, A. J. Simmons, J.-N. Thepaut, and A. M. Tompkins (2007), Analysis and forecast impact of the main humidity observing systems. Quart. J. Royal. Met. Soc., 133, 1473-1485.

AIRS water vapor observations reveal much larger tropospheric moisture perturbations associated with the Boreal Summer Intraseasonal Oscillation (BSISO) than those depicted in previous NCEP reanalysis and ECMWF analysis data sets. The AIRS data also reveal boundary layer moist preconditioning for the BSISO which is absent from conventional NCEP reanalysis.

Fu X., B. Wang, L. Tao (2006), Satellite data reveal the 3-D moisture structure of Tropical Intraseasonal Oscillation and its coupling with underlying ocean, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L03705, doi:10.1029/2005GL025074.

Yang, B., X. Fu, and B. Wang (2008), Atmosphere-ocean conditions jointly guide convection of the Boreal Summer Intraseasonal Oscillation: Satellite observations, J. Geophys. Res., 113, D11105, doi:10.1029/2007JD009276.

First demonstration that the local correlation of water vapor and temperature can reach values up to one order of magnitude higher than the Clausius-Clapeyron regime. This works highlight the presence of other mechanisms controlling water vapor, besides local temperature.

Gambacorta, A., C.D. Barnet, B. Soden and L. Strow 2008. An assessment of the tropical humidity-temperature covariance using AIRS. Geophys. Res. Lett. v.35 L10814 doi:10.1029/2008GL033805, 5 pgs.

AIRS provides global observational constraints on fast internal gravity wave in the middle atmosphere, complementing data from a variety of other sources. These gravity waves, with their high vertical group velocities, are important in the momentum budget of the stratosphere and mesosphere.

Alexander, J. and C. Barnet 2007. Using satellite observations to constrain parameterizations of gravity wave effects for global models. J. Atmos. Sci. v.64 p.1652-1665.