SEARCH CEAFM

Weekly Seminar: Fall 2007

Date: November 9th
Time: 11:00 AM
Location: Maryland Hall 110
Speaker: Dr. Jonathon Wright
Columbial University
Title: "The role of ambient relative humidity in regulating water vapor changes in the tropical upper troposphere: An observational constraint for GCMs"

Abstract

Understanding the interactions of tropical deep convection and upper
tropospheric humidity has proved to be a critically important step
toward the development of more accurate climate models. Recent studies
have indicated that the degree of moistening due to convective
detrainment is intrinsically tied to ambient relative humidity (RH).
Here we examine the ways in which ambient RH influences the efficiency
of convective moistening in the tropical upper troposphere using data
from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Precipitation Radar and the
Atmospheric Infrared Sounder, and identify the spatial and temporal
limits of this interaction. We further evaluate these observational
results in the context of a simple model that includes only large-scale
advection and condensation. I will conclude by discussing this method's
potential application as an observational constraint for climate model
parameterizations of deep convective detrainment in the tropics.