The GEWEX Global Water Vapor Project (GVaP)--U.S. Opportunities

The GEWEX Global Water Vapor Project (GVaP)--U.S. Opportunities
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 28
Release: 1999-08-19
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0309184592

Water vapor plays a vital role in shaping weather and climate on Earth. Hence, monitoring water vapor is critical if we are to explain and predict the behavior of the climate system. Unfortunately, measuring and analyzing water vapor on the time and space scales needed for this purpose have proven elusive. Therefore, it is appropriate and timely for the international climate research community, through the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX), to focus a project around water vapor. To this end, a GEWEX Global Water Vapor Project (GVaP) has been proposed, and draft Science and Implementation Plans have been developed. As requested by the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), the National Research Council's (NRC) GEWEX Panel has reviewed these plans with an eye toward U.S. priorities.

Production of a Long-Term Global Water Vapor and Liquid Water Data Set Using Ultra-Fast Methods to Assimilate Multi-Satellite and Radiosonde Observations

Production of a Long-Term Global Water Vapor and Liquid Water Data Set Using Ultra-Fast Methods to Assimilate Multi-Satellite and Radiosonde Observations
Author: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Total Pages: 34
Release: 2018-07-10
Genre:
ISBN: 9781722608804

There is a well-documented requirement for a comprehensive and accurate global moisture data set to assist many important studies in atmospheric science. Currently, atmospheric water vapor measurements are made from a variety of sources including radiosondes, aircraft and surface observations, and in recent years, by various satellite instruments. Creating a global data set from a single measuring system produces results that are useful and accurate only in specific situations and/or areas. Therefore, an accurate global moisture data set has been derived from a combination of these measurement systems. Under a NASA peer-reviewed contract, STC-METSAT produced two 5-yr (1988-1992) global data sets. One is the total column (integrated) water vapor data set and the other, a global layered water vapor data set using a combination of radiosonde observations, Television and Infrared Observation Satellite (TIROS) Operational Satellite (TOVS), and Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) data sets. STC-METSAT also produced a companion, global, integrated liquid water data set. The complete data set (all three products) has been named NVAP, an anachronym for NASA Water Vapor Project. STC-METSAT developed methods to process the data at a daily time scale and 1 x 1 deg spatial resolution. Vonderhaar, Thomas H. and Randel, David L. and Reinke, Donald L. and Stephens, Graeme L. and Ringerud, Mark A. and Combs, Cynthia L. and Greenwald, Thomas J. and Wittmeyer, Ian L. Unspecified Center NASW-4715...