Premium
Tropospheric rivers? – A pilot study
Author(s) -
Newell Reginald E.,
Newell Nicholas E.,
Zhu Yong,
Scott Courtney
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/92gl02916
Subject(s) - troposphere , water vapor , atmospheric sciences , total ozone mapping spectrometer , flux (metallurgy) , atmosphere (unit) , trace gas , environmental science , ozone , wavelength , maxima , spectrometer , tropospheric ozone , atmospheric chemistry , meteorology , climatology , physics , geology , chemistry , ozone layer , optics , art , organic chemistry , performance art , art history
Computations of daily global tropospheric water vapor flux values show the presence of a filamentary structure. The filaments, here called rivers, have lengths many times their widths and persist for many days while being translated through the atmosphere. They are present in data analysed for both 1984 and 1991. The water vapor flux maxima coincide quite closely to reflectivity features (averaged from wavelengths of 380 and 360 nm) as revealed by the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS). It is suggested that the filamentary structure may also be present in other trace constituents.