Open AccessThe relationship of atmospheric air temperature and dew point temperature to extreme rainfall
Author(s) -
Andrew Bui,
Fiona Johnson,
Conrad Wasko
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
environmental research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.37
H-Index - 124
ISSN - 1748-9326
DOI - 10.1088/1748-9326/ab2a26
Subject(s) - dew point , environmental science , radiosonde , dew , atmospheric temperature , atmospheric sciences , air temperature , climatology , potential temperature , geopotential height , meteorology , precipitation , geology , geography , condensation
To understand the expected changes of extreme rainfalls due to climate change, the sensitivity of rainfall to surface temperature is often calculated. However, as surface temperatures may not be a good indicator of atmospheric moisture, an alternative is to use atmospheric temperatures, but the use of atmospheric temperatures lacks precedent. Using radiosonde atmospheric temperature data at a range of geopotential heights from 34 weather stations across Australia and its territories, we examine whether atmospheric temperature can improve our understanding of rainfall-temperature sensitivities. There is considerable variability in the calculated sensitivity when using atmospheric air temperature, while atmospheric dew point temperature showed robust positive sensitivities, similar to when surface dew point temperature measurements were used. We conclude atmospheric dew point temperature may be a promising candidate for future investigations of empirically calculated sensitivities of rainfall to temperature but does not appear superior to the use of surface dew point temperature measurements.