The vertical structure and spatial variability of lower-tropospheric water vapor and clouds in the trades

Naumann, Ann Kristin; Kiemle, Christoph

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-6129-2020

Articles | Volume 20, issue 10

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-6129-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

Tropospheric profiling (ISTP11) (AMT/ACP inter-journal SI)

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-6129-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 20, issue 10

Research article

|

26 May 2020

Research article |

| 26 May 2020

The vertical structure and spatial variability of lower-tropospheric water vapor and clouds in the trades

Ann Kristin Naumann and Christoph Kiemle

Data sets

Liquid water path and integrated water vapor over the tropical Atlantic during NARVAL-South Marek Jacob, Felix Ament, Manuel Gutleben, Heike Konow, Mario Mech, Martin Wirth, and Susanne Crewell https://doi.org/10.26050/WDCC/HALO_measurements_5

Liquid water path and integrated water vapor over the tropical Atlantic during NARVAL2. Marek Jacob, Felix Ament, Manuel Gutleben, Heike Konow, Mario Mech, Martin Wirth, and Susanne Crewell https://doi.org/10.26050/WDCC/HALO_measurements_6

Short summary

The interaction of water vapor and cloudiness poses challenges for weather and climate models. In this study we compare airborne lidar measurements from two field campaigns in the tropical Atlantic with high-resolution simulations. We find that at kilometer-scale grid spacing, the simulations show good skill in reproducing the water vapor distribution in the trades but struggle to capture the transition from cloud-free to low cloud fraction with increasing moisture.