CIRA Water Vapor in the Climate System Research

Research Overview

How are global precipitation, evaporation, and the cycling of water changing?

How well can long-term climatic trends be assessed or predicted?

What trends in atmospheric constituents and solar radiation are driving global climate?

CIRA scientists have used the NVAP dataset for over 10 years to address these questions, posed as driving topics in NASA's Earth Science Enterprise. NVAP is a blended, global, daily analysis of water vapor from polar orbiting platforms. Cloud liquid water and diagnostic fields such as a data source code are produced as well. The dataset was created in a collaboration with STC-METSAT. Prof. Thomas Vonder Haar is the Princinal Investigator on the NASA Water Vapor Project (NVAP) at STC-METSAT.

Below are links to examples of the data-set and also results from studies with NVAP. The dataset can be ordered from the link at the bottom of the page. Our latest NVAP results are shown in this poster (1.4 MB)from the 12th AMS Conference on Satellite Meteorology and Oceanography, Long Beach CA in Feb. 2003.

NVAP has two eras:

1) NVAP 1988 - 1999: Uses SSM/I, TOVS, and radiosondes. Global product at 1 degree and daily resolution. 4 vertical layers.

2) NVAP 2000 - 2001: Uses SSM/I, SSM/T-2, ATOVS, Pathfinder PATH A, TMI, and AMSU retrievals. Global product at 1/2 degree and twice daily resolution. 5 vertical layers.

Animation of NVAP Daily Total Column Water Vapor Field for July 1999

Note the transport of moisture poleward by plumes and the monsoon moisture encountering the Himalayas. More animations are available on the NVAP-CD (available from the GEWEX Project Office, see below).

Click on image to start animation

 

Comparison of Water Vapor, SST and Temperature anomalies 1988-1999

Water vapor is highly correlated with SST and temperature. Note the ENSO and Mt. Pinatubo effects.

Click on image to enlarge

NEW NVAP CD_ROM COVERING 1988 - 1999 AVAILABLE

A new NVAP CD-ROM is now available and includes monthly averaged total column and layered water vapor, browse images (gif format) and PC displayable animated movies. The time period is 1988 - 1999. The entire NVAP dataset (1998 - 2001) can be ordered from the Langley DAAC via the link at the bottom of this page.

For a copy of the NVAP CD-ROM for 1988 - 1999 (free of charge) contact:

International GEWEX Project Office Suite 450, 1010 Wayne Avenue, Silver Spring, MD 20910 USA Tel: (301) 565-8345 Fax: (301) 565-8279 E-mail: gewex@gewex.org

A New Global Water Vapor Dataset - NVAP 1988 - 1999 reference paper (in HTML format).

Published in the June, 1996 AMS Bulletin. Includes color figures not included in original publication.

If you prefer Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format of the original article: A New Global Water Vapor Dataset

A journal paper explaining in detail the processes used to create NVAP for years 2000 and 2001 is in progress (as of September 2003).

NVAP Examples to show samples of available NVAP products.

NVAP Research Results shows some sample results obtained from the NVAP data-set.

To order the NVAP data-set from the NASA Langley DAAC, start up the WWW ordering system.

For more information about the NVAP data-sets, contact: 

      Dr. David L. Randel (randel@cira.colostate.edu)
      CIRA
      Colorado State University
      Ft. Collins, CO  80523

Last modified: September, 2003.

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