Here's an article from the NYT you might find interesting. I suppose there are papers on the instrument data, though the AGU presentation might be the first such release.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/16/science/space/16carbon.html Here's the title of the session presentation: A41B-0084. Estimates of the water vapor climate feedback during the El Niño Southern Oscillation. A. E. Dessler; S. Wong Abstract: We have estimated the strength of the water vapor feedback by analyzing the changes in tropospheric specific humidity during El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycles. We do this analysis in climate models and in two reanalysis products, the European Center for Medium- Range Weather Forecasts Reanalysis (ERA40) and the NASA Modern Era Retrospective-analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA). The water vapor feedback during ENSO in the models ranges from 1.4 to 3.9 W/m^2/K, and in the ERA40 and MERRA it is 3.7 and 4.7 W/m^2/K, respectively. Taken as a group, these values are higher than previous estimates of the water vapor feedback in response to century-long global warming, suggesting that the ENSO water vapor feedback may be stronger than the water vapor feedback in response to long-term global warming. We also examine the reason for the large spread in the ENSO- driven water vapor feedback among the models and between the models and the reanalyses. We show that the spread is not related to the variation in the simulation of water vapor, but are due to differing estimates of extratropical surface temperature variations during ENSO. The models and the reanalyses show a consistent relationship between the variations in the tropical surface temperature over an ENSO cycle and the radiative response to the associated changes in q. A link was also given to their J. Climate paper: http://geotest.tamu.edu/userfiles/216/dessler09b.pdf A31D-0134. Trajectory Calculations of Hydration/Dehydration in the Lower Stratosphere from Aura/MLS Water Vapor Measurements. S. Wong; A. E. Dessler Abstract: Hydration/dehydration rates at 365 K isentrope are estimated by averaging the differences of two Aura MLS H2O measurements closely linked by two-day Lagrangian trajectories. Stratospheric dehydration mainly occurs in Northern Hemispheric winter over the tropical western Pacific, where seasonally averaged rates are collocated with regions of high deep convective activity and relative humidity (RH). The Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) modulates the tropical dehydration through the migration of deep convection. The dehydration rate over the western Pacific is strongest when the enhancement in deep convection migrates to about 160°E, and dehydration appears over the Indian Ocean when the convection is enhanced over 80°E. Hydration of the stratosphere mainly occurs over the summertime subtropical- extratropical continents. The Asian monsoon provides the strongest stratospheric hydration during Northern Hemispheric summer. The hydration rates associated with the Asian monsoon is modulated by the MJO, becoming larger when the tropical convection is enhanced over the Indo/Pacific region (120°-160°E), when the Asian monsoon deep convective activity is also enhanced. E. S. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alastair wrote: > On Dec 13, 10:28 pm, Alastair <[email protected]> wrote: > I've re-read the Extended Abstract for Evans & Puckrin a bit more > carefully now. They are arguing that there is an increase in back > radiation of 3.52 W m^-2 compared to 2.55 W m^-2 predicted by models. > This increase is mainly due to water vapour. But water vapour is > highly variable so that is unconvincing. Another major factor in the > increase is from other anthropogenic gases such as CFCs, which of > course will produce a new forcing. It is only CO2 that I claim is > effectively saturated, and only within the CO2 bands. In other words I > am claiming that any line broadening is not significant. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Global Change ("globalchange") newsgroup. Global Change is a public, moderated venue for discussion of science, technology, economics and policy dimensions of global environmental change. Posts will be admitted to the list if and only if any moderator finds the submission to be constructive and/or interesting, on topic, and not gratuitously rude. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/globalchange
