Relationships between Water Vapor Path and Precipitation over the Tropical Oceans. Bretherton, C. S., Peters, M. E., & Back, L. E. Journal of Climate, 17(7):1517–1528, 2004. ![Relationships between Water Vapor Path and Precipitation over the Tropical Oceans [link]](https://bibbase.org/img/filetypes/link.svg "link")
Paper doi abstract bibtex Abstract The relationship between water vapor path W and surface precipitation rate P over tropical oceanic regions is analyzed using 4 yr of gridded daily SSM/I satellite microwave radiometer data. A tight monthly mean relationship P (mm day−1) = exp[11.4(r − 0.522)] for all tropical ocean regions and seasons is found between P and a column-relative humidity r obtained by dividing W by the corresponding saturation water vapor path. A similar relation, albeit with more scatter, also holds at daily time scales, and can be interpreted as a moisture adjustment time scale of 12 h for convective rainfall to affect humidity anomalies on 300-km space scales. Cross-spectral analysis shows statistically significant covariability of actual and r-predicted precipitation at all frequencies, with negligible phase lag. The correlation of actual and r-predicted precipitation exceeds 0.5 on intraseasonal and longer time scales. The SSM/I retrievals of W and P are found to be skillful even at daily time scales when compared with in situ radiosonde and radar-derived area-averaged precipitation data from Kwajalein Island, but the microwave estimates of daily P scatter considerably about the radar estimates (which are considered to be more reliable). Using the radar-derived precipitation in combination with microwave-derived W yields a daily r–P relationship at Kwajalein similar to that derived solely from microwave measurements, but with somewhat less P associated with the highest values of r. This emphasizes that the absolute calibration of the r–P relationship is somewhat dependent on the datasets used to derive r and especially P. Nevertheless, the results provide a useful constraint on conceptual models and parameterizations of tropical deep convection.
@article{bretherton_relationships_2004,
title = {Relationships between {Water} {Vapor} {Path} and {Precipitation} over the {Tropical} {Oceans}},
volume = {17},
url = {https://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/1520-0442%282004%29017%3C1517%3ARBWVPA%3E2.0.CO%3B2},
doi = {10.1175/1520-0442(2004)017<1517:rbwvpa>2.0.co;2},
abstract = {Abstract The relationship between water vapor path W and surface precipitation rate P over tropical oceanic regions is analyzed using 4 yr of gridded daily SSM/I satellite microwave radiometer data. A tight monthly mean relationship P (mm day−1) = exp[11.4(r − 0.522)] for all tropical ocean regions and seasons is found between P and a column-relative humidity r obtained by dividing W by the corresponding saturation water vapor path. A similar relation, albeit with more scatter, also holds at daily time scales, and can be interpreted as a moisture adjustment time scale of 12 h for convective rainfall to affect humidity anomalies on 300-km space scales. Cross-spectral analysis shows statistically significant covariability of actual and r-predicted precipitation at all frequencies, with negligible phase lag. The correlation of actual and r-predicted precipitation exceeds 0.5 on intraseasonal and longer time scales. The SSM/I retrievals of W and P are found to be skillful even at daily time scales when compared with in situ radiosonde and radar-derived area-averaged precipitation data from Kwajalein Island, but the microwave estimates of daily P scatter considerably about the radar estimates (which are considered to be more reliable). Using the radar-derived precipitation in combination with microwave-derived W yields a daily r–P relationship at Kwajalein similar to that derived solely from microwave measurements, but with somewhat less P associated with the highest values of r. This emphasizes that the absolute calibration of the r–P relationship is somewhat dependent on the datasets used to derive r and especially P. Nevertheless, the results provide a useful constraint on conceptual models and parameterizations of tropical deep convection.},
number = {7},
journal = {Journal of Climate},
author = {Bretherton, Christopher S. and Peters, Matthew E. and Back, Larissa E.},
year = {2004},
pages = {1517--1528},
}
Downloads: 0
{"_id":"XxvByHBocQCWQT5G5","bibbaseid":"bretherton-peters-back-relationshipsbetweenwatervaporpathandprecipitationoverthetropicaloceans-2004","author_short":["Bretherton, C. S.","Peters, M. E.","Back, L. E."],"bibdata":{"bibtype":"article","type":"article","title":"Relationships between Water Vapor Path and Precipitation over the Tropical Oceans","volume":"17","url":"https://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/1520-0442%282004%29017%3C1517%3ARBWVPA%3E2.0.CO%3B2","doi":"10.1175/1520-0442(2004)017<1517:rbwvpa>2.0.co;2","abstract":"Abstract The relationship between water vapor path W and surface precipitation rate P over tropical oceanic regions is analyzed using 4 yr of gridded daily SSM/I satellite microwave radiometer data. A tight monthly mean relationship P (mm day−1) = exp[11.4(r − 0.522)] for all tropical ocean regions and seasons is found between P and a column-relative humidity r obtained by dividing W by the corresponding saturation water vapor path. A similar relation, albeit with more scatter, also holds at daily time scales, and can be interpreted as a moisture adjustment time scale of 12 h for convective rainfall to affect humidity anomalies on 300-km space scales. Cross-spectral analysis shows statistically significant covariability of actual and r-predicted precipitation at all frequencies, with negligible phase lag. The correlation of actual and r-predicted precipitation exceeds 0.5 on intraseasonal and longer time scales. The SSM/I retrievals of W and P are found to be skillful even at daily time scales when compared with in situ radiosonde and radar-derived area-averaged precipitation data from Kwajalein Island, but the microwave estimates of daily P scatter considerably about the radar estimates (which are considered to be more reliable). Using the radar-derived precipitation in combination with microwave-derived W yields a daily r–P relationship at Kwajalein similar to that derived solely from microwave measurements, but with somewhat less P associated with the highest values of r. This emphasizes that the absolute calibration of the r–P relationship is somewhat dependent on the datasets used to derive r and especially P. Nevertheless, the results provide a useful constraint on conceptual models and parameterizations of tropical deep convection.","number":"7","journal":"Journal of Climate","author":[{"propositions":[],"lastnames":["Bretherton"],"firstnames":["Christopher","S."],"suffixes":[]},{"propositions":[],"lastnames":["Peters"],"firstnames":["Matthew","E."],"suffixes":[]},{"propositions":[],"lastnames":["Back"],"firstnames":["Larissa","E."],"suffixes":[]}],"year":"2004","pages":"1517–1528","bibtex":"@article{bretherton_relationships_2004,\n\ttitle = {Relationships between {Water} {Vapor} {Path} and {Precipitation} over the {Tropical} {Oceans}},\n\tvolume = {17},\n\turl = {https://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/1520-0442%282004%29017%3C1517%3ARBWVPA%3E2.0.CO%3B2},\n\tdoi = {10.1175/1520-0442(2004)017<1517:rbwvpa>2.0.co;2},\n\tabstract = {Abstract The relationship between water vapor path W and surface precipitation rate P over tropical oceanic regions is analyzed using 4 yr of gridded daily SSM/I satellite microwave radiometer data. A tight monthly mean relationship P (mm day−1) = exp[11.4(r − 0.522)] for all tropical ocean regions and seasons is found between P and a column-relative humidity r obtained by dividing W by the corresponding saturation water vapor path. A similar relation, albeit with more scatter, also holds at daily time scales, and can be interpreted as a moisture adjustment time scale of 12 h for convective rainfall to affect humidity anomalies on 300-km space scales. Cross-spectral analysis shows statistically significant covariability of actual and r-predicted precipitation at all frequencies, with negligible phase lag. The correlation of actual and r-predicted precipitation exceeds 0.5 on intraseasonal and longer time scales. The SSM/I retrievals of W and P are found to be skillful even at daily time scales when compared with in situ radiosonde and radar-derived area-averaged precipitation data from Kwajalein Island, but the microwave estimates of daily P scatter considerably about the radar estimates (which are considered to be more reliable). Using the radar-derived precipitation in combination with microwave-derived W yields a daily r–P relationship at Kwajalein similar to that derived solely from microwave measurements, but with somewhat less P associated with the highest values of r. This emphasizes that the absolute calibration of the r–P relationship is somewhat dependent on the datasets used to derive r and especially P. Nevertheless, the results provide a useful constraint on conceptual models and parameterizations of tropical deep convection.},\n\tnumber = {7},\n\tjournal = {Journal of Climate},\n\tauthor = {Bretherton, Christopher S. and Peters, Matthew E. and Back, Larissa E.},\n\tyear = {2004},\n\tpages = {1517--1528},\n}\n\n","author_short":["Bretherton, C. S.","Peters, M. E.","Back, L. E."],"key":"bretherton_relationships_2004","id":"bretherton_relationships_2004","bibbaseid":"bretherton-peters-back-relationshipsbetweenwatervaporpathandprecipitationoverthetropicaloceans-2004","role":"author","urls":{"Paper":"https://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/1520-0442%282004%29017%3C1517%3ARBWVPA%3E2.0.CO%3B2"},"metadata":{"authorlinks":{}},"html":""},"bibtype":"article","biburl":"https://bibbase.org/zotero/phiguera","dataSources":["FoqTuDx9Cxduvwxiv"],"keywords":[],"search_terms":["relationships","between","water","vapor","path","precipitation","over","tropical","oceans","bretherton","peters","back"],"title":"Relationships between Water Vapor Path and Precipitation over the Tropical Oceans","year":2004}