Monitoring present day changes in water vapour and the radiative energy balance using satellite data, reanalyses and models

摘要: A combination of satellite data, reanalysis products and climate models are combined to monitor changes in water vapour, clear-sky radiative cooling the atmosphere precipitation over period 1979-2006. Climate able simulate observed increases column integrated vapour (CWV) with surface temperature (Ts) ocean. Changes observing system lead spurious variability longwave radiation products. Nevertheless all considered exhibit a robust increase from surface; is found Ts at rate ~4 Wm-2 K-1 tropical ocean regions mean descending vertical motion. Precipitation (P) tightly coupled atmospheric rates this implies an P warming slower than CWV. Since convective depends on moisture convergence, above enhanced reduced convectively suppressed regimes. To quantify response, simulated analysed separately ascending motion tropics. The response be substantially larger model simulations change projections. It currently not clear whether due deficiencies parametrizations or errors retrievals.