U.S. flag An official website of the United States government.
Official websites use .gov

A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS

A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

i

Global total precipitable water variations and trends over the period 1958–2021



Details

  • Journal Title:
    Hydrology and Earth System Sciences
  • Personal Author:
  • NOAA Program & Office:
    CIRES (Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences)
  • Description:
    Global responses of the hydrological cycle to climate change have been widely studied, but uncertainties still remain regarding water vapor responses to lower-tropospheric temperature. Here, we investigate the trends in global total precipitable water (TPW) and surface temperature from 1958 to 2021 using ERA5 and JRA-55 reanalysis datasets. We further validate these trends using radiosonde from 1979 to 2019 and Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and Special Sensor Microwave Imager/Sounder (SSMIS) observations from 2003 to 2021. Our results indicate a global increase in total precipitable water (TPW) of ∼ 2 % per decade from 1993–2021. These variations in TPW reflect the interactions of global warming feedback mechanisms across different spatial scales. Our results also revealed a significant near-surface temperature (T2 m) warming trend of ∼ 0.15 K decade−1 over the period 1958–2021. The consistent warming at a rate of ∼ 0.21 K decade−1 after 1993 corresponds to a strong water vapor response to temperature at a rate of 9.5 % K−1 globally, with land areas warming approximately twice as fast as the oceans. The relationship between TPW and T2 m showed a variation of around 6 % K−1–8 % K−1 in the 15–55° N latitude band, aligning with theoretical estimates from the Clausius–Clapeyron equation.
  • Source:
    Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 28(9), 2123-2137
  • DOI:
  • ISSN:
    1607-7938
  • Format:
    pdf
  • Publisher:
    Copernicus GmbH
  • Document Type:
    Journal Article
  • License:
  • Rights Information:
    CC BY
  • Compliance:
    Library
  • Main Document Checksum:
    urn:sha-512:a4fcce46d5b6a28e5cd98924f364e9cf31db2bdf447ddb6f0f34883faa9f43903aaddcae29bda2990bc655fc35c158129d152a78b881b086d9cec3b6658e51ad
  • Download URL:
  • File Type:
    Filetype[PDF - 5.30 MB ]
PREVIOUS
ON THIS PAGE
Details
The NOAA IR serves as an archival repository of NOAA-published products including scientific findings, journal articles, guidelines, recommendations, or other information authored or co-authored by NOAA or funded partners. As a repository, the NOAA IR retains documents in their original published format to ensure public access to scientific information.
BACK TO TOP