A model for the relationship between tropical precipitation and column water vapor

Several observational studies have shown a tight relationship between tropical precipitation and column-integrated water vapor. We show that the observed relationship in the tropics between column-integrated water vapor, precipitation, and its variance can be qualitatively reproduced by a simple and...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Muller, Caroline (Contributor), Back, Larissa E. (Contributor), O'Gorman, Paul Ambrose (Contributor), Emanuel, Kerry Andrew (Contributor)
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (Contributor)
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: American Geophysical Union, 2011-01-07T14:23:08Z.
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Online Access:Get fulltext
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042 |a dc 
100 1 0 |a Muller, Caroline  |e author 
100 1 0 |a Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Emanuel, Kerry Andrew  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Muller, Caroline  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Back, Larissa E.  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a O'Gorman, Paul Ambrose  |e contributor 
100 1 0 |a Emanuel, Kerry Andrew  |e contributor 
700 1 0 |a Back, Larissa E.  |e author 
700 1 0 |a O'Gorman, Paul Ambrose  |e author 
700 1 0 |a Emanuel, Kerry Andrew  |e author 
245 0 0 |a A model for the relationship between tropical precipitation and column water vapor 
260 |b American Geophysical Union,   |c 2011-01-07T14:23:08Z. 
856 |z Get fulltext  |u http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/60393 
520 |a Several observational studies have shown a tight relationship between tropical precipitation and column-integrated water vapor. We show that the observed relationship in the tropics between column-integrated water vapor, precipitation, and its variance can be qualitatively reproduced by a simple and physically motivated two-layer model. It has previously been argued that features of this relationship could be explained by analogy with the theory of continuous phase transitions. Instead, our model explicitly assumes that the onset of precipitation is governed by a stability threshold involving boundary-layer water vapor. This allows us to explain the precipitation-humidity relationship over a broader range of water vapor values, and may explain the observed temperature dependence of the relationship. 
546 |a en_US 
655 7 |a Article 
773 |t Geophysical Research Letters