The global distribution of supersaturation in the upper troposphere from the atmospheric infrared sounder

Satellite data from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) is analyzed to examine regions of the upper troposphere that are supersaturated: where the relative humidity (RH) is greater than 100%. AIRS data compare well to other in situ and satellite observations of RH and provide daily global coverage up to 200 hPa, though satellite observations of supersaturation are highly uncertain. The climatology of supersaturation is analyzed statistically to understand where supersaturation occurs and how frequently. Supersaturation occurs in humid regions of the upper tropical tropopause near convection 10%-20% of the time at 200 hPa. Supersaturation is very frequent in the extratropical upper troposphere, occurring 20%-40% of the time, and over 50% of the time in storm track regions below the tropopause. The annual cycle of supersaturation is consistent for the 2.5 yr of data analyzed. More supersaturation is seen in the Southern Hemisphere midlatitudes, which may be attributed to higher temperature variance.

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Copyright 2006 American Meteorological Society (AMS). Permission to use figures, tables, and brief excerpts from this work in scientific and educational works is hereby granted provided that the source is acknowledged. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be "fair use" under Section 107 or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law (17 USC, as revised by P.L. 94-553) does not require the Society's permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form on servers, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statements, requires written permission or license from the AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policies, available from the AMS at 617-227-2425 or amspubs@ametsoc.org. Permission to place a copy of this work on this server has been provided by the AMS. The AMS does not guarantee that the copy provided here is an accurate copy of the published work.
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Author Gettelman, Andrew
Fetzer, Eric
Eldering, Annmarie
Irion, Fredrick
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2006-12-01T00:00:00
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Topic Category geoscientificInformation
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Metadata Date 2023-08-18T18:39:42.051879
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:7342
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Gettelman, Andrew, Fetzer, Eric, Eldering, Annmarie, Irion, Fredrick. (2006). The global distribution of supersaturation in the upper troposphere from the atmospheric infrared sounder. UCAR/NCAR - Library. http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7rf5vb5. Accessed 21 July 2025.

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