Evidence of transport in water vapor profiles at mid latitudes from Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment(SAGE II) measurements

Abstract

In this paper we examine water vapor measurements from the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment II and present some midlatitude water vapor profiles which appear different from the normal profiles at these latitudes. They have maxima and minima as seen in the tropical profiles by Mote et al. [1996] from the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite measurements. The occurrence statistics of these profiles are studied for the year 1988. These characteristic profiles at extratropical latitudes may indicate filaments of air that might have been advected episodically from the tropics (or sometimes from the polar regions) and, as such, may be used as signatures of transported air at such latitudes. The fractional abundance of these profiles has been used to get a qualitative measure of the transport.