On the distribution of relative humidity in cirrus clouds
Item
Title (Dublin Core)
On the distribution of relative humidity in cirrus clouds
Description (Dublin Core)
We have analysed relative humidity statistics from measurements in cirrus clouds taken unintentionally during the Measurement of OZone by Airbus In-service airCraft project (MOZAIC). The shapes of the in-cloud humidity distributions change from nearly symmetric in relatively warm cirrus (warmer than −40°C) to considerably positively skew (i.e. towards high humidities) in colder clouds. These results are in agreement to findings obtained recently from the INterhemispheric differences in Cirrus properties from Anthropogenic emissions (INCA) campaign (Ovarlez et al., 2002). We interprete the temperature dependence of the shapes of the humidity distributions as an effect of the length of time a cirrus cloud needs from formation to a mature equilibrium stage, where the humidity is close to saturation. The duration of this transitional period increases with decreasing temperature. Hence cold cirrus clouds are more often met in the transitional stage than warm clouds.
Creator (Dublin Core)
Spichtinger, P.
Gierens, K.
Smit, H. G. J.
Ovarlez, J.
Gayet, J.-F.
Date (Dublin Core)
2018-06-28
Type (Dublin Core)
Text
Format (Dublin Core)
application/pdf
Identifier (Dublin Core)
10.5194/acp-4-639-2004
https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/4/639/2004/
Source (Dublin Core)
eISSN: 1680-7324
Language (Dublin Core)
eng
