Abstract
We have examined the global relation betwen the mean monthly surface level humidity and the precipitable water (Q-W relation) developed by Liu (1986) for its applicability to instantaneous data sets as proposed by Hsu and Blanchard (1989) over the Indian oceanic region. Our analysis using regional instantaneous values of W from Monex-79 in-situ data sets gave an rms error of 5.66gm/kg. This is considerably larger than the rms error of 0.4 gm/kg as obtained by Liu using the global mean monthly relation, thus failing to support Hsu and Blanchard's conjecture. However, a fifth-order polynomial in W derived by us based on instantaneous data indicates an rms error of 0.92 gm/kg.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Hsu, S. A. and Blanchard, B. W.: 1989, ‘The Relationship between Total Precipitable Water and Surface Level Humidity over the Sea Surface: A Further Evaluation’, J. Geophys. Res. 94, 14539–14545.
Liu, W. T.: 1986, ‘Statistical Relation between Monthly Mean Precipitable Water and Surface Level Humidity over Global Oceans’, Mon. Weather Rev. 114, 1591–1602.
Pandey, P. C.: 1982, ‘Precipitable Water: Its Linear Retrieval Using Leaps and Bounds Procedure and its Global Distribution from Seasat SMMR Data’, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA, 1982.
Simon, B. and Desai, P. S.: 1986, ‘Equatorial Indian Ocean Evaporation Estimates from Operational Meteorological Satellites and Some Inferences in the Context of Monsoon Onset and Activity’, Boundary-Layer Meteorol. 37, 37–52.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gautam, N., Basu, S., Gairola, R.M. et al. A curiosity regarding the relation between surface level humidity and precipitable water. Boundary-Layer Meteorol 60, 179–184 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00122067
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00122067