Abstract

Water vapor is the most important variable component of the atmosphere. It is one of the key factors shaping the weather and climate. Several major compilations of climatological water vapor distributions have now appeared in the literature (Oort , 1983; Crutcher, 1969; Newell et al., 1973). These analysis have been based largely on radiosonde measurements. Since standard radiosonde instruments do not provide reliable water vapor values above 10km, there is still very limited information on the water vapor behavior above mid troposphere.

© 1990 Optical Society of America