Abstract

Trace gases play an important role in the climate system. The most important trace gas certainly is water vapor, because it strongly affects both the radiation budget and the water cycle. It has been stated many times that detailed knowledge about the highly variable distribution of water vapor is mandatory for an understanding of weather and climate systems. In particularly the change of water vapor concentration, and hence the exchange of water vapor between atmosphere and surface, is most interesting in studies of many lower tropospheric processes. Reliable methods for estimating this vertical exchange or flux are therefore highly welcome.

© 1997 Optical Society of America