Monthly Mean Large-Scale Analyses of Upper-Tropospheric Humidity and Wind Field Divergence Derived from Three Geostationary Satellites

This paper describes the results from a collaborative study between the European Space Operations Center, the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies investigating the relationship between satellite-derived monthly mean fields of wind and humidity in the upper troposphere for March 1994. Three geostationary meteorological satellites GOES-7, Meteosat-3, and Meteosat-5 are used to cover an area from roughly 160°W to 50°E. The wind fields are derived from tracking features in successive images of upper-tropospheric water vapor (WV) as depicted in the 6.5-μ absorption band. The upper-tropospheric relative humidity (UTH) is inferred from measured water vapor radiances with a physical retrieval scheme based on radiative forward calculations. Quantitative information on large-scale circulation patterns in the upper troposphere is possible with the dense spatial ...