NASA Logo

NTRS

NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server

Back to Results
Contributions of Satellite Observations to Understanding Climate ChangeOne of the challenges facing atmospheric scientists is to interpret trends in multi-decadal data records. Although data records from satellite instruments are not as long as some ground-based records, global coverage and resolved vertical profiles provide unique information for identifying signatures of climate change. For example, the Halogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE) on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite provided profiles of O3, H2O, HC1, HF, CH4 from October 1991 until November 2005. There are also multi-annual ground based measurements of the column HCl. Middle latitude ground-based measurements show a seasonal cycle, and the HALOE profiles show that this is driven by the seasonal change in the composition and mass of the region between the tropopause and 380K surface (the lowermost stratosphere). Understanding the processes that produce the seasonal cycle makes it possible to interpret a future change in the seasonal cycle as a marker of a change in the stratospheric residual circulation. Satellite observations have also provided key information for improving the physical basis of models used to predict future composition and climate circulation. An example is the "tape recorder" signature in tropical stratospheric water vapor, i.e., the slow ascent of high and low water vapor anomalies roughly corresponding to the tropopause temperature at the time air entered the stratosphere. This signature has become a key diagnostic of performance for climate models.
Document ID
20080045461
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Douglass, Anne R.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Date Acquired
August 24, 2013
Publication Date
July 22, 2006
Subject Category
Meteorology And Climatology
Meeting Information
Meeting: Climate Variability and Extremes During the Past 100 Years
Location: Gwatt
Country: Switzerland
Start Date: July 22, 2006
End Date: July 28, 2006
Sponsors: Swiss Federal Inst. of Technology
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

Available Downloads

There are no available downloads for this record.
No Preview Available