Integrated water vapor during active and break spells of monsoon and its relationship with temperature, precipitation and precipitation efficiency over a tropical site

Global Positioning System (GPS) measurements of integrated water vapor (IWV) for two years (2014 and 2015) are presented in this paper. Variation of IWV during active and break spells of Indian summer monsoon has been studied for a tropical station Hyderabad (17.4° N, 78.46° E). The data is validated with ECMWF Re-Analysis (ERA) 91 level data. Relationships of IWV with other atmospheric variables like surface temperature, rain, and precipitation efficiency have been established through cross-correlation studies. A positive correlation coefficient is observed between IWV and surface temperature over two years. But the coefficient becomes negative when only summer monsoon months (June, July, August, and September) are considered. Rainfall during these months cools down the surface and could be the reason for this change in the correlation coefficient. Correlation studies between IWV- precipitation, IWV- precipitation efficiency (P.E), and precipitation-P.E show that coefficients are −0.05, −0.10 and 0.983 with 95% confidence level respectively, which proves that the efficacy of rain does not depend only on the level of water vapor. A proper dynamic mechanism is necessary to convert water vapor into the rain. The diurnal variations of IWV during active and break spells have been analyzed. The amplitudes of diurnal oscillation and its harmonics of individual spell do not show clear trends but the mean amplitudes of the break spells are approximately double than those of the active spells. The amplitudes of diurnal, semi-diurnal and ter-diurnal components during break spells are 1.08 kg/m2, 0.52 kg/m2 and 0.34 kg/m2 respectively. The corresponding amplitudes during active spells are 0.68 kg/m2, 0.41 kg/m2 and 0.23 kg/m2.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC-ND

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