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Article: Can Lightning Observations be Used as an Indicator of Upper-Tropospheric Water Vapor Variability?
- Article from:
- Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
- Article date:
- March 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright American Meteorological Society Mar 2006. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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The link between the daily variability of lightning and upper-tropospheric water vapor suggests a possible method of monitoring an important climatic factor.
Over the last decade, as a result of the enhanced greenhouse effect, there has been significant discussion as to the fate of upper-tropospheric water vapor (UTWV) (Sun and Held 1996; Rind 1998; Lindzen et al. 2001; Del Genio 2002; Soden et al. 2002; Minschwaner and Dessler 2004). In general, both climate models and observations support the idea of a positive water vapor feedback; that is, higher surface temperatures will increase the amount of UTWV, further enhancing the surface warming. On the El Niño time scale, global temperatures ...