RETRIEVAL OF TROPOSPHERIC WATER-VAPOR SCALE HEIGHT FROM HORIZONTAL TURBULENCE STRUCTURE

A scale height of the vertical water vapor distribution in the troposp here is shown to be related to the rate at which the total integrated water vapor (IWV) decorrelates with horizontal separation. This relati onship is based on the departure from simple Kolmogorov behavior of th e turbulence structure of the IWV as the horizontal separation becomes a significant fraction of the scale height of the three dimensional ( 3-D) turbulence, The relationship is demonstrated by comparisons betwe en direct measurements of the vertical water vapor distribution, by ra diosondes, and coincident estimates of the horizontal turbulence struc ture, using the TOPEX Microwave Radiometer (TMR). This provides a new method by which to resolve some of the vertical structure of lower tro pospheric water vapor from space, The turbulence structure estimator i s applied to a larger body of TMR data to produce a sequence of images describing the dynamics of water vapor scale height across the tropic al Pacific Ocean. The cyclical evolution of a basin scale east/west ri dge of water vapor with high scale height near 5 degrees north latitud e is detected which is consistent with other observations of the Madde n and Julian Oscillation, The general technique presented here should be applicable to many other existing data sets which image the horizon tal distribution of IWV, e.g., those of the Defense Meteorological Sat ellite Program's special sensor microwave/imagers.