Evidence of transport in water vapor profiles at mid latitudes from Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE II) measurements

In this paper we examine water vapor measurements from the Stratospheric Ae rosol and Gas Experiment II and present some midlatitude water vapor profil es which appear different from the normal profiles at these latitudes. They have maxims and minima as seen in the tropical profiles by Mote ct al. [19 96] from the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite measurements. The occurren ce statistics of these profiles are studied for the year 1988. These charac teristic profiles at extratropical latitudes may Indicate filaments of air that might have been advected episodically from tl tropics (or sometimes fr om the polar regions) and, as such, may be used as signatures of transporte d air at such latitudes. The fractional abundance of these profiles has bee n used to get a qualitative measure of the transport.