A case study on cirrus clouds using PWV measurement

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Abstract:

Cirrus (Ci) clouds are high level clouds at an altitude above 6 Km. Ci clouds are composed of ice crystals and responsible for optical phenomenon such as mock suns and halos. Though Ci clouds are non-precipitating in nature, it has considerable role in case of weather forecasting. This paper explores a study of Ci clouds as indicators of fair weather and high altitude wind direction based on Precipitable Water Vapor (PWV) measurement. Brightness Temperature (TB) values from data obtained using satellite water vapor channel, along with pressure and temperature from Global Forecast System (GFS) are used in this study for PWV calculation. Data collected over a period of one year from 1st of January, 2014 to 31st of December, 2014 is considered here.