How do the water vapor and carbon monoxide ‘‘tape recorders’’ start near the tropical tropopause?

[1] This paper evaluates geo-seasonal relationships in tropical deep convection using radar and infrared data from Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), near tropopause thin clouds from Stratospheric Air and Gas Experiment (SAGE) II, water vapor and carbon monoxide (CO) from the Earth Observing System (EOS) Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS), and the tropopause temperature from National Center of Environment Prediction (NCEP) reanalysis data. Geo-seasonal variations in MLS water vapor at 146 hPa and 100 hPa are negatively correlated, which points to dehydration at the tropical tropopause. Water vapor at 146 hPa is highly correlated with tropical deep convection and thin clouds, but at 100 hPa it is more highly correlated with the tropopause temperature. There is a high correlation between the geo-seasonal variations of 14–16 km thin cloud and cold clouds from deep convection. However, at 16–18 km, thin clouds are highly correlated with the tropopause temperature as well as with deep convection. There is a semi-annual cycle in CO concentrations at 100 hPa and 146 hPa. The variability is consistent with the convolved seasonal variation of deep convection and surface biomass burning. The annual cycle of water vapor at 100 hPa correlates with the seasonal variability of ‘‘freezing and drying’’ between 146 hPa and 100 hPa, which in turn correlates with changes in tropopause temperature associated with deep convective lifting or large scale ascent. Citation: Liu, C., E. Zipser, T. Garrett, J. H. Jiang, and H. Su (2007), How do the water vapor and carbon monoxide ‘‘tape recorders’’ start near the tropical tropopause?, Geophys. Res. Lett., 34, L09804, doi:10.1029/2006GL029234.