Multi-moment statistics of temperature, water vapor, and cloud properties from the A-train and comparisons to climate models

The simultaneous spatial and temporal vertical profiling of clouds, temperature and water vapor from A-train instruments including the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and CloudSat radar are used for evaluating reanalyses obtained from climate models such as ECMWF, GFDL, and NCAR CAM. Variance scaling spectra of temperature and water vapor are obtained. Furthermore, we derive the height-dependent variance and skewness of temperature and water vapor in two dimensions with an emphasis on the subtropics and Tropics, regions in which the sounding capabilities of AIRS/AMSU are maximized. We discuss differences and similarities between the temperature and water vapor from climate models and the AIRS/AMSU observations and highlight implications for subgrid-scale climate model parameterization efforts.