The response of the earth's climate system to imposed forcings is governed by a complex superposition of feedback processes. Uncertainty in the way these feedbacks are included in climate models is a major contributor to uncertainties in global warming projections. Because of their sizable radiative effects, changes in the distribution of water vapor and clouds are particularly important in this regard, providing both the largest and most uncertain climate feedbacks in current models. The response of precipitation to increasing greenhouse gases is also closely tied to the response of water vapor and clouds, through their impact on the surface energy budget. This study will attempt to synthesize observations of the variations in water vapor, clouds, precipitation and radiative fluxes over the last two decades from both operational and research satellites. Attention will be focused on documented areas of discrepancy between satellite observations and climate models. Of particular interest will be the integration of multiple observational data sets of related hydrologic and radiative budget parameters for assessing the robustness of the discrepancies and exploring hypotheses for their explanation.