Modelling of annual variation of tropospheric moisture in the Australian region from radiosonde and satellite data

Radiosonde observations of tropospheric water vapour in the Australian region over several decades by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology provide data suitable for modelling the annual variation of moisture at standard pressure heights. The augmentation of this data bank in recent years with satellite observations allows such modelling to be extended to more locations. The climatic models of tropospheric water vapour derived in this paper are shown to have useful predictive capabilities at low altitudes, where the water vapour is most concentrated. The predictive capability decreases in usefulness at higher altitudes where the air is drier.