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Infrared radiometric inference measurements of the mass of water vapor injected into the lower stratosphere and upper troposphere by a number of plains thunderstorms show an average threefold increase over the fair weather background mass of water vapor. These airborne measurements, made from the National Aeronautics and Space Admninistration Convair 990 jet laboratory, extended over a sample size much larger than that possible by balloon and other techniques.
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Kuhn et al. (1971) studied this question.
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