Understanding the Influence of Measurement Uncertainty on the Atmospheric Transition in Rainfall and Column Water Vapor

Abstract Measurement uncertainty plays a key role in understanding physical relationships. This is particularly the case near phase transitions where order parameters undergo fast changes and display large variability. Here the proposed atmospheric continuous phase transition is examined by analyzing uncertainty in rain-rate and column water vapor measurements from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission and through an idealized error analysis. It is shown through both of these approaches that microwave rain-rate retrievals can mimic a continuous phase transition. This occurs because microwave retrievals of instantaneous rain rates have a suppressed range. This work also suggests that column water vapor noise may provide part of the plateau seen in the observational relationship. Using updated measurements, this work indicates that the atmosphere is unlikely to undergo a continuous phase transition in rain rate but, instead, contains much larger variability in rain rates at extreme column water vapor values than previously thought. This implies that the atmosphere transitions from a low-variance nonraining state to a high-variance raining state at extreme column water vapor values.