Vertical distribution features of atmospheric water vapour in the Po valley area

Two sets of radiosounding measurements, taken at different hours from some stations in the Po Valley area, were examined in order to obtain the values of precipitable waterw and determine the shapes of the vertical distribution curves of absolute humidity. From these curves, we calculated the bestfit values of scale heightsH ₁ andH ₂ in the 0÷5 km and 5÷10 km altitude intervals, respectively. The analysis of the radiosounding data clearly shows that parametersw andH ₁ are closely related to the evolutionary features of the meteorological conditions on synoptic scale and are influenced, to a lesser extent, by the diurnal variations in the atmospheric ground layer. Seasonal average curves of temperature and absolute humidity, as functions of altitude, were also defined from the radiosounding measurements taken at various hours of the day. Moreover, interpolation methods in time (applied to a 12-hour range) and in space (range of about 300 km) were proposed for determining parametersw andH ₁ from the radiosounding measurements taken at different hours from the same station or from different stations at the same hour. Reliability tests, made by comparing the same station or from different stations at the same hour. Reliability tests, made by comparing the values given by the interpolation methods with those directly obtained from the radiosounding measurements, show that these evaluations ofw andH ₁ are affected by standard errors of estimate, which are comparable to the errors usually made in analyzing the radiosounding data.