Total precipitable water in the atmosphere over India

Electromagnetic radiation, in its passage through the atmosphere, is attenuated by absorption and scattering by atmospheric gases, dust and aerosols. The most important absorber is water vapour and the most significant parameter in atmospheric absorption studies is the total precipitable water in the atmosphere. The present paper summarises the results of a study made to compute the total precipitable water in the atmosphere over India using radiosonde and other data, as part of a programme for the computation of direct, global and diffuse solar radiation at the ground from the solar constant. Using values of air temperature and dew point from the ground up to 250 mb at 19 radiosonde stations and surface water vapour mixing ratio values at 105 surface observatories in India, precipitable water amounts have been computed for 124 stations, for each month and for the whole year. The paper describes the techniques used to extend the total precipitable water amounts derived from radiosonde data at 19 stations to 124 stations covering the major climatic zones in the country and presents the results in the form of 12 maps showing the spatial and temporal distribution of total precipitable water over India