TY - JOUR AU - Spichtinger, P. AU - Gierens, K. AU - Smit, H. G. J. AU - Ovarlez, J. AU - Gayet, J. F. TI - On the distribution of relative humidity in cirrus clouds JO - Atmospheric chemistry and physics VL - 4 SN - 1680-7316 CY - Katlenburg-Lindau PB - EGU M1 - PreJuSER-42870 SP - 639 - 647 PY - 2004 N1 - Record converted from VDB: 12.11.2012 AB - We have analysed relative humidity statistics from measurements in cirrus clouds taken unintentionally during the Measurement of OZone by Airbus In-service airCraft project (MOZAIC). The shapes of the in-cloud humidity distributions change from nearly symmetric in relatively warm cirrus (warmer than -40degreesC) to considerably positively skew (i.e. towards high humidities) in colder clouds. These results are in agreement to findings obtained recently from the IN-terhemispheric differences in Cirrus properties from Anthropogenic emissions (INCA) campaign (Ovarlez et al., 2002). We interprete the temperature dependence of the shapes of the humidity distributions as an effect of the length of time a cirrus cloud needs from formation to a mature equilibrium stage, where the humidity is close to saturation. The duration of this transitional period increases with decreasing temperature. Hence cold cirrus clouds are more often met in the transitional stage than warm clouds. KW - J (WoSType) LB - PUB:(DE-HGF)16 UR - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000220871000002 UR - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/42870 ER -