Abstract: In order to reasonably evaluate water vapor resources, the distribution and variation characteristics of water vapour in Huaibei region of Anhui Provice, China, from 2006 to 2015 were studied using AIRS Level 2 Standard Physical Retrieval V006 data, a joint inversion product from atmospheric infrared detectors (AIRS) and advanced microwave detectors (AMSU). Interannual variations of monthly and seasonal average characteristics of total precipitable water vapour and integrated water vapour of different layers (viz. 1000-850, 850-500 and 500-100 hPa) were mainly analyzed, as well as the relationship between temperature and water vapour. The results show that monthly average of total precipitation water vapour over the Huaibei area shows a decreasing trend year by year from 2006 to 2015. The seasonal distributions of the layer integrated water vapour in 1000-850, 850-500 and 500-100 hPa are consistent with that of total precipitable water vapour, showing the trend of summer > autumn > spring > winter. The interannual variations of the layer integrated water vapour in 1000-850, 850-500 and 500-100 hPa are also consistent with that of the total precipitable water vapour. And the largest annual variation appears in summer with a linear decreasing trend, followed by autumn with a increasing linearly year by year from 2006 to 2011 except for 500-100 hPa layer. The interannual variation of spring and winter is relatively small, and there is no significant linear relationship.

Key words: water vapour, satellite observation, Huaibei area