Journal of Geophysical Research Atmospheres

Hammerling, Dorit M.; Kawa, S. Randolph; Schaefer, Kevin; Doney, Scott; Michalak, Anna M.

doi: 10.1002/2014JD022483pmid: N/A

Satellite observations of carbon dioxide (CO2) offer novel and distinctive opportunities for improving our quantitative understanding of the carbon cycle. Prospective observations include those from space‐based lidar such as the active sensing of CO2 emissions over nights, days, and seasons (ASCENDS) mission. Here we explore the ability of such a mission to detect regional changes in CO2 fluxes. We investigate these using three prototypical case studies, namely, the thawing of permafrost in the northern high latitudes, the shifting of fossil fuel emissions from Europe to China, and changes in the source/sink characteristics of the Southern Ocean. These three scenarios were used to design signal detection studies to investigate the ability to detect the unfolding of these scenarios compared to a baseline scenario. Results indicate that the ASCENDS mission could detect the types of signals investigated in this study, with the caveat that the study is based on some simplifying assumptions. The permafrost thawing flux perturbation is readily detectable at a high level of significance. The fossil fuel emission detectability is directly related to the strength of the signal and the level of measurement noise. For a nominal (lower) fossil fuel emission signal, only the idealized noise‐free instrument test case produces a clearly detectable signal, while experiments with more realistic noise levels capture the signal only in the higher (exaggerated) signal case. For the Southern Ocean scenario, differences due to the natural variability in the El Niño–Southern Oscillation climatic mode are primarily detectable as a zonal increase.

Walterscheid, R. L.; Hecht, J. H.; Gelinas, L. J.; MacKinnon, A.; Vincent, R. A.; Reid, I. M.; Franke, S. J.; Zhao, Y.; Taylor, M. J.; Pautet, P. D.

doi: 10.1002/2014JD022016pmid: N/A

The Southern Hemisphere summer 2 day wave (TDW) is the most dramatic large‐scale event of the upper mesosphere. The winds accelerate over ~1 week, may attain > 70 m/s, and are often accompanied by a near disappearance of the diurnal tide and stabilization of the period close to 48 h. We denote this as the phase‐locked 2 day wave (PL/TDW). We have examined airglow and meteor radar (MR) wind data from the Andes Lidar Observatory (Cerro Pachon, Chile:30°S, 289.3°E), MR data from Darwin (12.5°S, 131°E) and airglow and medium frequency radar data from the University of Adelaide (34.7°S, 138.6°E) for the behavior of the TDW during the austral summers of 2010, 2012, and 2013. The Cerro Pachon and Adelaide sites are located at similar latitudes separated in longitude by about 120°. We find a remarkable coincidence between the TDW oscillations at Chile and Adelaide for the period January–February 2010. The oscillations are nearly in phase in terms of local time and the minima and maxima repeat at nearly the same local time from cycle to cycle consistent with a phase‐locked wave number 3 TDW. Data for this and other years (including Darwin) show that the amplitude of the diurnal tide decreases when the TDW is largest and that this occurs when the period is close to 48 h. These observations support the proposal that the PL/TDW is a subharmonic parametric instability wherein the diurnal tide transfers energy to a TDW that is resonant at nearly 48 h.

Cravigan, Luke T.; Ristovski, Zoran; Modini, Robin L.; Keywood, Melita D.; Gras, John L.

doi: 10.1002/2014JD022601pmid: N/A

Volatility‐hygroscopicity tandem differential mobility analyzer measurements were used to infer the composition of sub‐100 nm diameter Southern Ocean marine aerosols at Cape Grim in November and December 2007. This study focuses on a short‐lived high sea spray aerosol (SSA) event on 7–8 December with two externally mixed modes in the Hygroscopic Growth Factor (HGF) distributions (90% relative humidity (RH)), one at HGF > 2 and another at HGF~1.5. The particles with HGF > 2 displayed a deliquescent transition at 73–75% RH and were nonvolatile up to 280°C, which identified them as SSA particles with a large inorganic sea‐salt fraction. SSA HGFs were 3–13% below those for pure sea‐salt particles, indicating an organic volume fraction (OVF) of up to 11–46%. Observed high inorganic fractions in sub‐100 nm SSA is contrary to similar, earlier studies. HGFs increased with decreasing particle diameter over the range 16–97 nm, suggesting a decreased OVF, again contrary to earlier studies. SSA comprised up to 69% of the sub‐100 nm particle number, corresponding to concentrations of 110–290 cm−3. Air mass back trajectories indicate that SSA particles were produced 1500 km, 20–40 h upwind of Cape Grim. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X‐ray spectrometry measurements of sub‐100 nm aerosols collected from the same location, and at the same time, displayed a distinct lack of sea salt. Results herein highlight the potential for biases in TEM analysis of the chemical composition of marine aerosols.

Wargan, Krzysztof; Pawson, Steven; Olsen, Mark A.; Witte, Jacquelyn C.; Douglass, Anne R.; Ziemke, Jerald R.; Strahan, Susan E.; Nielsen, J. Eric

doi: 10.1002/2014JD022493pmid: N/A

Eight years of ozone measurements retrieved from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument and the Microwave Limb Sounder, both on the EOS Aura satellite, have been assimilated into the Goddard Earth Observing System Version 5 (GEOS‐5) data assimilation system. This study evaluates this assimilated product, highlighting its potential for science. The impact of observations on the GEOS‐5 system is explored by examining the spatial distribution of the observation‐minus‐forecast statistics. Independent data are used for product validation. The correlation of the lower stratospheric (the tropopause to 50 hPa) ozone column with ozonesondes is 0.99 and the (high) bias is 0.5%, indicating the success of the assimilation in reproducing the ozone variability in that layer. The upper tropospheric (500 hPa to the tropopause) assimilated ozone column is about 10% lower than the ozonesonde column, but the correlation is still high (0.87). The assimilation is shown to realistically capture the sharp cross‐tropopause gradient in ozone mixing ratio. Occurrence of transport‐driven low ozone laminae in the assimilation system is similar to that obtained from the High Resolution Dynamics Limb Sounder (HIRDLS) above the 400 K potential temperature surface, but the assimilation produces fewer laminae than seen by HIRDLS below that surface. Although the assimilation produces about 25% fewer occurrences per day during the 3 years of HIRDLS data, the interannual variability is captured correctly. This data‐driven assimilated product is complementary to ozone fields generated from chemistry and transport models. Applications include study of the radiative forcing by ozone and tracer transport near the tropopause.

Konopka, Paul; Ploeger, Felix; Tao, Mengchu; Birner, Thomas; Riese, Martin

doi: 10.1002/2014JD022429pmid: N/A

Based on multiannual simulations with the Chemical Lagrangian Model of the Stratosphere, (CLaMS) driven by ECMWF ERA‐Interim reanalysis, we discuss hemispheric asymmetries and the seasonality of the mean age of air (AoA) in the lower stratosphere. First, the planetary wave forcing of the Brewer‐Dobson circulation is quantified in terms of Eliassen Palm flux divergence calculated by using the isentropic coordinate θ. While the forcing of the deep branch at θ = 1000 K (around 10 hPa) has a clear maximum in each hemisphere during the respective winter, the shallow branch of the Brewer‐Dobson circulation, i.e., between 100 and 70 hPa (380 < θ < 420 K), shows almost opposite seasonality in both hemispheres with a pronounced minimum between June and September in the Southern Hemisphere. Second, we decompose the time‐tendency of AoA into the contributions of the residual circulation and of eddy mixing by analyzing the zonally averaged tracer continuity equation. In the tropical lower stratosphere between ±30°, the air becomes younger during boreal winter and older during boreal summer. During boreal winter, the decrease of AoA due to tropical upwelling outweighs aging by isentropic mixing. In contrast, weaker isentropic mixing outweighs an even weaker upwelling in boreal summer and fall making the air older during these seasons. Poleward of 60°, the deep branch locally increases AoA and eddy mixing locally decreases AoA with the strongest net decrease during spring. Eddy mixing in the Northern Hemisphere outweighs that in the Southern Hemisphere throughout the year.

DeLand, Matthew T.; Thomas, Gary E.

doi: 10.1002/2014JD022253pmid: N/A

Previous analysis of polar mesospheric clouds (PMCs) observed by Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet (SBUV) instruments found that long‐term variations in PMC brightness and occurrence frequency were anticorrelated with solar activity and that an increasing secular trend was present at most latitudes. In this paper, long‐term PMC variations are presented in terms of ice water content (IWC), a physically based variable which is easier to interpret than previously reported UV albedo values. This model‐based conversion from albedo to IWC removes most scattering angle effects. The derived long‐term PMC variations in the SBUV data set are qualitatively the same using either an empirically derived adjustment for local time effects or no adjustment (i.e., assuming cancelation of interannual variations in tidally induced amplitude and/or phase). When we use stratospheric ozone variations as a proxy for mesospheric temperature changes, as suggested by recent model studies, we can explain more of the long‐term IWC variability than if we use a linear trend. These results show that PMC ice water content in bright clouds increased rapidly from 1979 through the late 1990s and has been approximately constant from the late 1990s through 2013. The numerical value and sign of this trend during the last 15 years depend on the choice of end points and latitude band. Simultaneously, the solar response of IWC observed by SBUV has weakened during the most recent cycle in the Northern Hemisphere, but increased in the Southern Hemisphere.