Sea surface mixed layer during the 10-11 June 1994 California coastally trapped event

A midlevel, coastally trapped atmospheric event occurred along the California coast 10-11 June 1994. This feature reversed the surface wind field along the coast in a northerly phase progression. Along the central California coast, the winds at the coastal stations reverse before the corresponding coastal buoy offshore, then followed hours later by passage of the leading edge of an overcast stratus cloud. The sea surface temperature was much colder in the narrow strip along the coast. The cloud characteristics may be accounted for by a sea surface mixed layer (SSML) model beginning with the wind reversal and growing with the square root of time. Heat is lost from the SSML to the sea surface. A cloud forms when the air temperature at the top of the SSML is equal to the dewpoint. It is suggested that a bore develops on the top of the SSML, increasing the thickness of the SSML and the progression speed of the cloud to 8 m s-1. There is evidence that an undular bore with a leading cloud develops in the thinner inshore SSML. Advancing beyond Monterey Bay, horizontal density contrast is believed to have caused the bore to change character to a gravity current with a narrower cloud that passed a point inshore before the winds reversed at the buoys. The last trace of a disturbed boundary layer ended at Point Arena where strong northerly winds prevented any further northerly progression and contributed to a cyclonic eddy that was formed in the lee of the point. Caution is suggested in the interpretation of stratus cloud phase progression without coastal wind measurements

Winter atmospheric conditions over the Japan/East Sea: The structure and impact of severe cold-air outbreaks

The Japan/East Sea is a marginal sea strategically placed between the world’s largest land mass and the world’s largest ocean. The Eurasian land mass extending to high latitudes generates several unique winter synoptic weather features, the most notable being the vast Siberian Anticyclone that covers much of the northeast Asian land mass. The Japan/East Sea’s very distinctive winter conditions result from being on the east side of the Eurasian landmass at mid-latitudes. The resulting winter atmospheric conditions over the Sea include the mean cold air flowing off Siberia that is occasionally spiked with severe very-cold-air outbreaks. In the winter of 1999–2000, a group of Russian, Korean, Japanese, and American scientists conducted an international program to investigate the oceanography of the Japan/East Sea and its surface forcing. During this program, we made atmospheric observations with a research aircraft and ships to understand the lower atmosphere and surface air-sea fl uxes. We report here several highlights of these investigations with a focus on the dramatic severe cold-air outbreaks that occur three to five times a winter month. We start with a refresher on the physical setting and the winter mean and synoptic conditions, then describe the marine boundary layer and air-sea interaction based on research aircraft and ship measurements, and conclude with numerical model simulations that illustrate the special role of coastal topography on the surface wind fi eld and air-sea fl uxes over the Japan/East Sea

Energetic particle influence on the Earth's atmosphere

This manuscript gives an up-to-date and comprehensive overview of the effects of energetic particle precipitation (EPP) onto the whole atmosphere, from the lower thermosphere/mesosphere through the stratosphere and troposphere, to the surface. The paper summarizes the different sources and energies of particles, principally galactic cosmic rays (GCRs), solar energetic particles (SEPs) and energetic electron precipitation (EEP). All the proposed mechanisms by which EPP can affect the atmosphere are discussed, including chemical changes in the upper atmosphere and lower thermosphere, chemistry-dynamics feedbacks, the global electric circuit and cloud formation. The role of energetic particles in Earth’s atmosphere is a multi-disciplinary problem that requires expertise from a range of scientific backgrounds. To assist with this synergy, summary tables are provided, which are intended to evaluate the level of current knowledge of the effects of energetic particles on processes in the entire atmosphere

Adjustment of the Summer Marine Boundary Layer around Point Sur, California

An instrumented C-130 aircraft flew over water around Point Sur, California, on 17 June 1996 under strong northwest wind conditions and a strong marine inversion. Patterns were flown from 30- to 1200-m elevation and up to 120 km offshore. Nearshore, marine air accelerated past Point Sur, reaching a surface maximum of 17 m s21 in the lee. Winds measured over water in and above the marine layer were alongshore with no significant cross-shore flow.This project was supported by the National Science Foundation Grant ATM 95-26138 and the Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-19-1-0232. One of the authors (WTT) was supported by Program Element 0601153N, Office of Naval Research. We are especially grateful to the NCAR C-130 crew for their support

February 2003 marine atmospheric conditions and the bora over the northern Adriatic

A vinter oceanographic field experiment provided an opportunity to examine theatmospheric marine conditions over the northern Adriatic. Mean February winds are from a northeasterly direction over most of the Adriatic and a more northerly direction along the western coast..

Isotropic at the Break? 3D Kinematics of Milky Way Halo Stars in the Foreground of M31

We present the line-of-sight (LOS) velocities for 13 distant main sequence Milky Way halo stars with published proper motions. The proper motions were measured using long baseline (5-7 years) multi-epoch HST/ACS photometry, and the LOS velocities were extracted from deep (5-6 hour integrations) Keck II/DEIMOS spectra. We estimate the parameters of the velocity ellipsoid of the stellar halo using a Markov chain Monte Carlo ensembler sampler method. The velocity second moments in the directions of the Galactic (l,b, LOS) coordinate system are ⟨v2l⟩1/2=138+43−26 km/s, ⟨v2b⟩1/2=88+28−17 km/s, and ⟨v2LOS⟩1/2=91+27−14 km/s. We use these ellipsoid parameters to constrain the velocity anisotropy of the stellar halo. Ours is the first measurement of the anisotropy parameter β using 3D kinematics outside of the solar neighborhood. We find β=−0.3+0.4−0.9, consistent with isotropy and lower than solar neighborhood β measurements by 2σ (βSN∼0.5−0.7). We identify two stars in our sample that are likely members of the known TriAnd substructure, and excluding these objects from our sample increases our estimate of the anisotropy to β=0.1+0.4−1.0, which is still lower than solar neighborhood measurements by 1σ. The potential decrease in β with Galactocentric radius is inconsistent with theoretical predictions, though consistent with recent observational studies, and may indicate the presence of large, shell-type structure (or structures) at r∼25 kpc. The methods described in this paper will be applied to a much larger sample of stars with 3D kinematics observed through the ongoing HALO7D program