High-resolution polar low winds obtained from unsupervised sar wind retrieval

High-resolution sea surface observations by spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) instruments are sorely neglected resources for meteorological applications in polar regions. Such radar observations provide information about wind speed and direction based on wind-induced roughness of the sea surface. The increasing coverage of SAR observations in polar regions calls for the development of SAR-specific applications that make use of the full information content of this valuable resource. Here we provide examples of the potential of SAR observations to provide details of the complex, mesoscale wind structure during polar low events, and examine the performance of two current wind retrieval methods. Furthermore, we suggest a new approach towards accurate wind vector retrieval of complex wind fields from SAR observations that does not require a priori wind direction input that the most common retrieval methods are dependent on. This approach has the potential to be particularly beneficial for numerical forecasting of weather systems with strong wind gradients, such as polar lows

Modelled and observed sea-spray icing in Arctic-Norwegian waters

Link to publishers version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.coldregions.2016.11.002Hazardous marine icing is a major concern for ships operating in Arctic waters during freezing conditions. Sea spray generated by the interaction between a ship and ocean waves is the most important water source in these dangerous icing events. Although there exist several data sets with observations of ice accretion in conjunction with meteorological and oceanographic parameters, these data sets often have shortcomings and only a few are obtained in Arctic-Norwegian waters. In this study, icing rates from a large coast-guard vessel type, the KV Nordkapp class, are used for verification of a newly proposed Marine-Icing Model for the Norwegian COast Guard (MINCOG). Ship observations, NOrwegian ReAnalysis 10km data (NORA10), and wave data based on empirical statistical relationships between wind and waves are all applied in MINCOG and the results are compared. The model includes two different empirically-derived formulations of spray flux. It is found that in general the best results for different verification scores are obtained by using a combination of observed atmosphere and ocean-wave parameters from the ships, and wave period and direction from NORA10, regardless of the spray-flux formulation applied. Furthermore, the results illuminate that wave parameters derived from formulas based on empirical relationships between the local wind speed and significant wave height and wave period, compared to those obtained from observations or NORA10, considerably worsen icing-rate predictions in Arctic-Norwegian waters when applied in MINCOG

The global atmospheric energy transport analysed by a wavelength-based scale separation

Source at https://www.weather-climate-dynamics.net/.The global atmospheric circulation is fundamental for the local weather and climate by redistributing energy and moisture. To the present day, there is a knowledge gap at which spatial scales the energy and its components are transported. Therefore, we separate the meridional atmospheric energy transport in the ERA5 reanalysis by the spatial scales, the quasi-stationary and transient flow patterns, and the latent and dry-static component. We focus on the annual and seasonal mean in the transport components as well as their inter-annual variability. Motivated by similarities across latitudes in the atmospheric transport spectra when displayed as function of wavelength, we refine the existing scale separation method to be based on wavelength instead of wavenumber. This reveals advantageous, as the following conclusions can be drawn, which are fairly similar in the two hemispheres. Transport by synoptic waves, defined at wavelengths between 2,000 and 8,000 km, is the largest contributor to extra-tropical energy and moisture transport, is mainly of transient character, and is little influenced by seasonality. In contrast, the transport by planetary waves, larger than 8,000 km, highly depends on the season and has two distinct characteristics. (1) In the extra-tropical winter, planetary waves are of major importance due to transport of dry-static energy. This planetary transport feature the largest inter-annual variability, and is mainly quasi-stationary in the Northern Hemisphere, but transient in its southern counterpart. (2) In the subtropical summer, quasi-stationary planetary waves are the most important transport component mainly due to advection of moisture, which is associated with monsoons. In contrast to transport by planetary and synoptic waves, only a negligible amount of energy is transported by mesoscale eddies (< 2,000 km)

The importance of spring atmospheric conditions for predictions of the Arctic summer sea ice extent

Recent studies have shown that atmospheric processes in spring play an important role for the initiation of the summer ice melt and therefore may strongly influence the September sea ice concentration (SSIC). Here a simple statistical regression model based on only atmospheric spring parameters is applied in order to predict the SSIC over the major part of the Arctic Ocean. By using spring anomalies of downwelling longwave radiation or atmospheric water vapor as predictor variables, correlation coefficients between observed and predicted SSIC of up to 0.5 are found. These skills of seasonal SSIC predictions are similar to those obtained using more complex dynamical forecast systems, despite the fact that the simple model applied here takes neither information of the sea ice state, oceanic conditions nor feedback mechanisms during summer into account. The results indicate that a realistic representation of spring atmospheric conditions in the prediction system plays an important role for the predictive skills of a model system.Swedish Research Council FORMA

Influence of seasonal mesoscale and microscale meteorological conditions in Svalbard on results of monitoring of long-range transported pollution [poster]

The Zeppelin Observatory is an atmospheric monitoring station located on the northwest coast of Spitzbergen island, in the Svalbard archipelago. The station provides background air composition, meteorological and climatological data for numerous research projects. The observatory is located on a mountain ridge in a region with complex topography that affects local atmospheric circulation processes. Research question: How the seasonal data collected at the Zeppelin observatory and Ny-Ålesund station (Fig. 2b), a temporarily station in the settlement, is affected by: 1) micrometeorological conditions 2) mesoscale dynamics 3) local air pollutio

Effect of seasonal mesoscale and microscale meteorological conditions in Ny-Ålesund on results of monitoring of long-range transported pollution

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Dekhtyareva, A., Holmén, K., Maturilli, M., Hermansen, O. & Graversen, R. (2018). Effect of seasonal mesoscale and microscale meteorological conditions in Ny-Ålesund on results of monitoring of long-range transported pollution. Polar Research, 37(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/17518369.2018.1508196. Source at https://doi.org/10.1080/17518369.2018.1508196.Ny-Ålesund is an international research settlement where the thermodynamics and chemical composition of the air are monitored. The present work investigates the effects of micrometeorological conditions, mesoscale dynamics and local air pollution on the data collected at two different locations around the village. Daily filter measurements of sulphur dioxide and non-sea salt sulphate from the temporary Ny-Ålesund station and permanent Zeppelin mountain station have been analysed along with meteorological data. The influence of different factors representing micrometeorological phenomena and local pollution from ships has been statistically investigated. Seasonal variation of the correlation between the data from Ny-Ålesund and Zeppelin stations is revealed, and the seasonal dependence of the relative contribution of different factors has been analysed. The median concentrations of SO42- measured in Ny-Ålesund increased significantly on days with temperature inversions in winter. In spring, concentrations of SO2 and SO42- were higher than normal at both stations on days with temperature inversions, but lower on days with strong humidity inversions. In summer, local ship traffic affects the SO2 data set from Ny-Ålesund, while no statistically significant influence on the Zeppelin data set has been observed. The pollution from ships has an effect on SO42- values at both stations; however, the concentrations in Ny-Ålesund were higher when local pollution accumulated close to the ground in days with strong humidity inversions

Assimilation of high-resolution ice charts in a coupled ocean-sea-ice model

In this study, we show assimilation results from a coupled ocean sea-ice model. The model has a horizontal resolution of 2.5 km. In the assimilation system, we assimilate high-resolution ice charts, structured on a 1 km grid. We compare the assimilation of passive microwave observations with the assimilation of ice charts. It is shown that the ice charts have a larger impact on the assimilation system than the passive microwave observations. In addition, a few results from the assimilation system with ice charts are shown. These indicate improvements for the assimilation system assimilating ice charts compared to a free-run without assimilation and an assimilation system assimilating passive microwave observations

Meridional-energy-transport extremes and the general circulation of Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes: dominant weather regimes and preferred zonal wavenumbers

The extratropical meridional energy transport in the atmosphere is fundamentally intermittent in nature, having extremes large enough to affect the net seasonal transport. Here, we investigate how these extreme transports are associated with the dynamics of the atmosphere at multiple spatial scales, from planetary to synoptic. We use the ERA5 reanalysis data to perform a wavenumber decomposition of meridional energy transport in the Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes during winter and summer. We then relate extreme transport events to atmospheric circulation anomalies and dominant weather regimes, identified by clustering 500 hPa geopotential height fields. In general, planetary-scale waves determine the strength and meridional position of the synoptic-scale baroclinic activity with their phase and amplitude, but important differences emerge between seasons. During winter, large wavenumbers (k = 2–3) are key drivers of the meridional-energy-transport extremes, and planetary- and synoptic-scale transport extremes virtually never co-occur. In summer, extremes are associated with higher wavenumbers (k = 4–6), identified as synoptic-scale motions. We link these waves and the transport extremes to recent results on exceptionally strong and persistent cooccurring summertime heat waves across the Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes. We show that the weather regime structures associated with these heat wave events are typical for extremely large poleward-energy-transport events

Climate feedback efficiency and synergy

The Author(s) 2013. This article is published with open access at Springerlink.com Abstract Earth’s climate sensitivity to radiative forcing induced by a doubling of the atmospheric CO2 is deter-mined by feedback mechanisms, including changes in atmospheric water vapor, clouds and surface albedo, that act to either amplify or dampen the response. The climate system is frequently interpreted in terms of a simple energy balance model, in which it is assumed that individual feedback mechanisms are additive and act independently. Here we test these assumptions by systematically control-ling, or locking, the radiative feedbacks in a state-of-the-art climate model. The method is shown to yield a near-perfect decomposition of change into partial temperature contri-butions pertaining to forcing and each of the feedbacks. In the studied model water vapor feedback stands for about half the temperature change, CO2-forcing about one third, while cloud and surface albedo feedback contributions are relatively small. We find a close correspondence between forcing, feedback and partial surface temperature response for the water vapor and surface albedo feedbacks, while the cloud feedback is inefficient in inducing surface tempera-ture change. Analysis suggests that cloud-induced warming in the upper tropical troposphere, consistent with rising convective cloud anvils in a warming climate enhances the negative lapse-rate feedback, thereby offsetting some of the warming that would otherwise be attributable to this positive cloud feedback. By subsequently combining feedback mechanisms we find a positive synergy acting between the water vapor feedback and the cloud feedback; that is, the combined cloud and water vapor feedback is greater than the sum of its parts. Negative synergies sur-round the surface albedo feedback, as associated cloud and water vapor changes dampen the anticipated climate change induced by retreating snow and ice. Our results highlight the importance of treating the coupling between clouds, water vapor and temperature in a deepening troposphere

Springtime nitrogen oxides and tropospheric ozone in Svalbard: results from the measurement station network

Svalbard is a remote and scarcely populated Arctic archipelago and is considered to be mostly influenced by long-range-transported air pollution. However, there are also local emission sources such as coal and diesel power plants, snowmobiles and ships, but their influence on the background concentrations of trace gases has not been thoroughly assessed. This study is based on data of tropospheric ozone (O3) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) collected in three main Svalbard settlements in spring 2017. In addition to these ground-based observations and radiosonde and O3 sonde soundings, ERA5 reanalysis and BrO satellite data have been applied in order to distinguish the impact of local and synoptic-scale conditions on the NOx and O3 chemistry. The measurement campaign was divided into several sub-periods based on the prevailing large-scale weather regimes. The local wind direction at the stations depended on the large-scale conditions but was modified due to complex topography. The NOx concentration showed weak correlation for the different stations and depended strongly on the wind direction and atmospheric stability. Conversely, the O3 concentration was highly correlated among the different measurement sites and was controlled by the long-range atmospheric transport to Svalbard. Lagrangian backward trajectories have been used to examine the origin and path of the air masses during the campaign.publishedVersio