Clouds and precipitation in the initial phase of marine cold-air outbreaks as observed by airborne remote sensing

Marine cold-air outbreaks (MCAOs) strongly affect the Arctic water cycle and, thus, climate through large-scale air mass transformations. The description of air mass transformations is still challenging, partly because previous observations do not resolve fine scales, particularly for the initial development of an MCAO, and due to a lack of information about the thermodynamical evolution starting over sea ice and continuing over open ocean and associated cloud microphysical properties. Therefore, we focus on the crucial initial development within the first 200 km over open water for two case studies in April 2022 during the HALO-(AC)3 campaign (named after the High Altitude and Long Range Research Aircraft and Transregional Collaborative Research Centre ArctiC Amplification: Climate Relevant Atmospheric and SurfaCe Processes and Feedback Mechanisms (AC)3). The two events, just 3 d apart, belong to a particularly long-lasting MCAO and occurred under relatively similar thermodynamic conditions. Even though both events were stronger than the climatological 75th percentile of that period, the first event was characterized by colder air masses from the central Arctic which led to an MCAO index twice as high compared to that of the second event. The evolution and structure were assessed by flight legs crossing the Fram Strait multiple times at the same location, sampling perpendicularly to the cloud streets. Airborne remote sensing and in situ measurements were used to build statistical descriptions of the boundary layer, dynamics, clouds, and precipitation. For this purpose, we established a novel approach based solely on radar reflectivity measurements to detect roll circulation that forms cloud streets. The two cases exhibit different properties of clouds, riming, and roll circulations, though the width of the roll circulation is similar. For the stronger event, cloud tops are higher; more liquid-topped clouds exist; the liquid water path, mean radar reflectivity, precipitation rate, and precipitation occurrence have increased; and riming is active. The variability in rime mass has the same horizontal scale as the roll circulation, implying the importance of roll circulation on cloud microphysics and precipitation. Boundary layer and cloud properties evolve with distance over open water, as seen by, e.g., cloud top height rising. In general, cloud streets form after traveling 15 km over open water. After 20 km, this formation enhances cloud cover to just below 100 %. After around 30 km, precipitation forms, though for the weaker event, the development of precipitation is shifted to larger distances. Within our analysis, we developed statistical descriptions of various parameters (i) within the roll circulation and (ii) as a function of distance over open water. These detailed cloud metrics are particularly well suited for the evaluation of cloud-resolving models close to the sea ice edge to evaluate their representation of dynamics and microphysics.</p

Variability and properties of liquid-dominated clouds over the ice-free and sea-ice-covered Arctic Ocean

Due to their potential to either warm or cool the surface, liquid-phase clouds and their interaction with the ice-free and sea-ice-covered ocean largely determine the energy budget and surface temperature in the Arctic. Here, we use airborne measurements of solar spectral cloud reflectivity obtained during the Arctic CLoud Observations Using airborne measurements during polar Day (ACLOUD) campaign in summer 2017 and the Arctic Amplification: FLUXes in the Cloudy Atmospheric Boundary Layer (AFLUX) campaign in spring 2019 in the vicinity of Svalbard to retrieve microphysical properties of liquid-phase clouds. The retrieval was tailored to provide consistent results over sea-ice and open-ocean surfaces. Clouds including ice crystals that significantly bias the retrieval results were filtered from the analysis. A comparison with in situ measurements shows good agreement with the retrieved effective radii and an overestimation of the liquid water path and reduced agreement for boundary-layer clouds with varying fractions of ice water content. Considering these limitations, retrieved microphysical properties of clouds observed over the ice-free ocean and sea ice in spring and early summer in the Arctic are compared. In early summer, the liquid-phase clouds have a larger median effective radius (9.5 µm), optical thickness (11.8) and effective liquid water path (72.3 g m−2) compared to spring conditions (8.7 µm, 8.3 and 51.8 g m−2, respectively). The results show larger cloud droplets over the ice-free Arctic Ocean compared to sea ice in spring and early summer caused mainly by the temperature differences in the surfaces and related convection processes. Due to their larger droplet sizes, the liquid clouds over the ice-free ocean have slightly reduced optical thicknesses and lower liquid water contents compared to the sea-ice surface conditions. The comprehensive dataset on microphysical properties of Arctic liquid-phase clouds is publicly available and could, e.g., help to constrain models or be used to investigate effects of liquid-phase clouds on the radiation budget

Cloud mask and cloud top altitude from the AMALi airborne lidar on Polar 5 during HALO-AC3 in spring 2022

The data set contains the cloud mask and cloud top altitude derived from measurements with the Airborne Mobile Aerosol Lidar (AMALi; Stachlewska et al., 2010) operated on board the Polar 5 research aircraft during 11 flights of the HALO-AC3 airborne campaign carried out in early spring 2022 northwest of Svalbard (Norway). The measurement campaign is embedded in the Transregional Collaborative Research Centre TR 172 (ArctiC Amplification: Climate Relevant Atmospheric and SurfaCe Processes, and Feedback Mechanisms (AC)3. It should be considered that the measurements have not been corrected for aircraft attitude. The data set has been quality-checked and is available in NetCDF format for each flight separately

Microwave brightness temperature measurements during the HALO-AC3 Arctic airborne campaign in early spring 2022 out of Svalbard

The data set contains measurements performed by the passive radiometer Humidity And Temperature PROfiler (HATPRO; Rose et al., 2005) operated on board the Polar 5 research aircraft during 13 flights of the HALO-AC3 airborne campaign, carried out in early spring 2022 northwest of Svalbard (Norway). The measurement campaign is embedded in the Transregional Collaborative Research Centre TR 172 (ArctiC Amplification: Climate Relevant Atmospheric and SurfaCe Processes, and Feedback Mechanisms (AC)3. The published data set consists of brightness temperature measurements at the nadir view with respect to the aircraft's fuselage at seven frequencies in the 22.24 GHz water vapor absorption band and seven at the 60 GHz oxygen absorption complex. It should be considered that the brightness temperatures have not been corrected for aircraft attitude. The data set has been quality-checked and is available separately in NetCDF format for each flight

Radar reflectivities at 94 GHz and microwave brightness temperature measurements at 89 GHz during the HALO-AC3 Arctic airborne campaign

The published data set consists of measurements performed by the active cloud radar as part of the Microwave Radar and radiometer for Arctic Clouds (MiRAC; Mech et al., 2019) operated on board the Polar 5 research aircraft during 11 flights of the HALO-AC3 airborne campaign, carried out in early spring 2022 northwest of Svalbard (Norway). The measurement campaign is embedded in the Transregional Collaborative Research Centre TR 172 (ArctiC Amplification: Climate Relevant Atmospheric and SurfaCe Processes, and Feedback Mechanisms (AC)3. The published data set consists of radar reflectivities of the FMCW 94 GHz cloud radar transformed to nadir view and brightness temperature measurements at 89 GHz with a 25 deg backward inclination with respect to the aircraft's fuselage. It should be considered that the brightness temperatures have not been corrected for aircraft attitude. The data set has been quality-checked and is available in NetCDF format for each flight separately. Details on the instrument can be found in Mech et al. (2019)

Targeting of the transcription factor STAT4 by antisense phosphorothioate oligonucleotides suppresses collagen-induced arthritis

The transcription factor STAT4 mediates signals of various proinflammatory cytokines, such as IL-12, IL-15, and IL-23, that initiate and stabilize Th1 cytokine production. Although Th1 cytokine production has been suggested to play a major pathogenic role in rheumatoid arthritis, the role of STAT4 in this disease is poorly understood. In this study, we demonstrate a key functional role of STAT4 in murine collagen-induced arthritis (CIA). In initial studies we found that STAT4 expression is strongly induced in CD4( ) T cells and to a lesser extent in CD11b( ) APCs during CIA. To analyze the role of STAT4 for arthritis manifestation, we next investigated the outcome of interfering with STAT4 gene expression in CIA by using STAT4-deficient mice. Interestingly, STAT4-deficient mice developed significantly less severe arthritis than wild-type control mice and the T cells from such mice produced less IL-6, TNF, and IL-17. In addition, the targeting of STAT4 expression by a specific antisense phosphorothioate oligonucleotide directed at the translation start site suppressed STAT4 levels and signs of CIA even when applied during the onset of disease manifestation. These data suggest a key regulatory role of STAT4 in the pathogenesis and manifestation of murine collagen-induced arthritis. Furthermore, the targeting of STAT4 emerges as a novel approach to therapy for chronic arthritis

Quantifying riming from airborne data during the HALO-(AC)³campaign

Riming is a key precipitation formation process in mixed-phase clouds which efficiently converts cloud liquid to ice water. Here, we present two methods to quantify riming of ice particles from airborne observations with the normalized rime mass, which is the ratio of rime mass to the mass of a size-equivalent spherical graupel particle. We use data obtained during the HALO-(AC)3 aircraft campaign, where two aircraft collected radar and in situ measurements that were closely spatially and temporally collocated over the Fram Strait west of Svalbard in spring 2022. The first method is based on an inverse optimal estimation algorithm for the retrieval of the normalized rime mass from a closure between cloud radar and in situ measurements during these collocated flight segments (combined method). The second method relies on in situ observations only, relating the normalized rime mass to optical particle shape measurements (in situ method). We find good agreement between both methods during collocated flight segments with median normalized rime masses of 0.024 and 0.021 (mean values of 0.035 and 0.033) for the combined and in situ method, respectively. Assuming that particles with a normalized rime mass smaller than 0.01 are unrimed, we obtain average rimed fractions of 88ĝ€¯% and 87ĝ€¯% over all collocated flight segments. Although in situ measurement volumes are in the range of a few cubic centimeters and are therefore much smaller than the radar volume (about 45ĝ€¯m footprint diameter at an altitude of 500ĝ€¯m above ground, with a vertical resolution of 5ĝ€¯m), we assume they are representative of the radar volume. When this assumption is not met due to less homogeneous conditions, discrepancies between the two methods result. We show the performance of the methods in a case study of a collocated segment of cold-air outbreak conditions and compare normalized rime mass results with meteorological and cloud parameters. We find that higher normalized rime masses correlate with streaks of higher radar reflectivity. The methods presented improve our ability to quantify riming from aircraft observations.Aircraft Noise and Climate Effect

Ship- and island-based atmospheric soundings from the 2020 EUREC⁴A field campaign

International audienceTo advance the understanding of the interplay among clouds, convection, and circulation, and its role in climate change, the EUREC4A and ATOMIC field campaigns collected measurements in the western tropical Atlantic during Jan-uary and February 2020. Upper-air radiosondes were launched regularly (usually 4-hourly) from a network consisting of the Barbados Cloud Observatory (BCO) and four ships within 51–60 ◦W, 6–16 ◦N. From January 8 to February 19, a total of 812 radiosondes measured wind, temperature and relative humidity. In addition to the ascent, the descent was recorded for 82 % of the soundings. The soundings sampled changes in atmospheric pressure, winds, lifting condensation level, boundary layer depth, and vertical distribution of moisture associated with different ocean surface conditions, synoptic variability, and mesoscale convective organization. Raw (Level-0), quality-controlled 1-second (Level-1), and vertically gridded (Level-2) data in NetCDF format (Stephan et al., 2020) are available to the public at AERIS (https://doi.org/10.25326/62). The methods of data collection and post-processing for the radiosonde data set are described here