On the structural changes in the Brewer-Dobson circulation after 2000

In this paper we present evidence that the observed increase in tropical upwelling after the year 2000 may be attributed to a change in the Brewer-Dobson circulation pattern. For this purpose, we use the concept of transit times derived from residual circulation trajectories and different in-situ measurements of ozone and nitrous dioxide. Observations from the Canadian midlatitude ozone profile record, probability density functions of in-situ N2O observations and a shift of the N2O-O3 correlation slopes, taken together, indicate that the increased upwelling in the tropics after the year 2000 appears to have triggered an intensification of tracer transport from the tropics into the extratropics in the lower stratosphere below about 500 K. This finding is corroborated by the fact that transit times along the shallow branch of the residual circulation into the LMS have decreased for the same time period (1993–2003). On a longer time scale (1979–2009), the transit time of the shallow residual circulation branch show a steady decrease of about −1 month/decade over the last 30 years, while the transit times of the deep branch remain unchanged. This highlights the fact that a change in the upwelling across the tropical tropopause is not a direct indicator for changes of the whole Brewer-Dobson circulation

Surface ozone depletion episodes in the Arctic and Antarctic from historical ozonesonde records

International audienceEpisodes of ozone depletion in the lowermost Arctic atmosphere (0--2 km) at polar sunrise have been intensively studied at Alert, Canada, and are thought to result from catalytic reactions involving bromine. Recent observations of high concentrations of tropospheric BrO over large areas of the Arctic and Antarctic suggest that such depletion events should also be seen by ozonesondes at other polar stations. An examination of historical ozonesonde records shows that such events occur frequently at Alert, Eureka and Resolute, but much less frequently at Churchill and at other stations. The differences appear to be attributable to differences in surface meteorology. The long record at Resolute shows depletions since 1966, but with an apparent increase in their frequency since about 1985. This is surprising, since the Br involved in the depletion mechanism is believed to be entirely of natural origin

Influence of transport and ocean ice extent on biogenic aerosol sulfur in the Arctic atmosphere

The recent decline in sea ice cover in the Arctic Ocean could affect the regional radiative forcing via changes in sea ice-atmosphere exchange of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and biogenic aerosols formed from its atmospheric oxidation, such as methanesulfonic acid (MSA). This study examines relationships between changes in total sea ice extent north of 70 degrees N and atmospheric MSA measurement at Alert, Nunavut, during 1980-2009; at Barrow, Alaska, during 1997-2008; and at Ny-Alesund, Svalbard, for 1991-2004. During the 1980-1989 and 1990-1997 periods, summer (July-August) and June MSA concentrations at Alert decreased. In general, MSA concentrations increased at all locations since 2000 with respect to 1990 values, specifically during June and summer at Alert and in summer at Barrow and Ny-Alesund. Our results show variability in MSA at all sites is related to changes in the source strengths of DMS, possibly linked to changes in sea ice extent as well as to changes in atmospheric transport patterns. Since 2000, a late spring increase in atmospheric MSA at the three sites coincides with the northward migration of the marginal ice edge zone where high DMS emissions from ocean to atmosphere have previously been reported. Significant negative correlations are found between sea ice extent and MSA concentrations at the three sites during the spring and June. These results suggest that a decrease in seasonal ice cover influencing other mechanisms of DMS production could lead to higher atmospheric MSA concentrations

Validation of northern latitude Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer stare ozone profiles with ARC-IONS sondes during ARCTAS: sensitivity, bias and error analysis

We compare Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) versions 3 and 4, V003 and V004, respectively, nadir-stare ozone profiles with ozonesonde profiles from the Arctic Intensive Ozonesonde Network Study (ARCIONS, http://croc.gsfc.nasa.gov/arcions/ during the Arctic Research on the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites (ARCTAS) field mission. The ozonesonde data are from launches timed to match Aura's overpass, where 11 coincidences spanned 44° N to 71° N from April to July 2008. Using the TES "stare" observation mode, 32 observations are taken over each coincidental ozonesonde launch. By effectively sampling the same air mass 32 times, comparisons are made between the empirically-calculated random errors to the expected random errors from measurement noise, temperature and interfering species, such as water. This study represents the first validation of high latitude (>70°) TES ozone. We find that the calculated errors are consistent with the actual errors with a similar vertical distribution that varies between 5% and 20% for V003 and V004 TES data. In general, TES ozone profiles are positively biased (by less than 15%) from the surface to the upper-troposphere (~1000 to 100 hPa) and negatively biased (by less than 20%) from the upper-troposphere to the lower-stratosphere (100 to 30 hPa) when compared to the ozonesonde data. Lastly, for V003 and V004 TES data between 44° N and 71° N there is variability in the mean biases (from −14 to +15%), mean theoretical errors (from 6 to 13%), and mean random errors (from 9 to 19%)

Climate variability modulates western US ozone air quality in spring via deep stratospheric intrusions

Evidence suggests deep stratospheric intrusions can elevate western US surface ozone to unhealthy levels during spring. These intrusions can be classified as ‘exceptional events’, which are not counted towards non-attainment determinations. Understanding the factors driving the year-to-year variability of these intrusions is thus relevant for effective implementation of the US ozone air quality standard. Here we use observations and model simulations to link these events to modes of climate variability. We show more frequent late spring stratospheric intrusions when the polar jet meanders towards the western United States, such as occurs following strong La Niña winters (Niño3.4<−1.0 °C). While El Niño leads to enhancements of upper tropospheric ozone, we find this influence does not reach surface air. Fewer and weaker intrusion events follow in the two springs after the 1991 volcanic eruption of Mt. Pinatubo. The linkage between La Niña and western US stratospheric intrusions can be exploited to provide a few months of lead time during which preparations could be made to deploy targeted measurements aimed at identifying these exceptional events

Impact of the assimilation of ozone from the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer on surface ozone across North America

We examine the impact of assimilating ozone observations from the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) on North American surface ozone abundances in the GEOS-Chem model in August 2006. The assimilation reduces the negative bias in the modeled free tropospheric ozone, which enhances the ozone flux into the boundary layer. Surface ozone abundances increased by as much as 9 ppb in western North America and by less than 2 ppb in the southeast, resulting in a total background source of ozone of 20-40 ppb. The enhanced ozone in the model reduced the model bias with respect to surface ozone observations in the western USA, but exacerbated it in the east. This increase in the bias in the boundary layer in the east, despite the agreement between the assimilation and ozonesonde measurements in the free troposphere, suggests errors in the ozone sources or sinks or in boundary layer mixing in the model. © 2009

SPEAM-II experiment for the measurement of stratospheric NO2, O3 and aerosols

Following the success of the Sunphotometer Earth Atmosphere Measurement (SPEAM-I) experiment, a more involved experiment was developed to fly as part of the second set of Canadian Experiments (CANEX-2) which will fly on the US Space Shuttle in the fall of 1992. The instrument complement includes an IBM-PC compatible control computer, a hand-held diode array spectrophotometer, and an interference-filter, limb imaging radiometer for the measurement of the atmospheric airglow. The hand-held spectrometer will measure nitrogen dioxide, ozone and aerosols. The limb imaging radiometer will observe emissions from the O2(1 DELTA) and O2(1 SIGMA) airglow bands. Only the spectrophotometer will be discussed here

Technical Note: Ozonesonde climatology between 1995 and 2011: description, evaluation and applications

An ozone climatology based on ozonesonde measurements taken over the last 17 yr has been constructed for model evaluation and comparisons to other observations. Vertical ozone profiles for 42 stations around the globe have been compiled for the period 1995–2011, in pressure and tropopause-referenced altitudes. For each profile, the mean, standard deviation, median, the half-width are provided, as well as information about interannual variability. Regional aggregates are formed in combining stations with similar ozone characteristics. The Hellinger distance is introduced as a new diagnostic to identify stations that describe similar shapes of ozone probability distribution functions (PDFs). In this way, 12 regions were selected covering at least 2 stations and the variability among those stations is discussed. Significant variability with longitude of ozone distributions in the troposphere and lower stratosphere in the northern mid- and high latitudes is found. The representativeness of regional aggregates is discussed for high northern latitudes, Western Europe, Eastern US, and Japan, using independent observations from surface stations and MOZAIC aircraft data. Good agreement exists between ozonesondes and aircraft observations in the mid-troposphere and between ozonesondes and surface observations for Western Europe. For Eastern US and high northern latitudes, surface ozone values from ozonesondes are biased 10 ppb high compared to independent measurements. An application of the climatology is presented using the NCAR CAM-Chem model. The climatology allows evaluation of the model performance regarding ozone averages, seasonality, interannual variability, and the shape of ozone distributions. The new assessment of the key features of ozone distributions gives deeper insights into the performance of models

Numerical Simulations of Gravity Waves Imaged Over Arecibo During the 10-Day January 1993 Campaign

Recently, measurements were made of mesospheric gravity waves in the OI (5577 Å) nightglow observed from Arecibo, Puerto Rico, during January 1993 as part of a special 10-day campaign. Clear, monochromatic gravity waves were observed on several nights. By using a full-wave model that realistically includes the major physical processes in this region, we have simulated the propagation of two waves through the mesopause region and calculated the O(1 S) nightglow response to the waves. Mean winds derived from both UARS wind imaging interferometer (WINDII) and Arecibo incoherent scatter radar observations were employed in the computations as were the climatological zonal winds defined by COSPAR International Reference Atmosphere 1990 (CIRA). For both sets of measured winds the observed waves encounter critical levels within the O(1 S) emission layer, and wave amplitudes, derived from the requirement that the simulated and observed amplitudes of the O(1 S) fluctuations be equal, are too large for the waves to be gravitationally stable below the emission layer. Some of the model coefficients were adjusted in order to improve the agreement with the measurements, including the eddy diffusion coefficients and the height of the atomic oxygen layer. The effect of changing the chemical kinetic parameters was investigated but was found to be unimportant. Eddy diffusion coefficients that are 10 to 100 times larger than presently accepted values are required to explain most of the observations in the cases that include the measured background winds, whereas the observations can be modeled using the nominal eddy diffusion coefficients and the CIRA climatological winds. Lowering the height of the atomic oxygen layer improved the simulations slightly for one of the simulated waves but caused a less favorable simulation for the other wave. For one of the waves propagating through the WINDII winds the simulated amplitude was too large below 82 km for the wave to be gravitationally stable, in spite of the adjustments made to the model parameters. This study demonstrates that an accurate description of the mean winds is an essential requirement for a complete interpretation of observed wave-driven airglow fluctuations