Energetic particle precipitation: A major driver of the ozone budget in the Antarctic upper stratosphere

Geomagnetic activity is thought to affect ozone and, possibly, climate in polar regions via energetic particle precipitation (EPP) but observational evidence of its importance in the seasonal stratospheric ozone variation on long time scales is still lacking. Here we fill this gap by showing that at high southern latitudes, late winter ozone series, covering the 1979-2014 period, exhibit an average stratospheric depletion of about 10-15% on a monthly basis caused by EPP. Daily observations indicate that every austral winter EPP-induced low ozone concentrations appear at about 45 km in late June and descend later to 30 km, before disappearing by September. Such stratospheric variations are coupled with mesospheric ozone changes also driven by EPP. No significant correlation between these ozone variations and solar ultraviolet irradiance has been found. This suggests the need of including the EPP forcing in both ozone model simulations and trend analysis. ©2016. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.The present study was supported by the SOUSEI program, MEXT, JAPAN. The IAA team was supported by the Spanish MINECO under grant ESP2014-54362-P and EC FEDER funds. Work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, was done under contract with NASA. The Chilean team was supported by FONDECYT (1140239)Peer Reviewe

Sensitivity of polar stratospheric ozone loss to uncertainties in chemical reaction kinetics

The impact and significance of uncertainties in model calculations of stratospheric ozone loss resulting from known uncertainty in chemical kinetics parameters is evaluated in trajectory chemistry simulations for the Antarctic and Arctic polar vortices. The uncertainty in modeled ozone loss is derived from Monte Carlo scenario simulations varying the kinetic (reaction and photolysis rate) parameters within their estimated uncertainty bounds. Simulations of a typical winter/spring Antarctic vortex scenario and Match scenarios in the Arctic produce large uncertainty in ozone loss rates and integrated seasonal loss. The simulations clearly indicate that the dominant source of model uncertainty in polar ozone loss is uncertainty in the Cl2O 2 photolysis reaction, which arises from uncertainty in laboratory-measured molecular cross sections at atmospherically important wavelengths. This estimated uncertainty in JCl 2O2 from laboratory measurements seriously hinders our ability to model polar ozone loss within useful quantitative error limits. Atmospheric observations, however, suggest that the Cl2O2 photolysis uncertainty may be less than that derived from the lab data. Comparisons to Match, South Pole ozonesonde, and Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) data all show that the nominal recommended rate simulations agree with data within uncertainties when the Cl2O2 photolysis error is reduced by a factor of two, in line with previous in situ ClOx measurements. Comparisons to simulations using recent cross sections from Pope et al. (2007) are outside the constrained error bounds in each case. Other reactions producing significant sensitivity in polar ozone loss include BrO + ClO and its branching ratios. These uncertainties challenge our confidence in modeling polar ozone depletion and projecting future changes in response to changing halogen emissions and climate. Further laboratory, theoretical, and possibly atmospheric studies are needed

State of the climate in 2013

In 2013, the vast majority of the monitored climate variables reported here maintained trends established in recent decades. ENSO was in a neutral state during the entire year, remaining mostly on the cool side of neutral with modest impacts on regional weather patterns around the world. This follows several years dominated by the effects of either La Niña or El Niño events. According to several independent analyses, 2013 was again among the 10 warmest years on record at the global scale, both at the Earths surface and through the troposphere. Some regions in the Southern Hemisphere had record or near-record high temperatures for the year. Australia observed its hottest year on record, while Argentina and New Zealand reported their second and third hottest years, respectively. In Antarctica, Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station reported its highest annual temperature since records began in 1957. At the opposite pole, the Arctic observed its seventh warmest year since records began in the early 20th century. At 20-m depth, record high temperatures were measured at some permafrost stations on the North Slope of Alaska and in the Brooks Range. In the Northern Hemisphere extratropics, anomalous meridional atmospheric circulation occurred throughout much of the year, leading to marked regional extremes of both temperature and precipitation. Cold temperature anomalies during winter across Eurasia were followed by warm spring temperature anomalies, which were linked to a new record low Eurasian snow cover extent in May. Minimum sea ice extent in the Arctic was the sixth lowest since satellite observations began in 1979. Including 2013, all seven lowest extents on record have occurred in the past seven years. Antarctica, on the other hand, had above-average sea ice extent throughout 2013, with 116 days of new daily high extent records, including a new daily maximum sea ice area of 19.57 million km2 reached on 1 October. ENSO-neutral conditions in the eastern central Pacific Ocean and a negative Pacific decadal oscillation pattern in the North Pacific had the largest impacts on the global sea surface temperature in 2013. The North Pacific reached a historic high temperature in 2013 and on balance the globally-averaged sea surface temperature was among the 10 highest on record. Overall, the salt content in nearsurface ocean waters increased while in intermediate waters it decreased. Global mean sea level continued to rise during 2013, on pace with a trend of 3.2 mm yr-1 over the past two decades. A portion of this trend (0.5 mm yr-1) has been attributed to natural variability associated with the Pacific decadal oscillation as well as to ongoing contributions from the melting of glaciers and ice sheets and ocean warming. Global tropical cyclone frequency during 2013 was slightly above average with a total of 94 storms, although the North Atlantic Basin had its quietest hurricane season since 1994. In the Western North Pacific Basin, Super Typhoon Haiyan, the deadliest tropical cyclone of 2013, had 1-minute sustained winds estimated to be 170 kt (87.5 m s-1) on 7 November, the highest wind speed ever assigned to a tropical cyclone. High storm surge was also associated with Haiyan as it made landfall over the central Philippines, an area where sea level is currently at historic highs, increasing by 200 mm since 1970. In the atmosphere, carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide all continued to increase in 2013. As in previous years, each of these major greenhouse gases once again reached historic high concentrations. In the Arctic, carbon dioxide and methane increased at the same rate as the global increase. These increases are likely due to export from lower latitudes rather than a consequence of increases in Arctic sources, such as thawing permafrost. At Mauna Loa, Hawaii, for the first time since measurements began in 1958, the daily average mixing ratio of carbon dioxide exceeded 400 ppm on 9 May. The state of these variables, along with dozens of others, and the 2013 climate conditions of regions around the world are discussed in further detail in this 24th edition of the State of the Climate series. © 2014, American Meteorological Society. All rights reserved

Global distributions of nitric acid from IASI/MetOP measurements

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High resolution simulation of recent Arctic and Antarctic stratospheric chemical ozone loss compared to observations

Simulations of polar ozone losses were performed using the three-dimensional high-resolution (1° × 1°) chemical transport model MIMOSA-CHIM. Three Arctic winters 1999–2000, 2001–2002, 2002–2003 and three Antarctic winters 2001, 2002, and 2003 were considered for the study. The cumulative ozone loss in the Arctic winter 2002–2003 reached around 35% at 475K inside the vortex, as compared to more than 60% in 1999–2000. During 1999–2000, denitrification induces a maximum of about 23% extra ozone loss at 475K as compared to 17% in 2002–2003. Unlike these two colder Arctic winters, the 2001–2002 Arctic was warmer and did not experience much ozone loss. Sensitivity tests showed that the chosen resolution of 1° ×1° provides a better evaluation of ozone loss at the edge of the polar vortex in high solar zenith angle conditions. The simulation results for ozone, ClO, HNO3, N2O, and NOy for winters 1999–2000 and 2002–2003 were compared with measurements on board ER-2 and Geophysica aircraft respectively. Sensitivity tests showed that increasing heating rates calculated by the model by 50% and doubling the PSC (Polar Stratospheric Clouds) particle density (from 5 × 10-3 to 10-2 cm-3) refines the agreement with in situ ozone, N2O and NOy levels. In this configuration, simulated ClO levels are increased and are in better agreement with observations in January but are overestimated by about 20% in March. The use of the Burkholder et al. (1990) Cl2O2 absorption cross-sections slightly increases further ClO levels especially in high solar zenith angle conditions. Comparisons of the modelled ozone values with ozonesonde measurement in the Antarctic winter 2003 and with Polar Ozone and Aerosol Measurement III (POAM III) measurements in the Antarctic winters 2001 and 2002, shows that the simulations underestimate the ozone loss rate at the end of the ozone destruction period. A slightly better agreement is obtained with the use of Burkholder et al. (1990) Cl2O2 absorption cross-sections

Global distributions of nitric acid from IASI/MetOP measurements

This paper presents the first global distributions of HNO3 total columns acquired by the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) instrument, launched onboard the MetOp platform in October 2006. IASI is an infrared nadir-looking Fourier transform spectrometer providing atmospheric radiance spectra at 0.5 cm?1 spectral resolution, from which temperature and infrared absorbing gas concentration profiles are retrieved with global Earth coverage twice a day. A first analysis of the IASI measurements in terms of information content demonstrates the possibility of retrieving a total column for HNO3 at all latitudes with a maximal sensitivity in the middle stratosphere. The retrievals are performed from IASI spectra in the atmospheric window using a fast radiative transfer model and inversion software (FORLI) relying on the Optimal Estimation Method. The operational processing of HNO3 total columns is achieved since March 2008. We show that FORLI-HNO3 performs well at all latitudes (RMS of the spectral residuals around 2.3×10?6 W/m2 srm?1) and provides HNO3 total columns with on average statistical errors of about 12%, reaching the threshold value of 32% at the equatorial belt. The global distributions of the retrieved total columns for one year (from March 2008 to February 2009) are presented and discussed with emphasis given to seasonal and interhemispheric variations. Local seasonal variations at 6 specific locations are also described and discussed in comparison with MLS volume mixing ratios at 46.5 hPa. The seasonal cycle observedin Polar regions is highlighted, with maxima observed in fallwinter and minima during spring-summer. The denitrification inside the Antarctic polar vortex during winter is clearly revealed with unprecedented horizontal resolution: HNO 3 columns decreasing down to about 1×cm?2 are observed, which is consistent with the lower values of temperature observed between 50 and 15 hPa (∼20-25 km) and the resulting formation and sedimentation of polar stratospheric clouds. During the same period, the collar region of high quantities of HNO3 at the vortex edge is also observed around 65-60° S latitude. Preliminary correlations between IASI derived HNO3 and O3 columns inside the polar vortex are presented and discussed. © 2009 Author(s).SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Uncertainties in modeling heterogeneous chemistry and Arctic ozone depletion in the winter 2009/2010

Stratospheric chemistry and denitrification are simulated for the Arctic winter 2009/2010 with the Lagrangian Chemistry and Transport Model ATLAS. A number of sensitivity runs is used to explore the impact of uncertainties in chlorine activation and denitrification on the model results. In particular, the efficiency of chlorine activation on different types of liquid aerosol versus activation on nitric acid trihydrate clouds is examined. Additionally, the impact of changes in reaction rate coefficients, in the particle number density of polar stratospheric clouds, in supersaturation, temperature or the extent of denitrification is investigated. Results are compared to satellite measurements of MLS and ACE-FTS and to in-situ measurements onboard the Geophysica aircraft during the RECONCILE measurement campaign. It is shown that even large changes in the underlying assumptions have only a small impact on the modelled ozone loss, even though they can cause considerable differences in chemical evolution of other species and in denitrification. Differences in column ozone between the sensitivity runs stay below 10% at the end of the winter. Chlorine activation on liquid aerosols alone is able to explain the observed magnitude and morphology of the mixing ratios of active chlorine, reservoir gases and ozone. This is even true for binary aerosols (no uptake of HNO3 from the gas-phase allowed in the model). Differences in chlorine activation between sensitivity runs are within 30%. Current estimates of nitric acid trihydrate (NAT) number density and supersaturation imply that, at least for this winter, NAT clouds play a relatively small role compared to liquid clouds in chlorine activation. The change between different reaction rate coefficients for liquid or solid clouds has only a minor impact on ozone loss and chlorine activation in our sensitivity runs