A study on the direct effect of anthropogenic aerosols on near surface air temperature over Southeastern Europe during summer 2000 based on regional climate modeling

In the present work it is investigated the direct shortwave effect of anthropogenic aerosols on the near surface temperature over Southeastern Europe and the atmospheric circulation during summer 2000. In summer 2000, a severe heat-wave and droughts affected many countries in the Balkans. The study is based on two yearly simulations with and without the aerosol feedback of the regional climate model RegCM3 coupled with a simplified aerosol model. The surface radiative forcing associated with the anthropogenic aerosols is negative throughout the European domain with the more negative values in Central and Central-eastern Europe. A basic pattern of the aerosol induced changes in air temperature at the lower troposphere is a decrease over Southeastern Europe and the Balkan Peninsula (up to about 1.2°C) thus weakening the pattern of the climatic temperature anomalies of summer 2000. The aerosol induced changes in air temperature from the lower troposphere to upper troposphere are not correlated with the respective pattern of the surface radiative forcing implying the complexity of the mechanisms linking the aerosol radiative forcing with the induced atmospheric changes through dynamical feedbacks of aerosols on atmospheric circulation. Investigation of the aerosol induced changes in the circulation indicates a southward shift of the subtropical jet stream playing a dominant role for the decrease in near surface air temperature over Southeastern Europe and the Balkan Peninsula. The southward shift of the jet exit region over the Balkan Peninsula causes a relative increase of the upward motion at the northern flank of the jet exit region, a relative increase of clouds, less solar radiation absorbed at the surface and hence relative cooler air temperatures in the lower troposphere between 45° N and 50° N. The southward extension of the lower troposphere aerosol induced negative temperature changes in the latitudinal band 35° N–45° N over the Balkan Peninsula is justified from the prevailing northerly flow advecting the relatively cooler air from the latitudinal band 45° N–50° N towards the lower latitudes. The present regional climate modeling study indicates the important role of anthropogenic aerosols for the regional climate and their dynamical feedback on atmospheric circulation

Deep stratosphere-to-troposphere transport (STT) over SE Europe: a complex case study captured by enhanced ⁷Be concentrations at the surface of a low topography region

International audienceIn this study we present a complex case study of a Stratosphere-to-Troposphere Transport (STT) event down to the surface of a low topography region in Northern Greece, during the second fortnight of March 2000. During this event our surface station at Livadi (23°15 E/40°32 N, 850 m a.s.l.), was influenced by very different synoptic systems developing over Eastern Europe, N. America and the N. Atlantic, the last one evolving to a cut-off low over France/Spain. This is the first study, to our knowledge, that presents a down to the surface STT event in the eastern Mediterranean. The intrusion is primarily captured with the use of the cosmogenic radionuclide 7Be, which increased to 9.07 mBq m-3 and 9.37 mBq m-3 on 30 and 31 March 2000, respectively. A 7Be concentration of around 8 mBq m-3 recorded during parallel measurements at Thessaloniki (20 m a.s.l.) gives strong evidence that air of stratospheric origins has even gone down to sea level. A rapid increase of 10?15 ppb is also observed in the surface ozone concentration on 31 March 2000. The relative increase of both tracers is consistent with a volume fraction of stratospheric air at the surface of about 5%, but the substantial increase in 7Be flags more clearly the event. Trajectory analyses, in conjunction with the evolution of the synoptic situation described by potential vorticity maps, are used for the exact identification of the different intrusions and the attribution of each intruding parcel of stratospheric air to a certain filament of high PV. Finally, the persistency of the stratospheric layers in the troposphere is another interesting point of this case study. The vast majority of the trajectories spent 7?10 days in the troposphere before reaching the surface at Livadi station

Evidence of impact of aviation on cirrus cloud formation

International audienceThis work examines changes in cirrus cloud cover (CCC) in possible association with aviation activities at congested air corridors. The analysis is based on the latest version of the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project D2 data set and covers the period 1984-1998. Over the studied areas, the effect of large-scale modes of natural climate variability such as ENSO, QBO and NAO as well as the possible influence of the tropopause variability, were first removed from the cloud data set in order to calculate long-term changes of observed cirrus cloudiness. The results show increasing trends in (CCC) between 1984 and 1998 over the high air traffic corridors of North America, North Atlantic and Europe. Of these upward trends, only in the summertime over the North Atlantic and only in the wintertime over North America are statistically significant (exceeding +2.0% per decade). Over adjacent locations with low air traffic, the calculated trends are statistically insignificant and in most cases negative both during winter and summer in the regions studied. These negative trends, over low air traffic regions, are consistent with the observed large scale negative trends seen in (CCC) over most of the northern middle latitudes and over the tropics. Moreover, further investigation of vertical velocities over high and low air traffic regions provide evidence that the trends of opposite signs in (CCC) over these regions, do not seem to be caused by different trends in dynamics. It is also shown that the longitudinal distribution of decadal changes in (CCC) along the latitude belt centered at the North Atlantic air corridor, parallels the spatial distribution of fuel consumption from highflying air traffic, providing an independent test of possible impact of aviation on contrail cirrus formation. The correlation between the fuel consumption and the longitudinal variability of (CCC) is significant (+0.7) over the middle latitudes but not over the tropics. This could be explained by the fact that over the tropics the variability of (CCC) is dominated by dynamics while at middle latitudes microphysics explain most of its variability. Results from this study are compared with other studies and for different periods of records and it appears that there exists general agreement as to the evidence of a possible aviation effect on high cloud positive trends over regions with congested air traffic.</p

Decadal regional air quality simulations over Europe in present climate: near surface ozone sensitivity to external meteorological forcing

Abstract. Regional climate-air quality decadal simulations over Europe were carried out with the RegCM3/CAMx modeling system for the time slice 1991–2000, in order to study the impact of different meteorological forcing on surface ozone. The RegCM3 regional climate model was firstly constrained by the ERA40 reanalysis dataset which is considered as an experiment with perfect meteorological boundary conditions and then it was constrained by the global circulation model ECHAM5. A number of meteorological parameters were examined including the 500 mb geopotential height, solar radiation, temperature, cloud liquid water path, planetary boundary layer height and surface wind. The different RegCM meteorological forcing resulted in changes of near surface ozone over Europe ranging between ± 4 ppb for winter and summer. The area showing the greatest sensitivity in O3 during winter is central and southern Europe while in summer central north continental Europe. The different meteorological forcing impacts on the atmospheric circulation, which in turn affects cloudiness and solar radiation, temperature, wind patterns and the meteorology depended biogenic emissions. For comparison reasons, the impact of chemical boundary conditions on surface ozone was additionally examined with a series of sensitivity studies, indicating that surface ozone changes are comparable to those caused by the different meteorological forcing. These findings suggest that, when it comes to regional climate-air quality simulations, the selection of external meteorological forcing can be as important as the selection of adequate chemical lateral boundary conditions

Forecast, observation and modelling of a deep stratospheric intrusion event over Europe

A wide range of measurements was carried out in central and southeastern Europe within the framework of the EU-project STACCATO (Influence of Stratosphere-Troposphere Exchange in a Changing Climate on Atmospheric Transport and Oxidation Capacity) with the principle goal to create a comprehensive data set on stratospheric air intrusions into the troposphere along a rather frequently observed pathway over central Europe from the North Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. The measurements were based on predictions by suitable quasi-operational trajectory calculations using ECMWF forecast data. A predicted deep Stratosphere to Troposphere Transport (STT) event, encountered during the STACCATO period on 20-21 June 2001, could be followed by the measurements network almost from its inception. Observations provide evidence that the intrusion affected large parts of central and southeastern Europe. Especially, the ozone lidar observations on 20-21 June 2001 at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany captured the evolution of two marked tongues of high ozone with the first one reaching almost a height of 2 km, thus providing an excellent data set for model intercomparisons and validation. In addition, for the first time to our knowledge concurrent measurements of the cosmogenic radionuclides &lt;sup&gt;10&lt;/sup&gt;Be and &lt;sup&gt;7&lt;/sup&gt;Be and their ratio &lt;sup&gt;10&lt;/sup&gt;Be/&lt;sup&gt;7&lt;/sup&gt;Be are presented together as stratospheric tracers in a case study of a stratospheric intrusion. The ozone tracer columns calculated with the FLEXPART model were found to be in good agreement with water vapour satellite images, capturing the evolution of the observed dry streamers of stratospheric origin. Furthermore, the time-height cross section of ozone tracer simulated with FLEXPART over Garmisch-Partenkirchen captures with many details the evolution of the two observed high-ozone filaments measured with the IFU lidar, thus demonstrating the considerable progress in model simulations. Finally, the modelled ozone (operationally available since October 1999) from the ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts) atmospheric model is shown to be in very good agreement with the observations during this case study, which provides the first successful validation of a chemical tracer that is used operationally in a weather forecast model. This suggests that coupling chemistry and weather forecast models may significantly improve both weather and chemical forecasts in the future

Sampling of an STT event over the Eastern Mediterranean region by lidar and electrochemical sonde

International audienceA two-wavelength ultraviolet (289?316nm) ozone Differential Absorption Lidar (DIAL) system is used to perform ozone measurements in the free troposphere in the Eastern Mediterranean (Northern Greece). The ozone DIAL profiles obtained during a Stratosphere-to-Troposphere Transport (STT) event are compared to that acquired by an electrochemical ozonesonde, in the altitude range between 2 and 10 km. The measurement accuracy of these two instruments is also discussed. The mean difference between the ozone profiles obtained by the two techniques is of the order of 1.11 ppbv (1.86%), while the corresponding standard deviation is 4.69 ppbv (8.16%). A case study of an STT event which occurred on 29 November 2000 is presented and analyzed, using ozone lidar, satellite and meteorological data, as well as air mass back-trajectory analysis. During this STT event ozone mixing ratios of 55?65 ppbv were observed between 5 and 7 km height above sea level (a.s.l.). Stratospheric air was mixed with tropospheric air masses, leading to potential vorticity (PV) losses due to diabatic processes. The ozone DIAL system can be used for following STT events and small-scale mixing phenomena in the free troposphere, and for providing sequences of vertical ozone profiles in the free troposphere. Keywords. Atmospheric composition and structure (Evolution of the atmosphere; Instruments and techniques) ? Meteorology and atmospheric dynamics (Middle atmosphere dynamics; Turbulence

Effects on surface atmospheric photo-oxidants over Greece during the total solar eclipse event of 29 March 2006

International audienceThis study investigates the effects of the total solar eclipse of 29 March 2006 on surface air-quality levels over Greece based on observations at a number of sites in conjunction with chemical box modelling and 3-D air-quality modelling. Emphasis is given on surface ozone and other photooxidants at four Greek sites Kastelorizo, Finokalia (Crete), Pallini (Athens) and Thessaloniki, which are located at gradually increasing distances from the path of the eclipse totality and are characterized by different air pollution levels. The eclipse offered the opportunity to test our understanding of air pollution build-up and the response of the gas-phase chemistry of photo-oxidants during a photolytical perturbation using both a photochemical box model and a regional air-quality offline model based on the modeling system WRF/CAMx. At the relatively unpolluted sites of Kastelorizo and Finokalia no clear impact of the solar eclipse on surface O3, NO2 and NO concentrations can be deduced from the observations and model simulations as the calculated changes in net ozone production rates between eclipse and non eclipse conditions are rather small compared to the ozone variability and hence the solar eclipse effects on ozone can be easily masked by transport. At the polluted sites of Thessaloniki and Pallini, the solar eclipse effects on O3, NO2 and NO concentrations are clearly revealed from both the measurements and 3-D air-quality modeling with the net effect being a decrease in O3 and NO and an increase in NO2 as NO2 formed from the reaction of O3 with NO while at the same time NO2 is not efficiently photolysed. It is evident from the 3-D air quality modeling over Greece that the maximum effects of the eclipse on O3, NO2 and NO are reflected at the large urban agglomerations of Athens, and Thessaloniki where the maximum of the emissions occur

The Total Solar Eclipse of March 2006: overview

International audienceThis paper provides an overview of integrated, multi-disciplinary effort to study the effects of a total solar eclipse on the environment, with special focus on the atmosphere. On the occasion of the 29 March 2006 total solar eclipse, visible over the Eastern Mediterranean, several research and academic institutes organised co-ordinated experimental campaigns, at different distances from the totality and in various environments in terms of air quality. The detailed results are presented in a number of scientific papers included in a Special Issue of Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics. The effects of the eclipse on the meteorology and the spectral solar radiation, the chemical response of the atmosphere to the abrupt "switch off" of the sun and the induced changes in the stratosphere and the ionosphere, have been among the issues covered. The rare event of a total solar eclipse provided the opportunity to evaluate 1-D and 3-D radiative transfer models (in the atmosphere and underwater), mesoscale meteorological, regional air quality and photochemical box models, against measurements. Within the challenging topics of this effort has been the investigation of eclipse impacts on ecosystems (field crops and marine plankton) and the identification of eclipse induced gravity waves, for the first time with simultaneous measurements at three altitudes namely the troposphere, the stratosphere and the ionosphere

Big sugar in southern Africa : rural development and the perverted potential of sugar/ethanol exports

This paper asks how investment in large-scale sugar cane production has contributed, and will contribute, to rural development in southern Africa. Taking a case study of the South African company Illovo in Zambia, the argument is made that the potential for greater tax revenue, domestic competition, access to resources and wealth distribution from sugar/ethanol production have all been perverted and with relatively little payoff in wage labour opportunities in return. If the benefits of agro-exports cannot be so easily assumed, then the prospective 'balance sheet' of biofuels needs to be re-examined. In this light, the paper advocates smaller-scale agrarian initiatives