A global climatology of upper-tropospheric ice supersaturation occurrence inferred from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder calibrated by MOZAIC

Lamquin, Nicolas; Stubenrauch, C.; Gierens, Klaus; Burkhardt, Ulrike; Smit, H. G. J.

doi:10.5194/acp-12-381-2012

Cited by 73 publications

(107 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…As is reported by Lamquin et al (2012), the probability distribution functions (PDFs) of RH ice as calculated from the MCH data show a significant shift in RH ice towards higher values for data since 2000, while data are in agreement with theoretical expectations and experimental findings for the pe- riod 1994 to 1999 (e.g. Gierens et al, 1999;Spichtinger et al, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 75%

“…The distribution of UTH was investigated in tropical (Bortz et al, 2006;Kley et al, 2007;Luo et al, , 2008Sahu et al, 2009Sahu et al, , 2011 and polar (Nedoluha et al, 2002) regions. MOZAIC RH data were also used for the validation of satellite instruments (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Offermann et al, 2002;Ekström et al, 2007Ekström et al, , 2008Heise et al, 2008), global chemistry transport models (e.g. Law et al, 2000;Crowther et al, 2002) and ECMWF models (e.g. Oikonomou and O'Neill, 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Technical Note: Reanalysis of upper troposphere humidity data from the MOZAIC programme for the period 1994 to 2009

et al. 2014

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Abstract. In situ observational data on the relative humidity (RH) in the upper troposphere and lowermost stratosphere (UT/LS), or tropopause region, collected aboard civil passenger aircraft in the MOZAIC (Measurements of OZone, water vapour, carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxides by in-service AIrbus airCraft) programme were reanalysed for the period 2000 to 2009. Previous analyses of probability distribution functions (PDFs) of upper troposphere humidity (UTH) data from MOZAIC observations from year 2000 and later indicated a bias of UTH data towards higher RH values compared to data of the period 1994 to 1999. As a result, the PDF of UTH data show a substantial fraction of observations above 100 % relative humidity with respect to liquid water. Such supersaturations, however, do not occur in the atmosphere because there is always a sufficient number of condensation nuclei available, that trigger condensation as soon as liquid saturation is slightly exceeded. An in-depth reanalysis of the data set identified a coding error in the calibration procedure from year 2000 on. The error did not affect earlier data from 1994 to 1999. The full data set for 2000-2009 was reanalysed applying the corrected calibration procedure. Applied correction schemes and a revised error analysis are presented along with the reanalysed PDF of relative humidity with respect to liquid water (RH liquid ) and ice (RH ice ).

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 75%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Technical Note: Reanalysis of upper troposphere humidity data from the MOZAIC programme for the period 1994 to 2009

et al. 2014

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“…Finally, cirrus from the third class (thin middle troposphere) could originate from contrails formed by aircrafts. Lamquin et al (2012) report that such clouds could be expected over Europe around 250 hPa mainly because this area is frequently saturated with respect to ice. The thickness of these observed clouds and the altitude of saturated air let us think that this 3rd class could be associated to old contrails turned into cirrus clouds.…”

Section: Summary and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A decadal cirrus clouds climatology from ground-based and spaceborne lidars above the south of France (43.9° N–5.7° E)

et al. 2013

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This study provides an analysis of cirrus cloud properties at midlatitude in the southern part of France from ground-based and spaceborne lidars. A climatology of cirrus cloud properties and their evolution over more than 12 yr is presented and compared to other mid-latitude climatological studies. Cirrus clouds occur ~37% of the total observation time and remain quasi-constant across seasons with a variation within ~5% around the mean occurrence. Similar results are obtained from CALIOP and the ground-based lidar, with a mean difference in occurrence of ~5% between both instruments. From the ground-based lidar data, a slight decrease in occurrence of ~3% per decade is observed but found statistically insignificant. Based on a clustering analysis of cirrus cloud parameters, three distinct classes have been identified and investigations concerning their origin are discussed. Properties of these different classes are analysed, showing that thin cirrus in the upper troposphere represent ~50% of cloud cover detected in summer and fall, decreasing by 15–20% for other seasons

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“…Stratospheric ISSR events were only rarely found in the MLS data, but only a crude tropopause determination was applied in the analyses and may create biases in the results (Spichtinger et al, 2003b). More recent analyses use MOZAIC data in combination with Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) specific humidity and cloud data to estimate occurrence frequencies of ice supersaturation (Lamquin et al, 2012). The authors find significantly larger frequencies than in the MLS analysis in the midlatitude tropopause region (20-30 %) and indications of ISSR occurrence of 10-20 % in the midlatitude zonal mean tropopause and above (Fig.…”

Section: Comparison With Ice Supersaturation Measurementsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Satellite observations of cirrus clouds in the Northern Hemisphere lowermost stratosphere

Spang¹,

Günther²,

Riese³

et al. 2015

Atmos. Chem. Phys.

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Abstract.Here we present observations of the Cryogenic Infrared Spectrometers and Telescopes for the Atmosphere (CRISTA) of cirrus cloud and water vapour in August 1997 in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS). The observations indicate a considerable flux of moisture from the upper tropical troposphere into the extratropical lowermost stratosphere (LMS), resulting in the occurrence of highaltitude optically thin cirrus clouds in the LMS.The locations of the LMS cloud events observed by CRISTA are consistent with the tropopause height determined from coinciding radiosonde data. For a hemispheric analysis in tropopause relative coordinates an improved tropopause determination has been applied to the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) temperature profiles. We found that a significant fraction of the cloud occurrences in the tropopause region are located in the LMS, even if a conservative overestimate of the cloud top height (CTH) determination by CRISTA of 500 m is assumed. The results show rather high occurrence frequencies ( ∼ 5 %) up to high northern latitudes (70 • N) and altitudes well above the tropopause (> 500 m at ∼ 350 K and above) in large areas at mid-and high latitudes.Comparisons with model runs of the Chemical Lagrangian Model of the Stratosphere (CLaMS) over the CRISTA period show a reasonable consistency in the retrieved cloud pattern. For this purpose a limb ray tracing approach was applied through the 3-D model fields to obtain integrated measurement information through the atmosphere along the limb path of the instrument. The simplified cirrus scheme implemented in CLaMS seems to cause a systematic underestimation in the CTH occurrence frequencies in the LMS with respect to the observations. The observations together with the model results demonstrate the importance of isentropic, quasi-horizontal transport of water vapour from the subtropics and the potential for the occurrence of cirrus clouds in the lowermost stratosphere and tropopause region.

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A global climatology of upper-tropospheric ice supersaturation occurrence inferred from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder calibrated by MOZAIC

Cited by 73 publications

References 64 publications

Technical Note: Reanalysis of upper troposphere humidity data from the MOZAIC programme for the period 1994 to 2009

Technical Note: Reanalysis of upper troposphere humidity data from the MOZAIC programme for the period 1994 to 2009

A decadal cirrus clouds climatology from ground-based and spaceborne lidars above the south of France (43.9° N–5.7° E)

Satellite observations of cirrus clouds in the Northern Hemisphere lowermost stratosphere

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