Unprecedented evidence for deep convection hydrating the tropical stratosphere

Corti, T.; Luo, B. P.; Reus, M. de; Brunner, Dominik; Cairo, F.; Mahoney, Michael J.; Martucci, Giovanni; Matthey, Renaud; Mitev, Valentin; Santos, F. H. dos; Schiller, C.; Shur, G. N.; Sitnikov, N.; Spelten, N.; Vössing, H.; Borrmann, Stephan; Peter, Thomas

doi:10.1029/2008gl033641

Cited by 215 publications

(277 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Sherwood and Dessler (2000) postulated that dehydration might be primarily due to deep convective overshooting. However, experiments showed that overshooting convection hydrates rather than dehydrates the tropical lower stratosphere (e.g., Corti et al, 2008). Lagrangian trajectory calculations driven by synoptic-scale temperature and wind fileds from reanalysis data (Fueglistaler et al, 2005;Schoeberl and Dessler, 2011) can reproduce the entry of water vapor into the stratosphere well, validating the idea of Holton and Gettleman (2001).…”

Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 56%

Hydration or dehydration: competing effects of upper tropospheric cloud radiation on the TTL water vapor

Jiang

et al. 2012

Atmos. Chem. Phys.

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Abstract.A tropical channel version of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model is used to investigate the radiative impacts of upper tropospheric clouds on water vapor in the tropical tropopause layer (TTL). The WRF simulations of cloud radiative effects and water vapor in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere show reasonable agreement with observations, including approximate reproduction of the water vapor "tape recorder" signal. By turning on and off the upper tropospheric cloud radiative effect (UTCRE) above 200 hPa, we find that UTCRE induces a warming of 0.76 K and a moistening of 9 % in the upper troposphere at 215 hPa. However, UTCRE cools and dehydrates the TTL, with a cooling of 0.82 K and a dehydration of 16 % at 100 hPa. The enhanced vertical ascent due to UTCRE contributes substantially to mass transport and the dehydration in the TTL. The hydration due to the enhanced vertical transport is counteracted by the dehydration from adiabatic cooling associated with the enhanced vertical motion. UTCRE also substantially changes the horizontal winds in the TTL, resulting in shifts of the strongest dehydration away from the lowest temperature anomalies in the TTL. UTCRE increases in-situ cloud formation in the TTL. A seasonal variation is shown in the simulated UTCRE, with stronger impact in the moist phase from June to November than in the dry phase from December to May.

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Section: Introductionsupporting

confidence: 56%

Hydration or dehydration: competing effects of upper tropospheric cloud radiation on the TTL water vapor

Jiang

et al. 2012

Atmos. Chem. Phys.

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“…A considerable amount of observational evidence for cross-tropopause mass transport through convective overshooting has been made available by recent field campaigns in South America, Australia and Africa, revealing penetration of tropospheric air and ice crystals up to 19-20 km over land convective systems (Nielsen et al, 2007;Corti et al, 2008;Khaykin et al, 2009;de Reus et al, 2009;. Such convective updrafts of adiabatically cooled air and ice crystals across the tropopause are well captured by mesoscale cloud resolving models (Chaboureau et al, 2007;Jensen et al, 2007;Grosvenor et al, 2007;Chemel et al, 2009;Liu et al, 2010), but, because of their non-hydrostatic nature, they are missed by global meteorological and climate models.…”

Section: S M Khaykin Et Al: Impact Of Land Convection On Temperatumentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of land convection on temperature diurnal variation in the tropical lower stratosphere inferred from COSMIC GPS radio occultations

2013

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Following recent studies evidencing the influence of deep convection on the chemical composition and thermal structure of the tropical lower stratosphere, we explore its impact on the temperature diurnal variation in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere using the high-resolution COSMIC GPS radio-occultation temperature measurements spanning from 2006 through 2011. The temperature in the lowermost stratosphere over land during summer displays a marked diurnal cycle characterized by an afternoon cooling. This diurnal cycle is shown collocated with most intense land convective areas observed by the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM) precipitation radar and in phase with the maximum overshooting occurrence frequency in late afternoon. Two processes potentially responsible for that are identified: (i) non-migrating tides, whose physical nature is internal gravity waves, and (ii) local cross-tropopause mass transport of adiabatically cooled air by overshooting turrets. Although both processes can contribute, only the lofting of adiabatically cooled air is well captured by models, making it difficult to characterize the contribution of non-migrating tides. The impact of deep convection on the temperature diurnal cycle is found larger in the southern tropics, suggesting more vigorous convection over clean rain forest continents than desert areas and polluted continents in the northern tropics

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“…These difficulties arise from temperature biases, the representation of sub-grid scale phenomena such as convective moistening (Zipser et al, 2006;Schiller et al, 2009;Corti et al, 2008;Tzella and LeGras, 2011) and gravity wave cooling (Jensen and Pfister, 2004). In Schoeberl and Dessler (2011) (hereafter SD2011), we used a Lagrangian forward domain-filling model to simulate water vapor in the stratosphere.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Simulation of stratospheric water vapor and trends using three reanalyses

2012

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Abstract. The domain-filling, forward trajectory calculation model developed by Schoeberl and Dessler (2011) is extended to the 1979-2010 period. We compare results from NASA's MERRA, NCEP's CFSR, and ECMWF's ERAi reanalyses with HALOE, MLS, and balloon observations. The CFSR based simulation produces a wetter stratosphere than MERRA, and ERAi produces a drier stratosphere than MERRA. We find that ERAi 100 hPa temperatures are cold biased compared to Singapore sondes and MERRA, which explains the ERAi result, and the CFSR grid does not resolve the cold point tropopause, which explains its relatively higher water vapor concentration. The pattern of dehydration locations is also different among the three reanalyses. ERAi dehydration pattern stretches across the Pacific while CFSR and MERRA concentrate dehydration activity in the West Pacific. CSFR and ERAi also show less dehydration activity in the West Pacific Southern Hemisphere than MERRA. The trajectory models' lower northern high latitude stratosphere tends to be dry because too little methane-derived water descends from the middle stratosphere. Using the MLS tropical tape recorder signal, we find that MERRA vertical ascent is 15 % too weak while ERAi is 30 % too strong. The trajectory model reproduces the observed reduction in the amplitude of the 100-hPa annual cycle in zonal mean water vapor as it propagates to middle latitudes. Finally, consistent with the observations, the models show less than 0.2 ppm decade −1 trend in water vapor both at mid-latitudes and in the tropics.

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Unprecedented evidence for deep convection hydrating the tropical stratosphere

Cited by 215 publications

References 22 publications

Hydration or dehydration: competing effects of upper tropospheric cloud radiation on the TTL water vapor

Hydration or dehydration: competing effects of upper tropospheric cloud radiation on the TTL water vapor

Impact of land convection on temperature diurnal variation in the tropical lower stratosphere inferred from COSMIC GPS radio occultations

Simulation of stratospheric water vapor and trends using three reanalyses

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