Water vapor increase in the lower stratosphere of the Northern Hemisphere due to the Asian monsoon anticyclone observed during the TACTS/ESMVal campaigns

Rolf, Christian; Vogel, Bärbel; Hoor, Peter; Afchine, Armin; Günther, G.; Krämer, M.; Müller, Rolf; Müller, Stefan; Spelten, N.; Riese, Martin

doi:10.5194/acp-18-2973-2018

Cited by 33 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 53 publications

(83 reference statements)

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“…Cirrus clouds and humidity in the TTL deserve a special consideration, because this region represents the main pathway by which water vapor enters the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UT/LS) where it is further distributed over long distances (e.g. Brewer, 1949;Rolf et al, 2018;Vogel et al, 2016;Ploeger et al, 2013). This is of importance, because water vapor is a greenhouse 525 gas that has a significant impact on the surface climate of the Earth, especially in the tropical UT/LS (Solomon et al, 2010;Riese et al, 2012), but also in the LS at high latitudes where it is being trans-16 https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2020-40 Preprint.…”

Section: Ttl In-situ Climatologies In-and Outside Of the Asian Monsoomentioning

confidence: 99%

A Microphysics Guide to Cirrus – Part II: Climatologies of Clouds and Humidity from Observations

Krämer¹

2020

Preprint

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Abstract. This study presents airborne in-situ and satellite remote sensing climatologies of cirrus clouds and humidity. The climatologies serve as a guide to the properties of cirrus clouds, with the new in-situ data base providing detailed insights into boreal mid-latitudes and the tropics, while the satellite-borne data set offers a global overview. To this end, an extensive, quality checked data archive, the Cirrus Guide II in-situ data base, is created from airborne in-situ measurements during 150 flights in 24 campaigns. The archive contains meteorological parameters, IWC, Nice, Rice, RHice and H2O for each of the flights (IWC: ice water content, Nice: number concentration of ice crystals, Rice: ice crystal mean mass radius, RHice: relative humidity with respect to ice, H2O: water vapor mixing ratio). Depending on the specific parameter, the data base has extended by about a factor of 5–10 compared to the previous studies of Schiller et al. (2008), JGR, and Krämer et al. (2009), ACP. One result of our investigations is, that across all latitudes, the thicker liquid origin cirrus predominate at lower altitudes, while at higher altitudes the thinner in-situ cirrus prevail. Further, exemplary investigations of the radiative characteristics of in-situ and liquid origin cirrus show that the in-situ origin cirrus only slightly warm the atmosphere, while liquid origin cirrus have a strong cooling effect. An important step in completing the Cirrus Guide II is the provision of the global cirrus Nice climatology, derived by means of the retrieval algorithm DARDAR-Nice from ten years of cirrus remote sensing observations from satellite. The in-situ data base has been used to evaluate and adjust the satellite observations. We found that the global median Nice from satellite observations is almost two times higher than the in-situ median and increases slightly with decreasing temperature. Nice medians of the most frequentl occuring cirrus sorted by geographical regions are highest in the tropics, followed by austral/boreal mid-latitudes, Antarctica and the Arctic. Since the satellite climatologies enclose the entire spatial and temporal Nice occurrence, we could deduce that half of the cirrus are located in the lowest, warmest cirrus layer and contain a significant amount of liquid origin cirrus. A specific highlight of the study is the in-situ observations of tropical tropopause layer (TTL) cirrus and humidity in the Asian monsoon anticyclone and the comparison to the surrounding tropics. In the convectively very active Asian monsoon, peak values of Nice and IWC of 30 ppmv and 1000 ppmv are detected around the cold point tropopause (CPT). Above the CPT, ice particles that are convectively injected can locally add a significant amount of water available for exchange with the stratosphere. We found IWCs of up to 8 ppmv in the Asian monsoon in comparison to only 2 ppmv in the surrounding tropics. Also, the highest RHice inside of the clouds as well as in clear sky (120–150 %) are observed around and above the CPT. We attribute this to the high amount of H2O (3–5 ppmv) in comparison to 1.5–3 ppmv in other tropical regions. The supersaturations above the CPT suggest that the water exchange with the stratosphere is 10–20 % higher than expected in regions of weak convective activity and up to about 50 % in the Asian monsoon.

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Section: Ttl In-situ Climatologies In-and Outside Of the Asian Monsoomentioning

confidence: 99%

A Microphysics Guide to Cirrus – Part II: Climatologies of Clouds and Humidity from Observations

Krämer¹

2020

Preprint

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“…Vogel et al: Transport at the top of Asian monsoon anticyclone trace gases in the anticyclone, isolating them from the surrounding air (stratospheric background), as shown by a variety of satellite measurements (e.g. Rosenlof et al, 1997;Li et al, 2005;Park et al, 2007;Fadnavis et al, 2014;Glatthor et al, 2015;Chirkov et al, 2016;Santee et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lagrangian simulations of the transport of young air masses to the top of the Asian monsoon anticyclone and into the tropical pipe

et al. 2019

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Abstract. We have performed backward trajectory calculations and simulations with the three-dimensional Chemical Lagrangian Model of the Stratosphere (CLaMS) for two succeeding monsoon seasons using artificial tracers of air mass origin. With these tracers we trace back the origin of young air masses (age <6 months) at the top of the Asian monsoon anticyclone and of air masses within the tropical pipe (6 months < age <18 months) during summer 2008. The occurrence of young air masses (<6 months) at the top of the Asian monsoon anticyclone up to ∼460 K is in agreement with satellite measurements of chlorodifluoromethane (HCFC-22) by the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) instrument. HCFC-22 can be considered as a regional tracer for continental eastern Asia and the Middle East as it is mainly emitted in this region. Our findings show that the transport of air masses from boundary layer sources in the region of the Asian monsoon into the tropical pipe occurs in three distinct steps. First, very fast uplift in “a convective range” transports air masses up to 360 K potential temperature within a few days. Second, air masses are uplifted from about 360 K up to 460 K within “an upward spiralling range” within a few months. The large-scale upward spiral extends from northern Africa to the western Pacific. The air masses are transported upwards by diabatic heating with a rate of up to 1–1.5 K per day, implying strong vertical transport above the Asian monsoon anticyclone. Third, transport of air masses occurs within the tropical pipe up to 550 K associated with the large-scale Brewer–Dobson circulation within ∼1 year. In the upward spiralling range, air masses are uplifted by diabatic heating across the (lapse rate) tropopause, which does not act as a transport barrier, in contrast to the extratropical tropopause. Further, in the upward spiralling range air masses from inside the Asian monsoon anticyclone are mixed with air masses convectively uplifted outside the core of the Asian monsoon anticyclone in the tropical adjacent regions. Moreover, the vertical transport of air masses from the Asian monsoon anticyclone into the tropical pipe is weak in terms of transported air masses compared to the transport from the monsoon anticyclone into the northern extratropical lower stratosphere. Air masses from the Asian monsoon anticyclone (India/China) contribute a minor fraction to the composition of air within the tropical pipe at 550 K (6 %), and the major fractions are from Southeast Asia (16 %) and the tropical Pacific (15 %).

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“…clone might be a preferred transit region for air masseswhich are imprinted with enhanced signatures of trace gases with mainly tropospheric origin (see e.g. Santee et al, 2017;Lelieveld et al, 2018) -from the troposphere to the stratosphere (e.g. Dethof et al, 1999;Fu et al, 2006;Lelieveld et al, 2007;Randel et al, 2010;Ploeger et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Numerous studies have presented evidence that the Asian summer monsoon anticyclone substantially influences the distribution of trace gases -including water vapourin the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (e.g. Santee et al, 2017). Stratospheric water vapour in turn strongly affects surface climate (see e.g.…”

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confidence: 99%

Quantification of water vapour transport from the Asian monsoon to the stratosphere

Nützel

Podglajen²,

Garny

et al. 2019

Atmos. Chem. Phys.

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Abstract. Numerous studies have presented evidence that the Asian summer monsoon anticyclone substantially influences the distribution of trace gases – including water vapour – in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (e.g. Santee et al., 2017). Stratospheric water vapour in turn strongly affects surface climate (see e.g. Solomon et al., 2010). Here, we analyse the characteristics of water vapour transport from the upper troposphere in the Asian monsoon region to the stratosphere employing a multiannual simulation with the chemistry-transport model CLaMS (Chemical Lagrangian Model of the Stratosphere). This simulation is driven by meteorological data from ERA-Interim and features a water vapour tagging that allows us to assess the contributions of different upper tropospheric source regions to the stratospheric water vapour budget. Our results complement the analysis of air mass transport through the Asian monsoon anticyclone by Ploeger et al. (2017). The results show that the transport characteristics for water vapour are mainly determined by the bulk mass transport from the Asian monsoon region. Further, we find that, although the relative contribution from the Asian monsoon region to water vapour in the deep tropics is rather small (average peak contribution of 14 % at 450 K), the Asian monsoon region is very efficient in transporting water vapour to this region (when judged according to its comparatively small spatial extent). With respect to the Northern Hemisphere extratropics, the Asian monsoon region is much more impactful and efficient regarding water vapour transport than e.g. the North American monsoon region (averaged maximum contributions at 400 K of 29 % versus 6.4 %).

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Water vapor increase in the lower stratosphere of the Northern Hemisphere due to the Asian monsoon anticyclone observed during the TACTS/ESMVal campaigns

Cited by 33 publications

References 53 publications

A Microphysics Guide to Cirrus – Part II: Climatologies of Clouds and Humidity from Observations

A Microphysics Guide to Cirrus – Part II: Climatologies of Clouds and Humidity from Observations

Lagrangian simulations of the transport of young air masses to the top of the Asian monsoon anticyclone and into the tropical pipe

Quantification of water vapour transport from the Asian monsoon to the stratosphere

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