Water vapor intrusions into the High Arctic during winter

Doyle, Jonathan; Lesins, Glen; Thackray, Colin P.; Perro, C. W.; Nott, G. J.; Duck, Thomas J.; Damoah, R.; Drummond, J. R.

doi:10.1029/2011gl047493

Cited by 78 publications

(109 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Surface atmospheric humidity observations in Ny-Ålesund indicate a slight increase in annual mean water vapor mixing ratio since 1993 (Maturilli et al 2013) that may be related to more intense local evaporation due to changes in snow cover as well as to episodic augmentation of humidity related to cyclonic systems. Intense filamentary moisture intrusion events are a common feature in the Arctic and can induce large episodic increases of downward longwave radiation along the pole-ward moving branch of cyclones (Doyle et al 2011;Woods et al 2013). As one of the main sectors for humidity intrusions towards the Arctic is the Atlantic sector (Woods et al 2013), the long-term observations at Svalbard may substantially differ from other regions in the Arctic due to the location relative to the Atlantic cyclone tracks.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Also changes in atmospheric circulation and the related increase in meridional heat transport to the high latitudes account for Arctic warming (Graversen et al 2008;Zhang et al 2008), as well as the possibility that Arctic atmospheric circulation itself is modified by the strong warming (Francis et al 2009;Overland and Wang 2010). Furthermore, clouds, water vapor, and their radiative feedbacks are recognized as important issues in the Arctic climate system (Curry et al 1996;Francis and Hunter 2007), and atmospheric circulation changes augment the meridional transport of water vapor to the Arctic (Doyle et al 2011). Stratospheric water vapor, ozone, and other greenhouse gases contribute with chemical and dynamical feedbacks in the coupled system on the global scale (e.g., Garcia and Randel 2008;Dessler et al 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Surface radiation climatology for Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard (78.9° N), basic observations for trend detection

Maturilli

Herber

König-Langlo

2014

Theor Appl Climatol

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At Ny-Ålesund (78.9°N), Svalbard, surface radiation measurements of up-and downward short-and longwave radiation are operated since August 1992 in the frame of the Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN), complemented with surface and upper air meteorology since August 1993. The long-term observations are the base for a climatological presentation of the surface radiation data. Over the 21-year observation period, ongoing changes in the Arctic climate system are reflected. Particularly, the observations indicate a strong seasonality of surface warming and related changes in different radiation parameters. The annual mean temperature at Ny-Ålesund has risen by +1.3±0.7 K per decade, with a maximum seasonal increase during the winter months of +3.1± 2.6 K per decade. At the same time, winter is also the season with the largest long-term changes in radiation, featuring an increase of +15.6±11.6 Wm −2 per decade in the downward longwave radiation. Furthermore, changes in the reflected solar radiation during the months of snow melt indicate an earlier onset of the warm season by about 1 week compared to the beginning of the observations. The supplementary dataset of Ny-Ålesund surface radiation measurements (available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.150000) provides a valuable data source for the validation of satellite instruments and climate models.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Surface radiation climatology for Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard (78.9° N), basic observations for trend detection

Maturilli

Herber

König-Langlo

2014

Theor Appl Climatol

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“…Considering the impact of the extended open water surface on the latent heat fluxes, related changes in cloud cover and atmospheric water vapour content affect the downward longwave (LW) radiation flux (Francis and Hunter 2006;Schweiger et al 2008). Moreover, circulation changes also increase the meridional transport of water vapour to the Arctic with impact on the LW radiation (Doyle et al 2011;Park et al 2015). In addition, changes in the atmospheric and oceanic meridional heat transport have a share in Arctic warming (Graversen et al 2008;Chylek et al 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Arctic warming, moisture increase and circulation changes observed in the Ny-Ålesund homogenized radiosonde record

Maturilli

Kayser

2016

Theor Appl Climatol

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Radiosonde measurements obtained at the Arctic site Ny-Ålesund (78.9°N, 11.9°E), Svalbard, from 1993 to 2014 have been homogenized accounting for instrumentation discontinuities by correcting known errors in the manufacturer provided profiles. The resulting homogenized radiosonde record is provided as supplementary material at http://doi. pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.845373. From the homogenized data record, the first Ny-Ålesund upper-air climatology of wind, temperature and humidity is presented, forming the background for the analysis of changes during the 22-year period. Particularly during the winter season, a strong increase in atmospheric temperature and humidity is observed, with a significant warming of the free troposphere in January and February up to 3 K per decade. This winter warming is even more pronounced in the boundary layer below 1 km, presumably amplified by mesoscale processes including e.g. orographic effects or the boundary layer capping inversion. Though the largest contribution to the increasing atmospheric water vapour column in winter originates from the lowermost 2 km, no increase in the contribution by specific humidity inversions is detected. Instead, we find an increase in the humidity content of the large-scale background humidity profiles. At the same time, the tropospheric flow in winter is found to occur less frequent from northerly directions and to the same amount more frequent from the South. We conclude that changes in the atmospheric circulation lead to an enhanced advection of warm and moist air from lower latitudes to the Svalbard region in the winter season, causing the warming and moistening of the atmospheric column above Ny-Ålesund, and link the observations to changes in the Arctic Oscillation.

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“…On synoptic time scales, variations of the Arctic water vapor are driven by weather systems transporting moisture from lower latitudes [Rinke et al, 2009;Doyle et al, 2011]. Newman et al [2012] split the moisture transport into time mean and transient components, showing that the poleward transport is dominated by the transient part which is frequently associated with "atmospheric rivers. "…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extreme moisture transport into the Arctic linked to Rossby wave breaking

2015

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The transport of moisture into the Arctic is tightly connected to midlatitude dynamics. We show that the bulk of the transient poleward moisture transport across 60°N is driven by extreme transport (fluxes greater than the 90th percentile) events. We demonstrate that these events are closely related to the two types of Rossby wave breaking (RWB)—anticyclonic wave breaking (AWB) and cyclonic wave breaking (CWB). Using a RWB tracking algorithm, we determine that RWB can account for approximately 68% of the extreme poleward moisture transport by transients across 60°N in winter and 56% in summer. Additional analysis suggests that the seasonality of such RWB‐related moisture transport is determined approximately equally by (1) the magnitude of transport (which is largely a function of the background moisture gradient) and (2) the frequency of RWB occurrence. The seasonality of RWB occurrence is, in turn, tied to the seasonal variation of the latitude of the jet streams—AWB‐related (CWB‐related) transport occurs more frequently when the jet is shifted poleward (equatorward). The interannual variability of RWB‐related transport across 60°N in winter is shown to be strongly influenced by climate variability captured by the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). In the positive (negative) phase of ENSO, AWB transports less (more) moisture through the Bering Strait and CWB transports more (less) through western Canada. In the positive (negative) phase of the NAO, AWB transports more (less) moisture through the Norwegian Sea and CWB transports less (more) along the west coast of Greenland. These results highlight that low‐frequency climate variability outside of the polar regions can influence the Arctic water vapor by modulating extreme synoptic transport events.

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Water vapor intrusions into the High Arctic during winter

Cited by 78 publications

References 13 publications

Surface radiation climatology for Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard (78.9° N), basic observations for trend detection

Surface radiation climatology for Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard (78.9° N), basic observations for trend detection

Arctic warming, moisture increase and circulation changes observed in the Ny-Ålesund homogenized radiosonde record

Extreme moisture transport into the Arctic linked to Rossby wave breaking

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