Convective transport of water vapor into the lower stratosphere observed during double-tropopause events

2014 ◽  
Vol 119 (18) ◽  
pp. 10,941-10,958 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cameron R. Homeyer ◽  
Laura L. Pan ◽  
Samuel W. Dorsi ◽  
Linnea M. Avallone ◽  
Andrew J. Weinheimer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapor ◽  
Lower Stratosphere ◽  
Convective Transport

scholarly journals Quantifying the Imprint of a Severe Hector Thunderstorm during ACTIVE/SCOUT-O3 onto the Water Content in the Upper Troposphere/Lower Stratosphere

2009 ◽  
Vol 137 (8) ◽  
pp. 2493-2514 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Chemel ◽  
Maria R. Russo ◽  
John A. Pyle ◽  
Ranjeet S. Sokhi ◽  
Cornelius Schiller
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapor ◽  
Water Content ◽  
Lower Stratosphere ◽  
Horizontal Resolution ◽  
Convective Transport ◽  
Mixing Ratio ◽  
Field Campaign ◽  
Upper Troposphere ◽  
Ice Particles ◽  
Water Vapor Mixing Ratio

Abstract The development of a severe Hector thunderstorm that formed over the Tiwi Islands, north of Australia, during the Aerosol and Chemical Transport in Tropical Convection/Stratospheric-Climate Links with Emphasis on the Upper Troposphere and Lower Stratosphere (ACTIVE/SCOUT-O3) field campaign in late 2005, is simulated by the Advanced Research Weather Research and Forecasting (ARW) model and the Met Office Unified Model (UM). The general aim of this paper is to investigate the role of isolated deep convection over the tropics in regulating the water content in the upper troposphere/lower stratosphere (UT/LS). Using a horizontal resolution as fine as 1 km, the numerical simulations reproduce the timing, structure, and strength of Hector fairly well when compared with field campaign observations. The sensitivity of results from ARW to horizontal resolution is investigated by running the model in a large-eddy simulation mode with a horizontal resolution of 250 m. While refining the horizontal resolution to 250 m leads to a better representation of convection with respect to rainfall, the characteristics of the Hector thunderstorm are basically similar in space and time to those obtained in the 1-km-horizontal-resolution simulations. Several overshooting updrafts penetrating the tropopause are produced in the simulations during the mature stage of Hector. The penetration of rising towering cumulus clouds into the LS maintains the entrainment of air at the interface between the UT and the LS. Vertical exchanges resulting from this entrainment process have a significant impact on the redistribution of atmospheric constituents within the UT/LS region at the scale of the islands. In particular, a large amount of water is injected in the LS. The fate of the ice particles as Hector develops drives the water vapor mixing ratio to saturation by sublimation of the injected ice particles, moistening the air in the LS. The moistening was found to be fairly significant above 380 K and averaged about 0.06 ppmv in the range 380–420 K for ARW. As for UM, the moistening was found to be much larger (about 2.24 ppmv in the range of 380–420 K) than for ARW. This result confirms that convective transport can play an important role in regulating the water vapor mixing ratio in the LS.

scholarly journals Effect of tropical cyclones on the Stratosphere-Troposphere Exchange observed using satellite observations over north Indian Ocean

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Venkat Ratnam ◽  
S. Ravindra Babu ◽  
S. S. Das ◽  
Ghouse Basha ◽  
B. V. Krishnamurthy ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapor ◽  
Indian Ocean ◽  
Tropical Cyclones ◽  
Lower Stratosphere ◽  
North Indian Ocean ◽  
Satellite Observations ◽  
Upper Troposphere ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. Tropical cyclones play an important role in modifying the tropopause structure and dynamics as well as stratosphere-troposphere exchange (STE) process in the Upper Troposphere and Lower Stratosphere (UTLS) region. In the present study, the impact of cyclones that occurred over the North Indian Ocean during 2007–2013 on the STE process is quantified using satellite observations. Tropopause characteristics during cyclones are obtained from the Global Positioning System (GPS) Radio Occultation (RO) measurements and ozone and water vapor concentrations in UTLS region are obtained from Aura-Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) satellite observations. The effect of cyclones on the tropopause parameters is observed to be more prominent within 500 km from the centre of cyclone. In our earlier study we have observed decrease (increase) in the tropopause altitude (temperature) up to 0.6 km (3 K) and the convective outflow level increased up to 2 km. This change leads to a total increase in the tropical tropopause layer (TTL) thickness of 3 km within the 500 km from the centre of cyclone. Interestingly, an enhancement in the ozone mixing ratio in the upper troposphere is clearly noticed within 500 km from cyclone centre whereas the enhancement in the water vapor in the lower stratosphere is more significant on south-east side extending from 500–1000 km away from the cyclone centre. We estimated the cross-tropopause mass flux for different intensities of cyclones and found that the mean flux from stratosphere to troposphere for cyclonic stroms is 0.05 ± 0.29 × 10−3 kg m−2 and for very severe cyclonic stroms it is 0.5 ± 1.07 × 10−3 kg m−2. More downward flux is noticed in the north-west and south-west side of the cyclone centre. These results indicate that the cyclones have significant impact in effecting the tropopause structure, ozone and water vapour budget and consequentially the STE in the UTLS region.

scholarly journals Modeling upper tropospheric and lower stratospheric water vapor anomalies

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 9653-9679 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. R. Schoeberl ◽  
A. E. Dessler ◽  
T. Wang
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapor ◽  
Lower Stratosphere ◽  
Calculation Model ◽  
Vapor Concentration ◽  
Cold Temperatures ◽  
Tropical Tropopause Layer ◽  
Stratospheric Water Vapor ◽  
Tropical Tropopause ◽  
Minimum Displacement ◽  
Asian Monsoons

Abstract. The domain-filling, forward trajectory calculation model developed by Schoeberl and Dessler (2011) is used to further investigate processes that produce upper tropospheric and lower stratospheric water vapor anomalies. We examine the pathways parcels take from the base of the tropical tropopause layer (TTL) to the lower stratosphere. Most parcels found in the lower stratosphere arise from East Asia, the Tropical West Pacific (TWP) and the Central/South America. The belt of TTL parcel origins is very wide compared to the final dehydration zones near the top of the TTL. This is due to the convergence of rising air as a result of the stronger diabatic heating near the tropopause relative to levels above and below. The observed water vapor anomalies – both wet and dry – correspond to regions where parcels have minimal displacement from their initialization. These minimum displacement regions include the winter TWP and the Asian and American monsoons. To better understand the stratospheric water vapor concentration we introduce the water vapor spectrum and investigate the source of the wettest and driest components of the spectrum. We find that the driest air parcels that originate below the TWP, moving upward to dehydrate in the TWP cold upper troposphere. The wettest air parcels originate at the edges of the TWP as well as the summer American and Asian monsoons. The wet air parcels are important since they skew the mean stratospheric water vapor distribution toward higher values. Both TWP cold temperatures that produce dry parcels as well as extra-TWP processes that control the wet parcels determine stratospheric water vapor.

scholarly journals Transport of short-lived halocarbons to the stratosphere over the Pacific Ocean

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 1163-1181
Author(s):  
Michal T. Filus ◽  
Elliot L. Atlas ◽  
Maria A. Navarro ◽  
Elena Meneguz ◽  
David Thomson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Lower Stratosphere ◽  
Atmospheric Transport ◽  
Convective Transport ◽  
Transport Processes ◽  
Lagrangian Model ◽  
Convection Scheme ◽  
Model Calculations ◽  
Upper Troposphere ◽  
Tropical Troposphere

Abstract. The effectiveness of transport of short-lived halocarbons to the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere remains an important uncertainty in quantifying the supply of ozone-depleting substances to the stratosphere. In early 2014, a major field campaign in Guam in the western Pacific, involving UK and US research aircraft, sampled the tropical troposphere and lower stratosphere. The resulting measurements of CH3I, CHBr3 and CH2Br2 are compared here with calculations from a Lagrangian model. This methodology benefits from an updated convection scheme that improves simulation of the effect of deep convective motions on particle distribution within the tropical troposphere. We find that the observed CH3I, CHBr3 and CH2Br2 mixing ratios in the tropical tropopause layer (TTL) are consistent with those in the boundary layer when the new convection scheme is used to account for convective transport. More specifically, comparisons between modelled estimates and observations of short-lived CH3I indicate that the updated convection scheme is realistic up to the lower TTL but is less good at reproducing the small number of extreme convective events in the upper TTL. This study consolidates our understanding of the transport of short-lived halocarbons to the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere by using improved model calculations to confirm consistency between observations in the boundary layer, observations in the TTL and atmospheric transport processes. Our results support recent estimates of the contribution of short-lived bromocarbons to the stratospheric bromine budget.

Water-vapor Measurements in the Lower Stratosphere

1974 ◽  
Vol 52 (8) ◽  
pp. 1527-1531 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. J. Mastenbrook
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapor ◽  
Lower Stratosphere ◽  
Marked Decrease ◽  
Vapor Concentration ◽  
Water Vapor Concentration ◽  
Mixing Ratio ◽  
Stratospheric Water Vapor ◽  
Mixing Ratios ◽  
Natural Concentration ◽  
General Range

Nearly 10 years of water-vapor measurements to heights of 30 km provide a basis for assessing the natural concentration of stratospheric water vapor and its variability. The measurements which began in 1964 have been made at monthly intervals from the mid-latitude location of Washington, D.C, using a balloon-borne frost-point hygrometer. The observations show the mixing ratio of water-vapor mass to air mass in the stratosphere to be in the general range of 1 to 4 p.p.m. with a modal concentration between 2 and 3 p.p.m. An annual cycle of mixing ratio is evident for the low stratosphere. A trend of water-vapor increase observed during the first 6 years does not persist beyond 1969 or 1970. The 6 year increase was followed by a marked decrease in 1971, with mixing ratios remaining generally below 3 p.p.m. thereafter. The measurements of recent years suggest that the series of observations may have begun during a period of low water-vapor concentration in the stratosphere.

scholarly journals Retrieval of water vapor vertical distributions in the upper troposphere and the lower stratosphere from SCIAMACHY limb measurements

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (5) ◽  
pp. 933-954 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Rozanov ◽  
K. Weigel ◽  
H. Bovensmann ◽  
S. Dhomse ◽  
K.-U. Eichmann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapor ◽  
Solar Radiation ◽  
Lower Stratosphere ◽  
Water Vapor Content ◽  
Retrieval Algorithm ◽  
Altitude Range ◽  
Upper Troposphere ◽  
Vertical Distributions ◽  
First Results ◽  
Scanning Imaging

Abstract. This study describes the retrieval of water vapor vertical distributions in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) altitude range from space-borne observations of the scattered solar light made in limb viewing geometry. First results using measurements from SCIAMACHY (Scanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY) aboard ENVISAT (Environmental Satellite) are presented here. In previous publications, the retrieval of water vapor vertical distributions has been achieved exploiting either the emitted radiance leaving the atmosphere or the transmitted solar radiation. In this study, the scattered solar radiation is used as a new source of information on the water vapor content in the UTLS region. A recently developed retrieval algorithm utilizes the differential absorption structure of the water vapor in 1353–1410 nm spectral range and yields the water vapor content in the 11–25 km altitude range. In this study, the retrieval algorithm is successfully applied to SCIAMACHY limb measurements and the resulting water vapor profiles are compared to in situ balloon-borne observations. The results from both satellite and balloon-borne instruments are found to agree typically within 10 %.

scholarly journals Short circuit of water vapor and polluted air to the global stratosphere by convective transport over the Tibetan Plateau

2006 ◽  
Vol 103 (15) ◽  
pp. 5664-5669 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Fu ◽  
Y. Hu ◽  
J. S. Wright ◽  
J. H. Jiang ◽  
R. E. Dickinson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapor ◽  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Short Circuit ◽  
Convective Transport ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau

scholarly journals Rapid Convective Transport of Tropospheric Air into the Tropical Lower Stratosphere during the 2010 Sudden Stratospheric Warming

SOLA ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 12A (Special_Edition) ◽  
pp. 13-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nawo Eguchi ◽  
Kunihiko Kodera ◽  
Beatriz M. Funatsu ◽  
Hisahiro Takashima ◽  
Rei Ueyama
Keyword(s):  
Lower Stratosphere ◽  
Convective Transport ◽  
Stratospheric Warming ◽  
Sudden Stratospheric Warming

scholarly journals Water vapor in the lower stratosphere measured from aircraft flight

1977 ◽  
Vol 82 (34) ◽  
pp. 5453-5458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernest Hilsenrath ◽  
Bruce Guenther ◽  
Peter Dunn
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapor ◽  
Lower Stratosphere ◽  
Aircraft Flight
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