scholarly journals Intraseasonal variations in the tropical tropopause temperature revealed by cluster analysis of convective activity

2013 ◽  
Vol 118 (9) ◽  
pp. 3545-3556 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eriko Nishimoto ◽  
Masato Shiotani
Keyword(s):  
Cluster Analysis ◽  
Convective Activity ◽  
Tropical Tropopause ◽  
Intraseasonal Variations ◽  
Tropopause Temperature

scholarly journals Implication of tropical lower stratospheric cooling in recent trends in tropical circulation and deep convective activity

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 2655-2669 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kunihiko Kodera ◽  
Nawo Eguchi ◽  
Rei Ueyama ◽  
Yuhji Kuroda ◽  
Chiaki Kobayashi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Deep Convection ◽  
Equatorial Indian Ocean ◽  
Boreal Summer ◽  
Convective Activity ◽  
Tropical Circulation ◽  
Surface Cooling ◽  
Central Pacific ◽  
Tropical Tropopause Layer ◽  
Tropical Tropopause ◽  
Stratospheric Cooling

Abstract. Large changes in tropical circulation from the mid-to-late 1990s to the present, in particular changes related to the summer monsoon and cooling of the sea surface in the equatorial eastern Pacific, are noted. The cause of such recent decadal variations in the tropics was studied using a meteorological reanalysis dataset. Cooling of the equatorial southeastern Pacific Ocean occurred in association with enhanced cross-equatorial southerlies that were associated with a strengthening of the deep ascending branch of the boreal summer Hadley circulation over the continental sector connected to stratospheric circulation. From boreal summer to winter, the anomalous convective activity center moves southward following the seasonal march to the equatorial Indian Ocean–Maritime Continent region, which strengthens the surface easterlies over the equatorial central Pacific. Accordingly, ocean surface cooling extends over the equatorial central Pacific. We suggest that the fundamental cause of the recent decadal change in the tropical troposphere and the ocean is a poleward shift of convective activity that resulted from a strengthening of extreme deep convection penetrating into the tropical tropopause layer, particularly over the African and Asian continents and adjacent oceans. We conjecture that the increase in extreme deep convection is produced by a combination of land surface warming due to increased CO2 and a reduction of static stability in the tropical tropopause layer due to tropical stratospheric cooling.

scholarly journals Processes Controlling Tropical Tropopause Temperature and Stratospheric Water Vapor in Climate Models

2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (16) ◽  
pp. 6516-6535 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven C. Hardiman ◽  
Ian A. Boutle ◽  
Andrew C. Bushell ◽  
Neal Butchart ◽  
Mike J. P. Cullen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapor ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Atmospheric Composition ◽  
Stratospheric Water Vapor ◽  
Vertical Advection ◽  
Radiative Processes ◽  
Microphysical Properties ◽  
Tropical Tropopause ◽  
The Tropics ◽  
Tropopause Temperature

Abstract A warm bias in tropical tropopause temperature is found in the Met Office Unified Model (MetUM), in common with most models from phase 5 of CMIP (CMIP5). Key dynamical, microphysical, and radiative processes influencing the tropical tropopause temperature and lower-stratospheric water vapor concentrations in climate models are investigated using the MetUM. A series of sensitivity experiments are run to separate the effects of vertical advection, ice optical and microphysical properties, convection, cirrus clouds, and atmospheric composition on simulated tropopause temperature and lower-stratospheric water vapor concentrations in the tropics. The numerical accuracy of the vertical advection, determined in the MetUM by the choice of interpolation and conservation schemes used, is found to be particularly important. Microphysical and radiative processes are found to influence stratospheric water vapor both through modifying the tropical tropopause temperature and through modifying upper-tropospheric water vapor concentrations, allowing more water vapor to be advected into the stratosphere. The representation of any of the processes discussed can act to significantly reduce biases in tropical tropopause temperature and stratospheric water vapor in a physical way, thereby improving climate simulations.

scholarly journals Dehydration of the stratosphere

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (16) ◽  
pp. 8433-8446 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. R. Schoeberl ◽  
A. E. Dessler
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapor ◽  
Gravity Waves ◽  
Small Contribution ◽  
Stratospheric Water Vapor ◽  
Mixing Ratios ◽  
Trajectory Calculations ◽  
Tropical Tropopause ◽  
Type Water ◽  
Dehydration Processes ◽  
Tropopause Temperature

Abstract. Domain filling, forward trajectory calculations are used to examine the global dehydration processes that control stratospheric water vapor. As with most Lagrangian models of this type, water vapor is instantaneously removed from the parcel to keep the relative humidity (RH) with respect to ice from exceeding saturation or a specified super-saturation value. We also test a simple parameterization of stratospheric convective moistening through ice lofting and the effect of gravity waves as a mechanism that can augment dehydration. Comparing diabatic and kinematic trajectories driven by the MERRA reanalysis, we find that, unlike the results from Liu et al. (2010), the additional transport due to the vertical velocity "noise" in the kinematic calculation creates too dry a stratosphere and a too diffuse a water-vapor tape recorder signal compared observations. We also show that the kinematically driven parcels are more likely to encounter the coldest tropopause temperatures than the diabatic trajectories. The diabatic simulations produce stratospheric water vapor mixing ratios close to that observed by Aura's Microwave Limb Sounder and are consistent with the MERRA tropical tropopause temperature biases. Convective moistening, which will increase stratospheric HDO, also increases stratospheric water vapor while the addition of parameterized gravity waves does the opposite. We find that while the Tropical West Pacific is the dominant dehydration location, but dehydration over Tropical South America is also important. Antarctica makes a small contribution to the overall stratospheric water vapor budget as well by releasing very dry air into the Southern Hemisphere stratosphere following the break up of the winter vortex.

scholarly journals Is there a solar signal in lower stratospheric water vapour?

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (17) ◽  
pp. 9851-9863 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Schieferdecker ◽  
S. Lossow ◽  
G. P. Stiller ◽  
T. von Clarmann
Keyword(s):  
Solar Cycle ◽  
Water Vapour ◽  
Time Lag ◽  
Michelson Interferometer ◽  
Latitude Range ◽  
Tropical Tropopause ◽  
Atmospheric Sounding ◽  
Solar Signal ◽  
Tropopause Temperature ◽  
Stratospheric Water Vapour

Abstract. A merged time series of stratospheric water vapour built from the Halogen Occultation Instrument (HALOE) and the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) data between 60° S and 60° N and 15 to 30 km and covering the years 1992 to 2012 was analysed by multivariate linear regression, including an 11-year solar cycle proxy. Lower stratospheric water vapour was found to reveal a phase-shifted anti-correlation with the solar cycle, with lowest water vapour after solar maximum. The phase shift is composed of an inherent constant time lag of about 2 years and a second component following the stratospheric age of air. The amplitudes of the water vapour response are largest close to the tropical tropopause (up to 0.35 ppmv) and decrease with altitude and latitude. Including the solar cycle proxy in the regression results in linear trends of water vapour being negative over the full altitude/latitude range, while without the solar proxy, positive water vapour trends in the lower stratosphere were found. We conclude from these results that a solar signal seems to be generated at the tropical tropopause which is most likely imprinted on the stratospheric water vapour abundances and transported to higher altitudes and latitudes via the Brewer–Dobson circulation. Hence it is concluded that the tropical tropopause temperature at the final dehydration point of air may also be governed to some degree by the solar cycle. The negative water vapour trends obtained when considering the solar cycle impact on water vapour abundances can possibly solve the "water vapour conundrum" of increasing stratospheric water vapour abundances despite constant or even decreasing tropopause temperatures.

scholarly journals A global non-hydrostatic model study of a downward coupling through the tropical tropopause layer during a stratospheric sudden warming

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 297-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Eguchi ◽  
K. Kodera ◽  
T. Nasuno
Keyword(s):  
Cumulus Parameterization ◽  
Cloud Formation ◽  
Boreal Winter ◽  
Convective Activity ◽  
Stratospheric Sudden Warming ◽  
Southwest Indian Ocean ◽  
Tropical Tropopause Layer ◽  
Tropical Tropopause ◽  
Model Study ◽  
Hydrostatic Model

Abstract. The dynamical coupling process between the stratosphere and troposphere in the tropical tropopause layer (TTL) during a~stratospheric sudden warming (SSW) in boreal winter was investigated using simulation data from a global non-hydrostatic model (NICAM) that does not use cumulus parameterization. The model reproduced well the observed tropical tropospheric changes during the SSW, including the enhancement of convective activity following the amplification of planetary waves. Deep convective activity was enhanced in the latitude zone 20–10° S, in particular over the southwest Pacific and southwest Indian Ocean. Although the upwelling in the TTL was correlated with that in the stratosphere, the temperature tendency in the TTL changed little due to a compensation by diabatic heating originating from cloud formation. This result suggests that the stratospheric meridional circulation affects cloud formation in the TTL.

scholarly journals Diurnal Variability of Lower and Middle Atmospheric Water Vapour Over The Asian Summer Monsoon Region: First Results From COSMIC-1 and TIMED-SABER Measurements

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siddarth Shankar Das ◽  
K N Uma ◽  
K V Suneeth
Keyword(s):  
Water Vapour ◽  
Middle Atmosphere ◽  
Asian Summer Monsoon ◽  
Diurnal Variability ◽  
Diurnal Amplitude ◽  
Tropical Tropopause ◽  
First Results ◽  
Asian Summer ◽  
Tropopause Temperature ◽  
Stratospheric Water Vapour

Abstract First observations on the vertical structure of diurnal variability of tropospheric water vapour in the lower and middle atmosphere using 13 years of COSMIC and 18 years of SABER observations are presented in this paper. The most significant and new observation is that the middle stratospheric water vapour (SWV) enhancement is observed between 9-18 LT, whereas it is between 6-15 LT near tropopause in all the seasons. The diurnal amplitude of water vapour near tropopause is between 0.3-0.4 ppmv. Bimodal peaks are found in the diurnal amplitude of SWV, maximizing between 25-30 km (~0.4 ppmv) and 45-50 km (~0.6 ppmv). The analysis reveals that the diurnal variability in the lower SWV is controlled by the tropical tropopause temperature, whereas the middle and upper SWV is controlled by methane oxidation. The results are presented and discussed in the light of present understanding.

scholarly journals Large Uncertainties in Estimation of Tropical Tropopause Temperature Variabilities Due to Model Vertical Resolution

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (16) ◽  
pp. 10043-10052 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wuke Wang ◽  
Ming Shangguan ◽  
Wenshou Tian ◽  
Torsten Schmidt ◽  
Aijun Ding
Keyword(s):  
Vertical Resolution ◽  
Tropical Tropopause ◽  
Tropopause Temperature

scholarly journals Impact of tropical lower stratospheric cooling on deep convective activity: (I) Recent trends in tropical circulation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kunihiko Kodera ◽  
Nawo Eguchi ◽  
Rei Ueyama ◽  
Yuhji Kuroda ◽  
Chiaki Kobayashi
Keyword(s):  
Hadley Cell ◽  
Boreal Summer ◽  
Convective Activity ◽  
Tropical Circulation ◽  
Surface Cooling ◽  
Central Pacific ◽  
Tropical Tropopause Layer ◽  
Tropical Tropopause ◽  
Poleward Shift ◽  
Stratospheric Cooling

Abstract. Large changes in tropical circulation, in particular those related to the summer monsoon and cooling of the sea surface in the equatorial eastern Pacific, were noted from the mid to late 1990s. The cause of such recent decadal variations in the tropics was studied by making use of a meteorological reanalysis dataset. Cooling of the equatorial southeastern Pacific Ocean occurred in association with enhanced cross-equatorial southerlies, which resulted from a strengthening and poleward shift of the rising branch of the boreal summer Hadley circulation connected to the stratospheric Brewer‒Dobson circulation. From boreal summer to winter, the anomalous convective activity centre moves southward following the seasonal march to the equatorial Indian Ocean‒Maritime Continent region, which strengthens the surface easterlies over the equatorial central Pacific. Accordingly, ocean surface cooling extends over the equatorial central Pacific. We suggest that the fundamental factor causing the recent decadal change in the tropical troposphere and the ocean is a poleward shift of the rising branch of the summertime Hadley cell, which can result from a strengthening of extreme deep convection penetrating into the tropical tropopause layer, in particular over the continents of Africa and Asia, and adjacent oceans. We conjecture that this effect is produced by a combination of land surface warming due to increased CO2 and a reduction of static stability in the tropical tropopause layer due to tropical stratospheric cooling.

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