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- ItemOn the upper tropospheric formation and occurrence of high and thin cirrus clouds during anticyclonic poleward Rossby wave breaking events(Milton Park : Taylor & Francis, 2010) Eixmann, Ronald; Peters, Dieter H.W.; Zülicke, Christoph; Gerding, Michael; Dörnbrack, AndreasGround-based lidar measurements and balloon soundings were employed to examine the dynamical link between anticyclonic Rossby wave breaking and cirrus clouds from 13 to 15 February 2006. For this event, an air mass with low Ertel’s potential vorticity appeared over Central Europe. In the tropopause region, this air mass was accompanied with both an area of extreme cold temperatures placed northeastward, and an area of high specific humidity, located southwestward. ECMWF analyses reveal a strong adiabatic northeastward and upward transport of water vapour within the warm conveyor belt on the western side of the ridge over Mecklenburg, Northern Germany. The backscatter lidar at K¨uhlungsborn (54.1◦N, 11.8◦E) clearly identified cirrus clouds at between 9 and 11.4 km height. In the tropopause region high-vertical resolution radiosoundings showed layers of subsaturated water vapour over ice but with a relative humidity over ice >80%. Over Northern Germany radiosondes indicated anticyclonically rotating winds in agreement with backward trajectories of ECMWF analyses in the upper troposphere, which were accompanied by a relatively strong increase of the tropopause height on 14 February. Based on ECMWF data the strong link between the large-scale structure, updraft and ice water content was shown.
- ItemCharacterization of Saharan dust, marine aerosols and mixtures of biomass-burning aerosols and dust by means of multi-wavelength depolarization and Raman lidar measurements during SAMUM 2(Milton Park : Taylor & Francis, 2017) Groß, Silke; Tesche, Matthias; Freudenthaler, Volker; Toledano, Carlos; Wiegner, Matthias; Ansmann, Albert; Althausen, Dietrich; Seefeldner, MeinhardThe particle linear depolarization ratio δp of Saharan dust, marine aerosols and mixtures of biomass-burning aerosols from southern West Africa and Saharan dust was determined at three wavelengths with three lidar systems during the SAharan Mineral dUst experiMent 2 at the airport of Praia, Cape Verde, between 22 January and 9 February 2008. The lidar ratio Sp of these major types of tropospheric aerosols was analysed at two wavelengths. For Saharan dust, we find wavelength dependent mean particle linear depolarization ratios δp of 0.24–0.27 at 355 nm, 0.29–0.31 at 532 nm and 0.36–0.40 at 710 nm, and wavelength independent mean lidar ratios Sp of 48–70 sr. Mixtures of biomass-burning aerosols and dust show wavelength independent values of δp and Sp between 0.12–0.23 and 57–98 sr, respectively. The mean values of marine aerosols range independent of wavelength for δp from 0.01 to 0.03 and for Sp from 14 to 24 sr.
- ItemDust mobilization and aerosol transport from West Africa to Cape Verde - a meteorological overview of SAMUM-2(Milton Park : Taylor & Francis, 2017) Knippertz, Peter; Tesche, Matthias; Heinold, Bernd; Kandler, Konrad; Toledano, Carlos; Esselborn, MichaelThe second field campaign of the SAharan Mineral dUst experiMent (SAMUM-2) was performed between 15 January and 14 February 2008 at the airport of Praia, Cape Verde, and provided valuable information to study the westward transport of Saharan dust and the mixing with biomass-burning smoke and sea-salt aerosol. Here lidar, meteorological, and particle measurements at Praia, together with operational analyses, trajectories, and satellite and synoptic station data are used to give an overview of the meteorological conditions and to place other SAMUM-2 measurements into a large-scale context. It is demonstrated that wintertime dust conditions at Cape Verde are closely related to the movement and intensification of mid-latitude high-pressure systems and the associated pressure gradients at their southern flanks. These cause dust emission over Mauritania, Mali, and Niger, and subsequent westward transport to Cape Verde within about 1–5 d. Dust emissions often peak around midday, suggesting a relation to daytime mixing of momentum from nocturnal low-level jets to the surface. The dust layer over Cape Verde is usually restricted to the lowest 1.5 km of the atmosphere. During periods with near-surface wind speeds about 5.5 ms−1, a maritime aerosol layer develops which often mixes with dust from above. On most days, the middle levels up to about 5 km additionally contain smoke that can be traced back to sources in southernWest Africa. Above this layer, clean air masses are transported to Cape Verde with the westerly flow at the southern side of the subtropical jet. The penetration of extra-tropical disturbances to low latitudes can bring troposphere-deep westerly flow and unusually clean conditions to the region.
- ItemNear-global aerosol mapping in the upper troposphere and lowermost stratosphere with data from the CARIBIC project(Milton Park : Taylor & Francis, 2017) Heintzenberg, Jost; Hermann, Markus; Weigelt, Andreas; Kapustin, Vladimir; Anderson, Bruce; Thornhill, Kenneth; Van Velthoven, Peter; Zahn, Andreas; Brenninkmeijer, CarlThis study extrapolates aerosol data of the CARIBIC project from 1997 until June 2008 in along trajectories to compose large-scale maps and vertical profiles of submicrometre particle concentrations in the upper troposphere and lowermost stratosphere (UT/LMS). The extrapolation was validated by comparing extrapolated values with CARIBIC data measured near the respective trajectory position and by comparing extrapolated CARIBIC data to measurements by other experiments near the respective trajectory positions. Best agreement between extrapolated and measured data is achieved with particle lifetimes longer than the maximum length of used trajectories. The derived maps reveal regions of strong and frequent new particle formation, namely the Tropical Central and Western Africa with the adjacent Atlantic, South America, the Caribbean and Southeast Asia. These regions of particle formation coincide with those of frequent deep convective clouds. Vertical particle concentration profiles for the troposphere and the stratosphere confirm statistically previous results indicating frequent new particle formation in the tropopause region. There was no statistically significant increase in Aitken mode particle concentration between the first period of CARIBIC operation, 1997–2002, and the second period, 2004–2009. However, a significant increase in concentration occurred within the latter period when considering it in isolation.
- ItemSubmicrometer aerosol particle distributions in the upper troposphere over the mid-latitude North Atlantic - Results from the third route of 'CARIBIC'(Milton Park : Taylor & Francis, 2017) Hermann, M.; Brenninkmeijer, C.A.M.; Slemr, F.; Heintzenberg, J.; Martinsson, B.G.; Schlager, H.; Van Velthoven, P.F.J.; Wiedensohler, A.; Zahn, A.; Ziereis, H.Particle number and mass concentrations of submicrometer aerosol particles were determined for the upper troposphere over the mid-latitude North Atlantic within the Civil Aircraft for Regular Investigation of the Atmosphere Based on an Instrument Container project (CARIBIC, http://www.caribic-atmospheric.com). Between May 2001 and April 2002, 22 flights from Germany to the Caribbean were conducted using an automated measurement container on a B767 passenger aircraft. Spatial and seasonal probability distributions for ultrafine and Aitken mode particles as well as mass concentrations of particulate sulphur in 8–12 km altitude are presented. High particle number concentrations (mostly 2500–15 000 particles cm-3 STP) are particularly found in summer over the western North Atlantic Ocean close to the North American continent. The distributions together with an analysis of particle source processes show that deep vertical transport is the dominant process leading to most of the events with high particle number concentrations (8000 particles cm-3 STP) for ultrafine particles as well as for Aitken mode particles. This study emphasizes the importance of deep vertical transport and cloud processing for the concentration of aerosol particles in the upper troposphere.
- ItemAlberta wildfire 2016: Apt contribution from anomalous planetary wave dynamics([London] : Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature, 2018) Petoukhov, Vladimir; Petri, Stefan; Kornhuber, Kai; Thonicke, Kirsten; Coumou, Dim; Schellnhuber, Hans JoachimIn May-June 2016 the Canadian Province of Alberta suffered one of the most devastating wildfires in its history. Here we show that in mid-April to early May 2016 the large-scale circulation in the mid- and high troposphere of the middle and sub-polar latitudes of the northern hemisphere featured a persistent high-amplitude planetary wave structure dominated by the non-dimensional zonal wave number 4. The strongest anticyclonic wing of this structure was located over western Canada. In combination with a very strong El Niño event in winter 2015/2016 this favored highly anomalous, tinder-dry and high-temperature conditions at the surface in that area, entailing an increased fire hazard there. This critically contributed to the ignition of the Alberta Wildfire in May 2016, appearing to be the costliest disaster in Canadian history thus far.
- ItemOn statistics of the free-troposphere synoptic component: An evaluation of skewnesses and mixed third-order moments contribution to the synoptic-scale dynamics and fluxes of heat and humidity(Abingdon : Taylor and Francis Ltd., 2008) Petoukhov, V.; Eliseev, A.V.; Klein, R.; Oesterle, H.Based on the ERA40 data for 1976-2002 we calculated skewnesses and mixed third-order statistical moments (TOMs) for the synoptic variations [with (2.5-6) d timescales]of horizontal winds, temperature, vertical velocity and the specific humidity in Eulerian coordinates. All these variables show skewnesses which markedly deviate from zero, basically at the entries and the outlets of the mid-latitude storm tracks. In these regions, high values of skewness for vertical velocity, temperature and the specific humidity are revealed throughout the entire free troposphere, while the marked skewnesses for horizontal winds are traced in the lower free troposphere. We found a notable deviation of the synoptic-component statistics from the Gaussian statistics. We also made an estimate of the contribution from TOMs to the prognostic equations for the synoptic-scale kinetic energy and the meridional fluxes of sensible and latent heat, which appeared to be non-negligible, mainly in the storm tracks in winter. Our analysis attests that the most pronounced contribution of TOMs to the aforementioned equations comes from the self-advection by the horizontal synoptic-scale motions, while the TOMs induced by the metric terms in the original equations, and specifically the TOMs associated with the vertical self-advection by the synoptic-scale motions, are much less important.
- ItemThe feedback of midlatitude waves onto the Hadley cell in a simple general circulation model(Milton Park : Taylor & Francis, 1996) Becker, E.; Schmitz, G.; Geprägs, R.We present self-consistent comparisons of axissymmetric and 3-dimensional simulations of the tropospheric circulation under idealized physical conditions. These reveal a feedback of transient eddies onto the Hadley circulation which, first, strongly depends on equatorial heating and, second, is in case of realistic heating quite different from prescribed eddy forcing. A quantitative estimation for the eddy-induced mixing of vorticity into the poleward flow of the Hadley cell is given. The proposed relation is in accordance with observations. It is derived from the computational result that eddy momentum flux convergence is of the same order as the equatorward flux of relative vorticity generated by the Hadley circulation. Evaluation of the local budgets of sensible heat gives rise to a clear picture of how the poleward heat transports due to Hadley circulation and transient eddies interlock. This mechanism is found to be essential for an interpretation of the eddy feedback.
- ItemThe realization of autonomous, aircraft-based, real-time aerosol mass spectrometry in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere(Katlenburg-Lindau : Copernicus, 2022) Dragoneas, Antonis; Molleker, Sergej; Appel, Oliver; Hünig, Andreas; Böttger, Thomas; Hermann, Markus; Drewnick, Frank; Schneider, Johannes; Weigel, Ralf; Borrmann, StephanWe report on the developments that enabled the field deployment of a fully automated aerosol mass spectrometer, especially designed for high-altitude measurements on unpressurized aircraft. The merits of the two main categories of real-time aerosol mass spectrometry, i.e. (a) single-particle laser desorption and ionization and (b) continuous thermal desorption and electron impact ionization of aerosols, have been integrated into one compact apparatus with the aim to perform in situ real-time analysis of aerosol chemical composition. The demonstrated instrument, named the ERICA (European Research Council Instrument for Chemical composition of Aerosols), operated successfully aboard the high-altitude research aircraft M-55 Geophysica at altitudes up to 20 km while being exposed to ambient conditions of very low atmospheric pressure and temperature. A primary goal of those field deployments was the in situ study of the Asian tropopause aerosol layer (ATAL). During 11 research flights, the instrument operated for more than 49 h and collected chemical composition information of more than 150 000 single particles combined with quantitative chemical composition analysis of aerosol particle ensembles. This paper presents in detail the technical characteristics of the main constituent parts of the instrument, as well as the design considerations for its integration into the aircraft and its autonomous operation in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS). Additionally, system performance data from the first field deployments of the instrument are presented and discussed, together with exemplary mass spectrometry data collected during those flights.
- ItemMALTE - Model to predict new aerosol formation in the lower troposphere(München : European Geopyhsical Union, 2006) Boy, M.; Hellmuth, O.; Korhonen, H.; Nilsson, E.D.; ReVelle, D.; Turnipseed, A.; Arnold, F.; Kulmala, M.The manuscript presents a detailed description of the meteorological and chemical code of Malte – a model to predict new aerosol formation in the lower troposphere. The aerosol dynamics are achieved by the new developed UHMA (University of Helsinki Multicomponent Aerosol Model) code with kinetic limited nucleation as responsible mechanism to form new clusters. First results indicate that the model is able to predict the on- and offset of new particle formation as well as the total aerosol number concentrations that were in good agreement with the observations. Further, comparison of predicted and measured H2SO4 concentrations showed a satisfactory agreement. The simulation results indicated that at a certain transitional particle diameter (2–7 nm), organic molecules can begin to contribute significantly to the growth rate compared to sulphuric acid. At even larger particle sizes, organic molecules can dominate the growth rate on days with significant monoterpene concentrations. The intraday vertical evolution of newly formed clusters and particles in two different size ranges resulted in two maxima at the ground. These particles grow around noon to the detectable size range and agree well with measured vertical profiles.