scholarly journals Aerosol decadal trends – Part 2: In-situ aerosol particle number concentrations at GAW and ACTRIS stations

2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 895-916 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Asmi ◽  
M. Collaud Coen ◽  
J. A. Ogren ◽  
E. Andrews ◽  
P. Sheridan ◽  
...  

Abstract. We have analysed the trends of total aerosol particle number concentrations (N) measured at long-term measurement stations involved either in the Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) and/or EU infrastructure project ACTRIS. The sites are located in Europe, North America, Antarctica, and on Pacific Ocean islands. The majority of the sites showed clear decreasing trends both in the full-length time series, and in the intra-site comparison period of 2001–2010, especially during the winter months. Several potential driving processes for the observed trends were studied, and even though there are some similarities between N trends and air temperature changes, the most likely cause of many northern hemisphere trends was found to be decreases in the anthropogenic emissions of primary particles, SO2 or some co-emitted species. We could not find a consistent agreement between the trends of N and particle optical properties in the few stations with long time series of all of these properties. The trends of N and the proxies for cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) were generally consistent in the few European stations where the measurements were available. This work provides a useful comparison analysis for modelling studies of trends in aerosol number concentrations.

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 20849-20899 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Asmi ◽  
M. Collaud Coen ◽  
J. A. Ogren ◽  
E. Andrews ◽  
P. Sheridan ◽  
...  

Abstract. We have analysed the trends of total aerosol particle number concentrations (N) measured at long-term measurement stations involved either in the Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) and/or EU infrastructure project ACTRIS. The sites are located in Europe, North America, Antarctica, and on Pacific Ocean islands. The majority of the sites showed clear decreasing trends both in the full-length time-series, and in the intra-site comparison period of 2001–2010, especially during the winter months. Several potential driving processes for the observed trends were studied, and even though there are some similarities between N trends and air temperature changes, the most likely cause of many Northern Hemisphere trends was found to be decreases in the anthropogenic emissions of primary particles, SO2 or some co-emitted species. We could not find a consistent agreement between the trends of N and particle optical properties in the few stations with long timeseries of all of these properties. The trends of N and the proxies for cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) were generally consistent in the few European stations where the measurements were available. This work provides a useful comparison analysis for modelling studies of trends in aerosol number concentrations.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 1829-1842 ◽  
Author(s):  
Athanasia Iona ◽  
Athanasios Theodorou ◽  
Sarantis Sofianos ◽  
Sylvain Watelet ◽  
Charles Troupin ◽  
...  

Abstract. We present a new product composed of a set of thermohaline climatic indices from 1950 to 2015 for the Mediterranean Sea such as decadal temperature and salinity anomalies, their mean values over selected depths, decadal ocean heat and salt content anomalies at selected depth layers as well as their long time series. It is produced from a new high-resolution climatology of temperature and salinity on a 1∕8∘ regular grid based on historical high-quality in situ observations. Ocean heat and salt content differences between 1980–2015 and 1950–1979 are compared for evaluation of the climate shift in the Mediterranean Sea. The two successive periods are chosen according to the standard WMO climate normals. The spatial patterns of heat and salt content shifts demonstrate that the climate changes differently in the several regions of the basin. Long time series of heat and salt content for the period 1950 to 2015 are also provided which indicate that in the Mediterranean Sea there is a net mean volume warming and salinification since 1950 that has accelerated during the last two decades. The time series also show that the ocean heat content seems to fluctuate on a cycle of about 40 years and seems to follow the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation climate cycle, indicating that the natural large-scale atmospheric variability could be superimposed onto the warming trend. This product is an observation-based estimation of the Mediterranean climatic indices. It relies solely on spatially interpolated data produced from in situ observations averaged over decades in order to smooth the decadal variability and reveal the long-term trends. It can provide a valuable contribution to the modellers' community, next to the satellite-based products, and serve as a baseline for the evaluation of climate-change model simulations, thus contributing to a better understanding of the complex response of the Mediterranean Sea to the ongoing global climate change. The product is available in netCDF at the following sources: annual and seasonal T∕S anomalies (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1408832), annual and seasonal T∕S vertical averaged anomalies (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1408929), annual and seasonal areal density of OHC/OSC anomalies (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1408877), annual and seasonal linear trends of T∕S, OHC/OSC anomalies (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1408917), annual and seasonal time series of T∕S, OHC/OSC anomalies (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1411398), and differences of two 30-year averages of annual and seasonal T∕S, OHC/OSC anomalies (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1408903).


2005 ◽  
Vol 39 (12) ◽  
pp. 2261-2273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pentti Paatero ◽  
Pasi Aalto ◽  
Sally Picciotto ◽  
Tom Bellander ◽  
Gemma Castaño ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Ye Yuan ◽  
Stefan Härer ◽  
Tobias Ottenheym ◽  
Gourav Misra ◽  
Alissa Lüpke ◽  
...  

AbstractPhenology serves as a major indicator of ongoing climate change. Long-term phenological observations are critically important for tracking and communicating these changes. The phenological observation network across Germany is operated by the National Meteorological Service with a major contribution from volunteering activities. However, the number of observers has strongly decreased for the last decades, possibly resulting in increasing uncertainties when extracting reliable phenological information from map interpolation. We studied uncertainties in interpolated maps from decreasing phenological records, by comparing long-term trends based on grid-based interpolated and station-wise observed time series, as well as their correlations with temperature. Interpolated maps in spring were characterized by the largest spatial variabilities across Bavaria, Germany, with respective lowest interpolated uncertainties. Long-term phenological trends for both interpolations and observations exhibited mean advances of −0.2 to −0.3 days year−1 for spring and summer, while late autumn and winter showed a delay of around 0.1 days year−1. Throughout the year, temperature sensitivities were consistently stronger for interpolated time series than observations. Such a better representation of regional phenology by interpolation was equally supported by satellite-derived phenological indices. Nevertheless, simulation of observer numbers indicated that a decline to less than 40% leads to a strong decrease in interpolation accuracy. To better understand the risk of declining phenological observations and to motivate volunteer observers, a Shiny app is proposed to visualize spatial and temporal phenological patterns across Bavaria and their links to climate change–induced temperature changes.


2007 ◽  
pp. 88
Author(s):  
Wataru Suzuki ◽  
Yanfei Zhou

This article represents the first step in filling a large gap in knowledge concerning why Public Assistance (PA) use recently rose so fast in Japan. Specifically, we try to address this problem not only by performing a Blanchard and Quah decomposition on long-term monthly time series data (1960:04-2006:10), but also by estimating prefecturelevel longitudinal data. Two interesting findings emerge from the time series analysis. The first is that permanent shock imposes a continuously positive impact on the PA rate and is the main driving factor behind the recent increase in welfare use. The second finding is that the impact of temporary shock will last for a long time. The rate of the use of welfare is quite rigid because even if the PA rate rises due to temporary shocks, it takes about 8 or 9 years for it to regain its normal level. On the other hand, estimations of prefecture-level longitudinal data indicate that the Financial Capability Index (FCI) of the local government2 and minimum wage both impose negative effects on the PA rate. We also find that the rapid aging of Japan's population presents a permanent shock in practice, which makes it the most prominent contribution to surging welfare use.


2017 ◽  
Vol 98 (6) ◽  
pp. 1217-1234 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Wolf ◽  
C. Chwala ◽  
B. Fersch ◽  
J. Garvelmann ◽  
W. Junkermann ◽  
...  

Abstract ScaleX is a collaborative measurement campaign, collocated with a long-term environmental observatory of the German Terrestrial Environmental Observatories (TERENO) network in the mountainous terrain of the Bavarian Prealps, Germany. The aims of both TERENO and ScaleX include the measurement and modeling of land surface–atmosphere interactions of energy, water, and greenhouse gases. ScaleX is motivated by the recognition that long-term intensive observational research over years or decades must be based on well-proven, mostly automated measurement systems, concentrated in a small number of locations. In contrast, short-term intensive campaigns offer the opportunity to assess spatial distributions and gradients by concentrated instrument deployments, and by mobile sensors (ground and/or airborne) to obtain transects and three-dimensional patterns of atmospheric, surface, or soil variables and processes. Moreover, intensive campaigns are ideal proving grounds for innovative instruments, methods, and techniques to measure quantities that cannot (yet) be automated or deployed over long time periods. ScaleX is distinctive in its design, which combines the benefits of a long-term environmental-monitoring approach (TERENO) with the versatility and innovative power of a series of intensive campaigns, to bridge across a wide span of spatial and temporal scales. This contribution presents the concept and first data products of ScaleX-2015, which occurred in June–July 2015. The second installment of ScaleX took place in summer 2016 and periodic further ScaleX campaigns are planned throughout the lifetime of TERENO. This paper calls for collaboration in future ScaleX campaigns or to use our data in modelling studies. It is also an invitation to emulate the ScaleX concept at other long-term observatories.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Athanasia Iona ◽  
Athanasios Theodorou ◽  
Sarantis Sofianos ◽  
Sylvain Watelet ◽  
Charles Troupin ◽  
...  

Abstract. We present a new product composed of a set of thermohaline climatic indices from 1950 to 2015 for the Mediterranean Sea such as decadal temperature and salinity anomalies, their mean values over selected depths, decadal ocean heat and salt content anomalies at selected depth layers as well as their long times series. It is produced from a new high-resolution climatology of temperature and salinity on a 1/8° regular grid based on historical high quality in situ observations. Ocean heat and salt content differences between 1980–2015 and 1950–1979 are compared for evaluation of the climate shift in the Mediterranean Sea. The spatial patterns of heat and salt content shifts demonstrate in greater detail than ever before that the climate changes differently in the several regions of the basin. Long time series of heat and salt content for the period 1950 to 2015 are also provided which indicate that in the Mediterranean Sea there is a net mean volume warming and salting since 1950 with acceleration during the last two decades. The time series also show that the ocean heat content seems to fluctuate on a cycle of about 40 years and seems to follow the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation climate cycle indicating that the natural large scale atmospheric variability could be superimposed on to the warming trend. This product is an observations-based estimation of the Mediterranean climatic indices. It relies solely on spatially interpolated data produced from in-situ observations averaged over decades in order to smooth the decadal variability and reveal the long term trends with more accuracy. It can provide a valuable contribution to the modellers' community, next to the satellite-based products and serve as a baseline for the evaluation of climate-change model simulations contributing thus to a better understanding of the complex response of the Mediterranean Sea to the ongoing global climate change. The product is available here: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1210100.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Jessop ◽  
Roberto Moretti ◽  
Séverine Moune ◽  
Vincent Robert

<p>Fumarolic gas composition and temperature record deep processes that generate and transfer heat and mass towards the surface.  These processes are a result of the emplacement, degassing and cooling of magma and the overturning of the above hydrothermal system.  A reasonable expectation, and too often an unproved assumption, is that fumarole temperatures and the deep heat sources vary on similar timescales.  Yet signals from deep and shallow processes have vastly different temporal variations.  This indicates that signals arising from deep activity may be masked or modified by intervening hydrothermal processes, such as fluid-groundrock reactions in which secondary minerals play a major role.  Clearly, this complicates the interpretation of the signals such as the joint variation of fumarole vent temperature and geochemical ratios in terms of what is occurring at depth.  So what do the differences between the timescales governing deep and shallow processes tell us about the intervening transport mechanisms?</p><p>At the volcanic dome of La Soufrière de Guadeloupe, the Observatoire Volcanologique et Sismologique de la Guadeloupe has performed weekly-to-monthly in-situ vent gas sampling over many years.  These analyses reliably track several geochemical species ratios over time, which provide important information about the evolution of deep processes.  Vent temperature is measured as part of the in-situ sampling, giving a long time series of these measurements.  Here, we look to exploit the temporal variations in these data to establish the common processes, and also to determine why these signals differ.  By fitting sinusoids to the gas-ratio time series we find that several of the deep signals are strongly sinusoidal.  For example, the He/CH<sub>4</sub> and CO<sub>2</sub>/CH<sub>4</sub> ratios, which involve conservative components and mark the injection of deep and hot magmatic fluids, oscillate on a timescale close to 3 years. We also analyse the frequency content of the temperature measurements since 2011 and find that such long signals are not seen.  This may be due to internal buffering by the hydrothermal system, but other external forcings are also present.  From these data we build up a more informed model of the heat-and-mass supply chain from depth to the surface.  This will potentially allow us to predict future unrest (e.g. thermal crises, seismic swarms), and distinguish between sources of unrest.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 791 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingjing Yang ◽  
Si-Bo Duan ◽  
Xiaoyu Zhang ◽  
Penghai Wu ◽  
Cheng Huang ◽  
...  

Land surface temperature (LST) is vital for studies of hydrology, ecology, climatology, and environmental monitoring. The radiative-transfer-equation-based single-channel algorithm, in conjunction with the atmospheric profile, is regarded as the most suitable one with which to produce long-term time series LST products from Landsat thermal infrared (TIR) data. In this study, the performances of seven atmospheric profiles from different sources (the MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiomete atmospheric profile product (MYD07), the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder atmospheric profile product (AIRS), the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), the Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2 (MERRA2), the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)/Global Forecasting System (GFS), NCEP/Final Operational Global Analysis (FNL), and NCEP/Department of Energy (DOE)) were comprehensively evaluated in the single-channel algorithm for LST retrieval from Landsat 8 TIR data. Results showed that when compared with the radio sounding profile downloaded from the University of Wyoming (UWYO), the worst accuracies of atmospheric parameters were obtained for the MYD07 profile. Furthermore, the root-mean-square error (RMSE) values (approximately 0.5 K) of the retrieved LST when using the ECMWF, MERRA2, NCEP/GFS, and NCEP/FNL profiles were smaller than those but greater than 0.8 K when the MYD07, AIRS, and NCEP/DOE profiles were used. Compared with the in situ LST measurements that were collected at the Hailar, Urad Front Banner, and Wuhai sites, the RMSE values of the LST that were retrieved by using the ECMWF, MERRA2, NCEP/GFS, and NCEP/FNL profiles were approximately 1.0 K. The largest discrepancy between the retrieved and in situ LST was obtained for the NCEP/DOE profile, with an RMSE value of approximately 1.5 K. The results reveal that the ECMWF, MERRA2, NCEP/GFS, and NCEP/FNL profiles have great potential to perform accurate atmospheric correction and generate long-term time series LST products from Landsat TIR data by using a single-channel algorithm.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Düsing ◽  
Birgit Wehner ◽  
Patric Seifert ◽  
Albert Ansmann ◽  
Holger Baars ◽  
...  

Abstract. This study presents vertical profiles up to a height of 2300 m a.s.l. of aerosol microphysical and optical properties and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). Corresponding data have been measured during a field campaign as part of the High-Definition Clouds and Precipitation for Advancing Climate Prediction (HD(CP)2) Observational Prototype Experiments (HOPE), which took place at Melpitz, Germany from September 9 to 29, 2013. The helicopter-borne payload ACTOS (Airborne Cloud and Turbulence Observation System) was used to determine the aerosol particle number size distribution (PNSD), the number concentrations of aerosol particles (PNC) and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) (CCN-NC), the ambient relative humidity (RH), and temperature (T). Simultaneous measurements on ground provided a holistic view on aerosol microphysical properties such as the PNSD, the chemical composition and the CCN-NC. Additional measurements of a 3 + 2 wavelength polarization lidar system (PollyXT) provided profiles of the aerosol particle light backscatter coefficient (σbsc) for three wavelengths (355, 532 and 1064 nm). From profiles of σbsc profiles of the aerosol particle light extinction coefficient (σext) were determined using the extinction-to-backscatter ratio. Furthermore, CCN-NC profiles were estimated on basis of the lidar-measurements. Ambient state optical properties of aerosol particles were derived on the basis of airborne in situ measurements of ACTOS (PNSD) and in situ measurements on ground (chemical aerosol characterization) using Mie-theory. On the basis of ground-based and airborne measurements, this work investigates the representativeness of ground-based aerosol microphysical properties for the boundary layer for two case-studies. The PNSD measurements on ground showed a good agreement with the measurements provided with ACTOS for lower altitudes. The ground-based measurements of PNC and CCN-NC are representative for the PBL when the PBL is well mixed. Locally isolated new particle formation events on ground or at the top of the PBL led to vertical variability in the here presented cases and ground-based measurements are not representative for the PBL. Furthermore, the lidar-based estimates of CCN-NC profiles were compared with the airborne in situ measurements of ACTOS. This comparison showed good agreements within the uncertainty range. Finally, this work provides a closure study between the optical aerosol particle properties in ambient state based on the airborne ACTOS measurements and derived with the lidar measurements. The investigation of the optical properties shows for 14 measurement-points that the airborne-based particle light backscatter coefficient is for 1064 nm 50 % smaller than the measurements of the lidar system, 27.6 % smaller for 532 nm and 29.9 % smaller for 355 nm. These results are quite promising, since in-situ measurement based Mie-calculations of the particle light backscattering are scarce and the modelling is quite challenging. In contradiction for the particle light extinction coefficient retrieved from the airborne in situ measurements were found a good agreement. The airborne-based particle light extinction coefficient was just 7.9 % larger for 532 nm and 3.5 % smaller for 355 nm, for an assumed lidar ratio (LR) of 55 sr. The particle light extinction coefficient for 1064 nm was derived with a LR of 30 sr. For this wavelength, the airborne-based particle light extinction coefficient is 5.2 % smaller than the lidar-measurements. Also, the correlation for the particle light extinction coefficient in combination with Mie-based LR's are in agreement for typical LR's of European background aerosol.


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