Foreign influences on tropospheric ozone over East Asia through global atmospheric transport

Abstract. Tropospheric ozone in East Asia is influenced by the transport of ozone from foreign regions around the world. However, the magnitudes and variations in such influences remain unclear. This study was performed to investigate the influences using a global chemical transport model, GEOS-Chem, through the tagged ozone and emission perturbation simulations. The results show that foreign ozone is transported to East Asia (20–60∘ N, 95–150∘ E) mainly through the middle and upper troposphere. In East Asia, the influence of foreign ozone increases rapidly with altitude. In the middle and upper troposphere, the regional mean concentrations of foreign ozone range from 32 to 65 ppbv, being 0.8–4.8 times higher than its native counterpart (11–18 ppbv). Annually, ∼60 % of foreign ozone in the East Asian middle and upper troposphere comes from North America (5–13 ppbv) and Europe (5–7 ppbv), as well as from foreign oceanic regions (9–21 ppbv). Over the East Asian tropospheric columns, foreign ozone appears most in spring when ozone concentrations in the foreign regions are high and the westerlies are strong and least in summer when the South Asian High blocks eastward foreign ozone from reaching East Asia south of 35∘ N. At the East Asian surface, the annual mean of foreign ozone concentrations is ∼22.2 ppbv, which is comparable to its native counterpart of ∼20.4 ppbv. In the meantime, the annual mean of anthropogenic ozone concentrations from foreign regions is ∼4.7 ppbv, half of which comes from North America (1.3 ppbv) and Europe (1.0 ppbv). Seasonally, foreign ozone concentrations at the East Asian surface are highest in winter (27.1 ppbv) and lowest in summer (16.5 ppbv). This strong seasonality is largely modulated by the East Asian monsoon (EAM) via its influence on vertical motion. The large-scale subsidence prevailing during the East Asian winter monsoon (EAWM) favours the downdraft of foreign ozone to the surface, while widespread convection in the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) blocks such transport. Interannually, the variation in foreign ozone at the East Asian surface is found to be closely related to the intensity of the EAM. Specifically, the stronger the EAWM is in a winter, the more ozone from North America and Europe reaches the East Asian surface because of the stronger subsidence behind the East Asian trough. In summer, ozone from South and South-east Asia is reduced in strong EASM years due to weakened south-westerly monsoon winds. This study suggests substantial foreign influences on ozone at the East Asian surface and in its tropospheric columns. It also underscores the importance of the EAM in the seasonal and interannual variations in foreign influences on surface ozone in East Asia.

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Foreign influences on tropospheric ozone over East Asia through global atmospheric transport

10.5194/acp-2019-132 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Han Han ◽

Jane Liu ◽

Huiling Yuan ◽

Tijian Wang ◽

Bingliang Zhuang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

East Asia ◽

South Asian ◽

North American ◽

Tropospheric Ozone ◽

Surface Ozone ◽

East Asian ◽

South Asian High ◽

Interannual Variations ◽

Upper Troposphere ◽

Strong Seasonality

Abstract. Tropospheric ozone in East Asia is influenced by the transport of ozone from foreign regions around the world. However, the magnitudes and variations of such influences remain unclear. This study was performed to investigate this influence and its variations with space and time using a global chemical transport model, GEOS-Chem, for emission zero-out and tagged ozone simulations. The results show that foreign ozone varies significantly with latitude, altitude, and season in the East Asian troposphere. The transport of foreign ozone to East Asia occurs primarily through the middle and upper troposphere, where the concentration of foreign ozone (32–65 ppbv) in East Asia is 0.5–6 times higher than that of native ozone (11–18 ppbv) and has strong seasonality, being largest in spring and lowest in winter. Foreign ozone in East Asia increases rapidly with altitude. At the surface, the annual average foreign ozone concentration is ~ 22.2 ppbv, which is comparable to its native counterpart of ~ 20.4 ppbv. The annual mean concentration of anthropogenic ozone from foreign regions is ~ 4.7 ppbv at the East Asian surface, and half of it comes from North America (1.3 ppbv) and Europe (1.0 ppbv). The presence of foreign ozone at the East Asian surface is highest in winter (27.1 ppbv) and lowest in summer (16.5 ppbv). This strong seasonality is largely modulated by the East Asian monsoon (EAM) via its influence on vertical motion. The large-scale subsidence prevailing during the East Asian winter monsoon (EAWM) favours the downdraft of foreign ozone to the surface, while widespread convection in the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) blocks such transport. In summer, the South Asian High facilitates the build-up of South Asian ozone in the East Asian upper troposphere and constrains North American, European, and African ozone to the regions north of 35° N. The interannual variations of foreign ozone at the East Asian surface have been found to be closely related to the EAM. When the EAWM is strong, North American and European ozone are enhanced at the East Asian surface, as the subsidence behind the East Asian trough becomes stronger. In strong EASM years, South and Southeast Asian ozone is reduced at the East Asian surface due to weakened south-westerly monsoon wind. This study suggests substantial foreign influences on tropospheric ozone in East Asia and underscores the importance of the EAM in the seasonal and interannual variations of foreign influences on surface ozone in East Asia.

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Upper tropospheric CO and O<sub>3</sub> budget during the Asian Summer Monsoon

10.5194/acp-2015-1011 ◽

2016 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

B. Barret ◽

B. Sauvage ◽

Y. Bennouna ◽

E. Le Flochmoen

Keyword(s):

South Asian ◽

Summer Monsoon ◽

Satellite Data ◽

Large Scale ◽

Transport Model ◽

Asian Summer Monsoon ◽

East Asian ◽

Gangetic Plain ◽

Upper Troposphere ◽

Asian Summer

Abstract. During the Asian Summer Monsoon, the circulation in the Upper Troposphere-Lower Stratosphere (UTLS) is dominated by the Asian Monsoon Anticyclone (AMA). Pollutants convectively uplifted to the upper troposphere are trapped within this anticyclonic circulation that extends from the Paciﬁc Ocean to the eastern Mediterranean basin. Among the uplifted pollutants are ozone (O3) and its precursors, such as carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen oxides (NOx). Many studies based on global modelisation and satellite data have documented the source regions and transport pathways of primary pollutants (CO, HCN) into the AMA. Here, we aim to quantify the O3 budget by taking into consideration anthropogenic and natural sources. We ﬁrst use CO and O3 data from the Metop-A/IASI sensor to document their tropospheric distributions over Asia, taking advantage of the useful information they provide on the vertical dimension. These satellite data are used together with MOZAIC/IAGOS tropospheric proﬁles recorded in India to validate the distributions simulated by the global GEOS-Chem chemistry transport model. Over the Asian region, UTLS monthly CO and O3 distributions from IASI and GEOS-Chem display the same large-scale features. UTLS CO columns from GEOS-Chem are in agreement with IASI, with a low bias of 11 ± 9% and a correlation coefﬁcient of 0.70. For O3, the model underestimates IASI UTLS columns over Asia by 14 ± 26% but the correlation between both is high (0.94). GEOS-Chem is further used to quantify the CO and O3 budget through sensitivity simulations. For CO, these simulations conﬁrm that South-Asian anthropogenic emissions have a more important impact on enhanced concentrations within the AMA (∼25 ppbv) than East-Asian emissions (∼10 ppbv). The correlation between enhanced emissions over the Indo–gangetic–Plain and monsoon deep convection is responsible for this larger impact. Consistently, South-Asian anthropogenic NOx emissions also play a larger role in producing O3 within the AMA (∼8 ppbv) than East-Asian emissions (∼5 ppbv) but Asian lightning produced NOx are responsible for the largest O3 production (10–14 ppbv). Stratosphere to Troposphere Exchanges (STE) are also important in transporting O3 in the upper part of the AMA.

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Tropospheric ozone changes and ozone sensitivity from present-day to future under shared socio-economic pathways

10.5194/acp-2021-689 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Zhenze Liu ◽

Ruth M. Doherty ◽

Oliver Wild ◽

Fiona M. O’Connor ◽

Steven T. Turnock

Keyword(s):

North America ◽

Tropospheric Ozone ◽

Surface Ozone ◽

Nox Emissions ◽

Limited Region ◽

Voc Emissions ◽

Ozone Concentrations ◽

Ozone Sensitivity ◽

The Future ◽

High Emission

Abstract. Tropospheric ozone is important to future air quality and climate. We investigate ozone changes and ozone sensitivity to changing emissions in the context of climate change from the present day (2004–2014) to the future (2045–2055) under a range of shared socio-economic pathways (SSPs). We apply the United Kingdom Earth System Model, UKESM1, with an extended chemistry scheme including more reactive volatile organic compounds (VOCs) to quantify ozone burdens as well as ozone sensitivities globally and regionally based on nitrogen oxide (NOx) and VOC concentrations. We show that the tropospheric ozone burden increases by 4 % under a development pathway with higher NOx and VOC emissions (SSP3-7.0), but decreases by 7 % under the same pathway if NOx and VOC emissions are reduced (SSP3-7.0-lowNTCF) and by 5 % if atmospheric methane (CH4) concentrations are reduced (SSP3-7.0-lowCH4). Global mean surface ozone concentrations are reduced by 3–5 ppb under SSP3-7.0-lowNTCF and by 2–3 ppb under SSP3-7.0-lowCH4. However, surface ozone changes vary substantially by season in high-emission regions under future pathways, with decreased ozone concentrations in summer and increased ozone concentrations in winter when NOx emissions are reduced. VOC-limited areas are more extensive in winter (7 %) than in summer (3 %) across the globe. North America, Europe and East Asia are the dominant VOC-limited regions in the present day but North America and Europe become more NOx-limited in the future mainly due to reductions in NOx emissions. The impacts of VOC emissions on O3 sensitivity are limited in North America and Europe because reduced anthropogenic VOC emissions are offset by higher biogenic VOC emissions. O3 sensitivity is not greatly influenced by changing CH4 concentrations. South Asia becomes the dominant VOC-limited region under future pathways. We highlight that reductions in NOx emissions are required to transform O3 production from VOC- to NOx-limitation, but that these lead to increased O3 concentrations in high-emission regions, and hence emission controls on VOC and CH4 are also necessary.

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The relative importance of various source regions on East Asian surface ozone

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions ◽

10.5194/acpd-10-9077-2010 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 10 (4) ◽

pp. 9077-9120 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

T. Nagashima ◽

T. Ohara ◽

K. Sudo ◽

H. Akimoto

Keyword(s):

East Asia ◽

Korean Peninsula ◽

Transport Model ◽

Surface Ozone ◽

East Asian ◽

Large Contribution ◽

Chemical Transport Model ◽

Substantial Impact ◽

Source Regions ◽

Surface O3

Abstract. The Source-Receptor (S-R) relationship for surface O3 in East Asia is estimated for recent years in this study utilizing the tagged tracer method with a global chemical transport model. The estimation shows the importance of intra-continental transport of O3 inside East Asia as well as the transport of O3 from distant source regions. The model well simulated the absolute concentration and seasonal variation of surface O3 in the East Asian region, and demonstrated significant seasonal difference in the origin of surface O3. More than half of surface O3 is attributable to the O3 transported from distant sources outside of East Asia in the cold season (October to March). In the warm season (April to September), most of the surface O3 is attributed to O3 created within East Asia in most areas of East Asia. The contribution of domestically-created O3 accounts for 20% of surface O3 in Japan and the Korean Peninsula, 40% in North China Plain and around 50% in the southern part of China in spring, which increase greatly in summer. The contribution of China and the Korean Peninsula to Japan are estimated at about 10% and 5%, respectively. A large contribution (20%) of China to the Korean Peninsula is also demonstrated. In the northern and southern part of China, large contribution of over 10% from East Siberia and the Indochina Peninsula are identified, respectively. The contribution of intercontinental transport increases with latitude; it is 21% in Northeast China and 13% in Japan and the Korean Peninsula in spring. As for one-hourly mean surface O3, domestically-created O3 is the main contributor in most areas of East Asia, except for the low O3 class (<30 ppbv), and accounts for more than 50% in very high O3 class (>90 ppbv). The mean relative contribution of China to central Japan was about 10% in every class, but that from the Korean Peninsula is important in all expect the low O3 class. Substantial impact of foreign sources on the exceedance of Japan's AAQS is identified in the high O3 class (60–90 ppbv) in spring.

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Upper-tropospheric CO and O<sub>3</sub> budget during the Asian summer monsoon

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics ◽

10.5194/acp-16-9129-2016 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 16 (14) ◽

pp. 9129-9147 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Brice Barret ◽

Bastien Sauvage ◽

Yasmine Bennouna ◽

Eric Le Flochmoen

Keyword(s):

South Asian ◽

Summer Monsoon ◽

Satellite Data ◽

Large Scale ◽

Transport Model ◽

Asian Summer Monsoon ◽

East Asian ◽

Gangetic Plain ◽

Upper Troposphere ◽

Asian Summer

Abstract. During the Asian summer monsoon, the circulation in the upper troposphere/lower stratosphere (UTLS) is dominated by the Asian monsoon anticyclone (AMA). Pollutants convectively uplifted to the upper troposphere are trapped within this anticyclonic circulation that extends from the Pacific Ocean to the Eastern Mediterranean basin. Among the uplifted pollutants are ozone (O3) and its precursors, such as carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen oxides (NOx). Many studies based on global modeling and satellite data have documented the source regions and transport pathways of primary pollutants (CO, HCN) into the AMA. Here, we aim to quantify the O3 budget by taking into consideration anthropogenic and natural sources. We first use CO and O3 data from the MetOp-A/IASI sensor to document their tropospheric distributions over Asia, taking advantage of the useful information they provide on the vertical dimension. These satellite data are used together with MOZAIC tropospheric profiles recorded in India to validate the distributions simulated by the global GEOS-Chem chemistry transport model. Over the Asian region, UTLS monthly CO and O3 distributions from IASI and GEOS-Chem display the same large-scale features. UTLS CO columns from GEOS-Chem are in agreement with IASI, with a low bias of 11 ± 9 % and a correlation coefficient of 0.70. For O3, the model underestimates IASI UTLS columns over Asia by 14 ± 26 % but the correlation between both is high (0.94). GEOS-Chem is further used to quantify the CO and O3 budget through sensitivity simulations. For CO, these simulations confirm that South Asian anthropogenic emissions have a more important impact on enhanced concentrations within the AMA (∼  25 ppbv) than East Asian emissions (∼  10 ppbv). The correlation between enhanced emissions over the Indo-Gangetic Plain and monsoon deep convection is responsible for this larger impact. Consistently, South Asian anthropogenic NOx emissions also play a larger role in producing O3 within the AMA (∼  8 ppbv) than East Asian emissions (∼  5 ppbv), but Asian lightning-produced NOx is responsible for the largest O3 production (10–14 ppbv). Stratosphere-to-troposphere exchanges are also important in transporting O3 in the upper part of the AMA.

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Positive and negative influences of landfalling typhoons on tropospheric ozone over southern China

10.5194/acp-2021-573 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Zhixiong Chen ◽

Jane Liu ◽

Xugeng Cheng ◽

Mengmiao Yang ◽

Hong Wang

Keyword(s):

Tropospheric Ozone ◽

Developmental Stages ◽

Southern China ◽

Stratospheric Ozone ◽

Surface Ozone ◽

Ozone Production ◽

Ozone Level ◽

Upper Troposphere ◽

Ozone Concentrations ◽

Background Ozone

Abstract. In this study, we use an ensemble of 17 landfalling typhoons over 2014–2018 to investigate the positive and negative influences of typhoons on tropospheric ozone over southern China. Referring to the proximity to typhoons and typhoon developmental stages, we found that surface ozone is enhanced when typhoons are 400–1500 km away during the initial stages of typhoons (e.g., from 1 day before and to 1 day after typhoon genesis). The positive ozone anomaly averagely reaches 10–20 ppbv at the daytime and 9 ppbv at nighttime compared with the background ozone level. Particularly, surface ozone at radial distances of 1100–1300 km is most significantly enhanced during these initial stages. As the typhoons approach and land in southern China, the influences of typhoons change from enhancing to reducing ozone. Surface ozone concentrations decrease with a negative ozone anomaly ranging between -12 % ~ -17 % relative to the background ozone level. We explore the physical linkages between typhoons, meteorological conditions and ozone variations. Results show that during typhoon initial stages, the increasing temperature and weak winds in the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) and dominating downward motions promote ozone production and accumulation over the outskirts of typhoons. While the deteriorating weather accompanied by dropping temperature, wind gales and convective activity reduces the production and accumulation of surface ozone when typhoons are making landfalling. Variations of tropospheric ozone profiles during the differential developmental stages of landfalling typhoons are further examined to quantify the influences of typhoon-induced stratospheric intrusions on lower troposphere and surface ozone. Using temporally dense ozone vertical observations, we found two regions of high ozone concentrations separately located in the ABL and the middle-to-upper troposphere under the influences of typhoons. Averagely, the ozone enhancement maximizes around 10–12 ppbv at 1–1.5 km altitude at the typhoon initial stages. The ozone enhancement persists over a longer period in the middle-to-upper troposphere with a positive ozone anomaly of 10 ppbv at 7–8 km altitude shortly after typhoon genesis, and 30 ppbv near 12 km altitude when typhoons reach their maximum intensity. When typhoons are landing, a negative ozone anomaly appears and extends upward with a maximum ozone reduction of 14–18 ppbv at 5 km altitude and 20–25 ppbv at 11 km altitude. Though the overall tropospheric ozone is usually reduced during typhoon landfalling, we quantify that five of eight typhoon samples deduce ozone-rich air with the stratospheric origin (80 ppbv) above 4 km altitude, and in 3 typhoon cases the ozone-rich air intrusions (60 ppbv) can sink to the ABL. This suggests that the typhoon-induced stratospheric ozone-rich air intrusions play an important role in surface ozone enhancement.

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Parts of South-east Asia may adopt nuclear post-2030

Emerald Expert Briefings ◽

10.1108/oxan-db264566 ◽

2021 ◽

Keyword(s):

East Asia ◽

Nuclear Power ◽

Large Scale ◽

East Asian ◽

Energy Development ◽

South East Asia ◽

Asian Countries ◽

Content Type ◽

Electricity Grid ◽

Renewable Energy Development

Significance It is the only country in South-east Asia with a large-scale nuclear plant, although this was never loaded with fuel. Other countries in the region have tentative plans to develop nuclear power programmes. Impacts The current absence of nuclear power programmes will help avert the diversion of capital from renewable energy development in the region. South-east Asian countries with small, non-power reactors, built for research, will try to maintain these facilities. Across the region, the need for electricity grid investment will increase as more decentralised generation sources are deployed.

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Impact of uncertainties in inorganic chemical rate constants on tropospheric composition and ozone radiative forcing

10.5194/acp-2017-12 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Ben Newsome ◽

Mat Evans

Keyword(s):

Rate Constant ◽

Atmospheric Chemistry ◽

Rate Constants ◽

Tropospheric Ozone ◽

Radiative Forcing ◽

Transport Model ◽

Surface Ozone ◽

Photolysis Rates ◽

The Impact ◽

Chemical Rate

Abstract. Chemical rate constants determine the composition of the atmosphere and how this composition has changed over time. They are central to our understanding of climate change and air quality degradation. Atmospheric chemistry models, whether online or offline, box, regional or global use these rate constants. Expert panels synthesise laboratory measurements, making recommendations for the rate constants that should be used. This results in very similar or identical rate constants being used by all models. The inherent uncertainties in these recommendations are, in general, therefore ignored. We explore the impact of these uncertainties on the composition of the troposphere using the GEOS-Chem chemistry transport model. Based on the JPL and IUPAC evaluations we assess 50 mainly inorganic rate constants and 10 photolysis rates, through simulations where we increase the rate of the reactions to the 1σ upper value recommended by the expert panels. We assess the impact on 4 standard metrics: annual mean tropospheric ozone burden, surface ozone and tropospheric OH concentrations, and tropospheric methane lifetime. Uncertainty in the rate constants for NO2 + OH M → HNO3, OH + CH4 → CH3O2 + H2O and O3 + NO → NO2 + O2 are the three largest source of uncertainty in these metrics. We investigate two methods of assessing these uncertainties, addition in quadrature and a Monte Carlo approach, and conclude they give similar outcomes. Combining the uncertainties across the 60 reactions, gives overall uncertainties on the annual mean tropospheric ozone burden, surface ozone and tropospheric OH concentrations, and tropospheric methane lifetime of 11, 12, 17 and 17 % respectively. These are larger than the spread between models in recent model inter-comparisons. Remote regions such as the tropics, poles, and upper troposphere are most uncertain. This chemical uncertainty is sufficiently large to suggest that rate constant uncertainty should be considered when model results disagree with measurement. Calculations for the pre-industrial allow a tropospheric ozone radiative forcing to be calculated of 0.412 ± 0.062 Wm−2. This uncertainty (15 %) is comparable to the inter-model spread in ozone radiative forcing found in previous model-model inter-comparison studies where the rate constants used in the models are all identical or very similar. Thus the uncertainty of tropospheric ozone radiative forcing should expanded to include this additional source of uncertainty. These rate constant uncertainties are significant and suggest that refinement of supposedly well known chemical rate constants should be considered alongside other improvements to enhance our understanding of atmospheric processes.

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Multi-model study of HTAP II on sulphur and nitrogen deposition

10.5194/acp-2017-1121 ◽

2018 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jiani Tan ◽

Joshua S. Fu ◽

Frank Dentener ◽

Jian Sun ◽

Louisa Emmons ◽

...

Keyword(s):

North America ◽

East Asia ◽

South Asia ◽

Wet Deposition ◽

Task Force ◽

East Asian ◽

Control Policy ◽

N Deposition ◽

Eastern United States ◽

S Deposition

Abstract. This study uses multi-model ensemble results of 11 models from the 2nd phase of Task Force Hemispheric Transport of Air Pollution (HTAP II) to calculate the global sulfur (S) and nitrogen (N) deposition in 2010. Modelled wet deposition is evaluated with observation networks in North America, Europe and Asia. The modelled results agree well with observations, with 76–83 % of stations having predicted within ±50 % of observations. The results underestimate SO42−, NO3− and NH4+ wet depositions in some European and East Asian stations, but overestimate NO3− wet deposition in Eastern United States. Inter-comparison with previous projects (PhotoComp, ACCMIP and HTAP I) shows HTPA II has considerably improved the estimation of deposition at European and East Asian stations. Modelled dry deposition is generally higher than the “inferential” data calculated by observed concentration and modelled velocity in North America, but the inferential data has high uncertainty, too. The global S deposition is 84 Tg(S) in 2010, with 49 % of the deposits on continental regions and 51 % on ocean (19 % on coastal). The global N deposition consists of 59 Tg(N) oxidized nitrogen (NOy) deposition and 64 Tg(N) reduced nitrogen (NHx) deposition in 2010. 65 % of N is deposited on the continental regions and 35 % is on ocean (15 % on coastal). The estimated outflow of pollution from land to ocean is about 4 Tg(S) for S deposition and 18 Tg(N) for N deposition. Compared our results to the results in 2001 from HTAP I, we find that the global distributions of S and N depositions have changed considerably during the last 10 years. The global S deposition decreases 2 Tg(S) (3 %) from 2001 to 2010, with significant decreases in Europe (5 Tg(S) and 55 %), North America (3 Tg(S) and 29 %) and Russia (2 Tg(S) and 26 %), and increases in South Asia (2 Tg(S) and 42 %) and the Middle East (1 Tg(S) and 44% ). The global N deposition increases by 7 Tg(N) (6 %), mainly contributed by South Asia (5 Tg(N) and 39 %), East Asia (4 Tg(N) and 21 %) and Southeast Asia (2 Tg(N) and 21 %). The NHx deposition is increased with no control policy on NH3 emission in North America. On the other hand, NOy deposition starts to dominate in East Asia (especially China) due to boosted NOx emission in recent years.

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Evolution of the Distribution of Upper-Tropospheric Humidity over the Indian Ocean: Connection with Large-Scale Advection and Local Cloudiness

Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology ◽

10.1175/jamc-d-16-0193.1 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 56 (7) ◽

pp. 2035-2052 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Thomas Garot ◽

Hélène Brogniez ◽

Renaud Fallourd ◽

Nicolas Viltard

Keyword(s):

Indian Ocean ◽

Large Scale ◽

Transport Model ◽

Intraseasonal Variability ◽

Back Trajectory ◽

Time Step ◽

Air Masses ◽

Upper Troposphere ◽

Upper Tropospheric Humidity ◽

The Indian Ocean

AbstractThe spatial and temporal distribution of upper-tropospheric humidity (UTH) observed by the Sounder for Atmospheric Profiling of Humidity in the Intertropics by Radiometry (SAPHIR)/Megha-Tropiques radiometer is analyzed over two subregions of the Indian Ocean during October–December over 2011–14. The properties of the distribution of UTH were studied with regard to the phase of the Madden–Julian oscillation (active or suppressed) and large-scale advection versus local production of moisture. To address these topics, first, a Lagrangian back-trajectory transport model was used to assess the role of the large-scale transport of air masses in the intraseasonal variability of UTH. Second, the temporal evolution of the distribution of UTH is analyzed using the computation of the higher moments of its probability distribution function (PDF) defined for each time step over the domain. The results highlight significant differences in the PDF of UTH depending on the phase of the MJO. The modeled trajectories ending in the considered domain originate from an area that strongly varies depending on the phases of the MJO: during the active phases, the air masses are spatially constrained within the tropical Indian Ocean domain, whereas a distinct upper-tropospheric (200–150 hPa) westerly flow guides the intraseasonal variability of UTH during the suppressed phases. Statistical relationships between the cloud fractions and the UTH PDF moments of are found to be very similar regardless of the convective activity. However, the occurrence of thin cirrus clouds is associated with a drying of the upper troposphere (enhanced during suppressed phases), whereas the occurrence of thick cirrus anvil clouds appears to be significantly related to a moistening of the upper troposphere.

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