scholarly journals Ice injected into the tropopause by deep convection – Part 1: In the austral convective tropics

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (9) ◽  
pp. 6459-6479 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iris-Amata Dion ◽  
Philippe Ricaud ◽  
Peter Haynes ◽  
Fabien Carminati ◽  
Thibaut Dauhut

Abstract. The contribution of deep convection to the amount of water vapour and ice in the tropical tropopause layer (TTL) from the tropical upper troposphere (UT; around 146 hPa) to the tropopause level (TL; around 100 hPa) is investigated. Ice water content (IWC) and water vapour (WV) measured in the UT and the TL by the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS; Version 4.2) are compared to the precipitation (Prec) measured by the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM; Version 007). The two datasets, gridded within 2∘ × 2∘ horizontal bins, have been analysed during the austral convective season, December, January, and February (DJF), from 2004 to 2017. MLS observations are performed at 01:30 and 13:30 local solar time, whilst the Prec dataset is constructed with a time resolution of 1 h. The new contribution of this study is to provide a much more detailed picture of the diurnal variation of ice than is provided by the very limited (two per day) MLS observations. Firstly, we show that IWC represents 70 % and 50 % of the total water in the tropical UT and TL, respectively, and that Prec is spatially highly correlated with IWC in the UT (Pearson's linear coefficient R=0.7). We propose a method that uses Prec as a proxy for deep convection bringing ice up to the UT and TL during the growing stage of convection, in order to estimate the amount of ice injected into the UT and the TL, respectively. We validate the method using ice measurements from the Superconducting Submillimeter-Wave Limb-Emission Sounder (SMILES) during the period DJF 2009–2010. Next, the diurnal cycle of injection of IWC into the UT and the TL by deep convection is calculated by the difference between the maximum and the minimum in the estimated diurnal cycle of IWC in these layers and over selected convective zones. Six tropical highly convective zones have been chosen: South America, South Africa, Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, and the Maritime Continent region, split into land (MariCont-L) and ocean (MariCont-O). IWC injection is found to be 2.73 and 0.41 mg m−3 over tropical land in the UT and TL, respectively, and 0.60 and 0.13 mg m−3 over tropical ocean in the UT and TL, respectively. The MariCont-L region has the greatest ice injection in both the UT and TL (3.34 and 0.42–0.56 mg m−3, respectively). The MariCont-O region has less ice injection than MariCont-L (0.91 mg m−3 in the UT and 0.16–0.34 mg m−3 in TL) but has the highest diurnal minimum value of IWC in the TL (0.34–0.37 mg m−3) among all oceanic zones.

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iris-Amata Dion ◽  
Philippe Ricaud ◽  
Peter Haynes ◽  
Fabien Carminati ◽  
Thibaut Dauhut

Abstract. The impact of deep convection on the water budget (water vapor and ice) from the tropical Upper Troposphere (UT, around 146 hPa) to the Tropopause Level (TL, around 100 hPa) is investigated. Ice water content (IWC) and water vapour (WV) measured in the UT and the TL by the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS, Version 4.2) are compared to the precipitation (Prec) measured by the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM, Version 007). The two datasets, gridded within 2° × 2° horizontal bins, have been analyzed during the austral convective season: December, January and February (DJF) from 2004 to 2017. MLS observations are performed at 01:30 and 13:30 Local Solar Time whilst the Prec dataset is constructed with a time resolution of 1 hour. The new contribution of this study is to provide a much more detailed picture of the diurnal variation of ice than is provided by the very limited (2 per day) MLS observations. Firstly, we show that IWC represents 70 and 50 % of the total water in the tropical UT and TL, respectively and that Prec is spatially highly correlated with IWC in the UT (Pearson linear coefficient R = 0.7). We propose a method using Prec as a proxy of deep convection bringing ice up into the TL, during the growing stage of the convection. We validate the method using ice measurements from the Superconducting Submillimeter-Wave Limb-Emission Sounder (SMILES) during the period DJF 2009–2010. Next, the diurnal amount of IWC injected into the UT and the TL by deep convection is calculated by the difference between the maximum and the minimum in the estimated diurnal cycle of IWC in these layers and over selected convective zones. Six tropical highly convective zones have been chosen: South America, South Africa, Pacific Ocean, Indian Ocean, and the Maritime Continent region, split into land (MariCont-L) and ocean (MariCont-O). IWC injection is found to be 2.73 and 0.41 mg m−3 over tropical land in the UT and TL, respectively, and 0.60 and 0.13 mg m−3 over tropical ocean in the UT and TL, respectively. The MariCont-L region has the greatest ice injection in both UT and TL (3.34 and 0.42–0.56 mg m−3, respectively). The MariCont-O region has less ice injection than MariCont-L (0.91 mg m−3 in the UT and 0.16–0.34 mg m−3 in TL), but has the highest diurnal minimum value of IWC in the TL (0.34–0.37 mg m−3) among all oceanic zones.


2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (12) ◽  
pp. 6195-6211 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Carminati ◽  
P. Ricaud ◽  
J.-P. Pommereau ◽  
E. Rivière ◽  
S. Khaykin ◽  
...  

Abstract. The tropical deep overshooting convection is known to be most intense above continental areas such as South America, Africa, and the maritime continent. However, its impact on the tropical tropopause layer (TTL) at global scale remains debated. In our analysis, we use the 8-year Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) water vapour (H2O), cloud ice-water content (IWC), and temperature data sets from 2005 to date, to highlight the interplays between these parameters and their role in the water vapour variability in the TTL, and separately in the northern and southern tropics. In the tropical upper troposphere (177 hPa), continents, including the maritime continent, present the night-time (01:30 local time, LT) peak in the water vapour mixing ratio characteristic of the H2O diurnal cycle above tropical land. The western Pacific region, governed by the tropical oceanic diurnal cycle, has a daytime maximum (13:30 LT). In the TTL (100 hPa) and tropical lower stratosphere (56 hPa), South America and Africa differ from the maritime continent and western Pacific displaying a daytime maximum of H2O. In addition, the relative amplitude between day and night is found to be systematically higher by 5–10% in the southern tropical upper troposphere and 1–3% in the TTL than in the northern tropics during their respective summer, indicative of a larger impact of the convection on H2O in the southern tropics. Using a regional-scale approach, we investigate how mechanisms linked to the H2O variability differ in function of the geography. In summary, the MLS water vapour and cloud ice-water observations demonstrate a clear contribution to the TTL moistening by ice crystals overshooting over tropical land regions. The process is found to be much more effective in the southern tropics. Deep convection is responsible for the diurnal temperature variability in the same geographical areas in the lowermost stratosphere, which in turn drives the variability of H2O.


2013 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 33055-33087
Author(s):  
F. Carminati ◽  
P. Ricaud ◽  
J.-P. Pommereau ◽  
E. Rivière ◽  
S. Khaykin ◽  
...  

Abstract. The tropical deep overshooting convection is known to be most intense above continental areas such as South America, Africa and the maritime continent. However, its impact on the Tropical Tropopause Layer (TTL) at global scale remains debated. In our analysis, we use the 8 yr Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) water vapour (H2O), cloud ice water content (IWC) and temperature datasets from 2005 to date, to highlight the interplays between these parameters and their role in the water vapour variability in the TTL, separately in the northern and southern tropics. The water vapour concentration is displaying a systematic diurnal cycle with a night-time peak in the tropical Upper Troposphere (pressure ≥146 hPa) and the opposite in the TTL (121 to 68 hPa) and the tropical Lower Stratosphere (pressure ≤56 hPa), of larger amplitude above continents than continental-oceanic areas such as the maritime continent or full oceanic areas such as the Western Pacific. In addition, the amplitude of the diurnal cycle is found systematically larger (5–10%) in the southern than in the northern tropics during their respective summer, indicative of a more vigorous convective intensity in the south. Using a regional scale approach, we investigate the geographical variations of mechanisms linked to the H2O variability. In summary, the MLS water vapour, ice water cloud and temperature observations are demonstrating a clear contribution of TTL and lower stratosphere moistening by ice crystals overshooting updrafts over land tropical regions and the much greater efficiency of the process in the Southern Hemisphere.


2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (20) ◽  
pp. 9833-9849 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. E. E. Hassim ◽  
T. P. Lane

Abstract. Overshooting deep convection that penetrates into the Tropical Tropopause Layer (TTL) is thought to have an important role in regulating the water vapour content of this region. Yet, the net effect of such convection and the dominant mechanisms remain unclear. This study uses two idealised three-dimensional cloud-resolving model simulations to examine the influence of overshooting convection on water vapour when it penetrates into two different TTL environments, one supersaturated and the other subsaturated with respect to ice. These simulations show that the overshooting convection plays a direct role in driving the ambient environment towards ice saturation through either net moistening (subsaturated TTL) or net dehydration (supersaturated TTL). Moreover, in these cases the extent of dehydration in supersaturated conditions is greater than the moistening in subsaturated conditions. With the aid of modelled passive tracers, the relative roles of transport, mixing and ice microphysics are assessed; ultimately, ice sublimation and scavenging processes play the most important role in defining the different TTL relative humidity tendencies. In addition, significant moistening in both cases is modelled well into the subsaturated tropical lower stratosphere (up to 450 K), even though the overshooting turrets only reach approximately 420 K. It is shown that this moistening is the result of jumping cirrus, which is induced by the localised upward transport and mixing of TTL air following the collapse of the overshooting turret.


2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 407-419 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Ploeger ◽  
S. Fueglistaler ◽  
J.-U. Grooß ◽  
G. Günther ◽  
P. Konopka ◽  
...  

Abstract. We explore the potential of ozone observations to constrain transport processes in the tropical tropopause layer (TTL), and contrast it with insights that can be obtained from water vapour. Global fields from Halogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE) and in-situ observations are predicted using a backtrajectory approach that captures advection, instantaneous freeze-drying and photolytical ozone production. Two different representations of transport (kinematic and diabatic 3-month backtrajectories based on ERA-Interim data) are used to evaluate the sensitivity to differences in transport. Results show that mean profiles and seasonality of both tracers can be reasonably reconstructed. Water vapour predictions are similar for both transport representations, but predictions for ozone are systematically higher for kinematic transport. Compared to global HALOE observations, the diabatic model prediction underestimates the vertical ozone gradient. Comparison of the kinematic prediction with observations obtained during the tropical SCOUT-O3 campaign shows a large high bias above 390 K potential temperature. We show that ozone predictions and vertical dispersion of the trajectories are highly correlated, rendering ozone an interesting tracer for aspects of transport to which water vapour is not sensitive. We show that dispersion and mean upwelling have similar effects on ozone profiles, with slower upwelling and larger dispersion both leading to higher ozone concentrations. Analyses of tropical upwelling based on mean transport characteristics, and model validation have to take into account this ambiguity between tropical ozone production and in-mixing from the stratosphere. In turn, ozone provides constraints on transport in the TTL and lower stratosphere that cannot be obtained from water vapour.


2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 16969-17007
Author(s):  
M. E. E. Hassim ◽  
T. P. Lane

Abstract. Overshooting deep convection that penetrates into the Tropical Tropopause Layer (TTL) is thought to have an important role in regulating the water vapour content of this region. Yet, the net effect of such convection and the dominant mechanisms remain unclear. This study uses two idealised three-dimensional cloud-resolving model simulations to examine the influence of overshooting convection on water vapour when it penetrates into two different TTL environments, one supersaturated and the other subsaturated with respect to ice. These simulations show that the overshooting convection plays a direct role in driving the ambient environment towards ice saturation through either net moistening (subsaturated TTL) or net dehydration (supersaturated TTL). Moreover, in these cases the extent of dehydration in supersaturated conditions is greater than the moistening in subsaturated conditions. With the aid of modelled passive tracers, the relative roles of transport, mixing and ice microphysics are assessed; ultimately, ice sublimation and scavenging processes play the most important role in defining the different TTL relative humidity tendencies. In addition, significant moistening in both cases is modelled well into the subsaturated tropical lower stratosphere (up to 450 K), even though the overshooting turrets only reach approximately 420 K. It is shown that this moistening is the result of jumping cirrus, which is induced by the localised upward transport and mixing of TTL air following the collapse of the overshooting turret.


2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 22553-22584
Author(s):  
F. Ploeger ◽  
S. Fueglistaler ◽  
J.-U. Grooß ◽  
G. Günther ◽  
P. Konopka ◽  
...  

Abstract. We explore the potential of ozone observations to constrain transport processes in the tropical tropopause layer (TTL), and contrast it with insights that can be obtained from water vapour. Global fields from Halogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE) and in-situ observations are predicted using a backtrajectory approach that captures advection, instantaneous freeze-drying and photolytical ozone production. Two different representations of transport (kinematic and diabatic 3-month backtrajectories based on ERA-Interim data) are used to evaluate the sensitivity to differences in transport. Results show that mean profiles and seasonality of both tracers can be reasonably reconstructed. Water vapour predictions are similar for both transport representations, but predictions for ozone are systematically higher for kinematic transport. While for global HALOE observations the diabatic prediction underestimates the vertical ozone gradient, for SCOUT-O3 in-situ observations the kinematic prediction shows a clear high bias above 390 K. We show that ozone predictions and vertical dispersion of the trajectories are highly correlated, rendering ozone an interesting tracer for aspects of transport to which water vapour is not sensitive. We show that dispersion and mean upwelling have similar effects on ozone profiles, with slower upwelling and larger dispersion both leading to higher ozone concentrations. Analyses of tropical upwelling based on mean transport characteristics, and model validation have to take into account this ambiguity. In turn, ozone may provide constraints on aspects of transport in the TTL and lower stratosphere that cannot be obtained from water vapour.


2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (14) ◽  
pp. 3713-3736 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. N. Duncan ◽  
S. E. Strahan ◽  
Y. Yoshida ◽  
S. D. Steenrod ◽  
N. Livesey

Abstract. We present a modeling study of the troposphere-to-stratosphere transport (TST) of pollution from major biomass burning regions to the tropical upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UT/LS). TST occurs predominately through 1) slow ascent in the tropical tropopause layer (TTL) to the LS and 2) quasi-horizontal exchange to the lowermost stratosphere (LMS). We show that biomass burning pollution regularly and significantly impacts the composition of the TTL, LS, and LMS. Carbon monoxide (CO) in the LS in our simulation and data from the Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) shows an annual oscillation in its composition that results from the interaction of an annual oscillation in slow ascent from the TTL to the LS and seasonal variations in sources, including a semi-annual oscillation in CO from biomass burning. The impacts of CO sources that peak when ascent is seasonally low are damped (e.g. Southern Hemisphere biomass burning) and vice-versa for sources that peak when ascent is seasonally high (e.g. extra-tropical fossil fuels). Interannual variation of CO in the UT/LS is caused primarily by year-to-year variations in biomass burning and the locations of deep convection. During our study period, 1994–1998, we find that the highest concentrations of CO in the UT/LS occurred during the strong 1997–1998 El Niño event for two reasons: i. tropical deep convection shifted to the eastern Pacific Ocean, closer to South American and African CO sources, and ii. emissions from Indonesian biomass burning were higher. This extreme event can be seen as an upper bound on the impact of biomass burning pollution on the UT/LS. We estimate that the 1997 Indonesian wildfires increased CO in the entire TTL and tropical LS (>60 mb) by more than 40% and 10%, respectively, for several months. Zonal mean ozone increased and the hydroxyl radical decreased by as much as 20%, increasing the lifetimes and, subsequently TST, of trace gases. Our results indicate that the impact of biomass burning pollution on the UT/LS is likely greatest during an El Niño event due to favorable dynamics and historically higher burning rates.


2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (12) ◽  
pp. 16655-16696 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Newton ◽  
G. Vaughan ◽  
H. M. A. Ricketts ◽  
L. L. Pan ◽  
A. J. Weinheimer ◽  
...  

Abstract. We present a series of ozonesonde profiles measured from Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, during February 2014. The experiment formed a part of a wider airborne campaign involving three aircraft based in Guam, to characterise the atmospheric composition above the tropical West Pacific in unprecedented detail. Thirty-nine ozonesondes were launched between 2 and 25 February, of which 34 gave good ozone profiles. Particular attention was paid to measuring the background current of the ozonesonde before launch, as this can amount to half the measured signal in the tropical tropopause layer (TTL). An unexpected contamination event affected these measurements and required a departure from standard operating procedures for the ozonesondes. Comparison with aircraft measurements allows validation of the measured ozone profiles and confirms that for well-characterized sondes (background current <50 nA) a constant background current should be assumed throughout the profile, equal to the minimum value measured during preparation just before launch. From this set of 34 ozonesondes, the minimum reproducible ozone concentration measured in the TTL was 12–13 ppbv; no examples of near-zero ozone concentration as reported by other recent papers were measured. The lowest ozone concentrations coincided with outflow from extensive deep convection to the east of Manus, consistent with uplift of ozone-poor air from the boundary layer. However, these minima were lower than the ozone concentration measured through most of the boundary layer, and were matched only by measurements at the surface in Manus.


2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 5515-5552 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Ren ◽  
A. R. MacKenzie ◽  
C. Schiller ◽  
G. Shur ◽  
V. Yushkov

Abstract. We have developed a Lagrangian air-parcel cirrus model (LACM), to diagnose the processes controlling water in the tropical tropopause layer (TTL). LACM applies parameterised microphysics to air parcel trajectories. The parameterisation includes the homogeneous freezing of aerosol droplets, the growth/sublimation of ice particles, and sedimentation of ice particles, so capturing the main dehydration mechanism for air in the TTL. Rehydration is also considered by resetting the water vapour mixing ratio in an air parcel to the value at the point in the 4-D analysis/forecast data used to generate the trajectories, but only when certain conditions, indicative of convection, are satisfied. These conditions are imposed to confine what processes contribute to rehydration. The conditions act to restrict rehydration of the Lagrangian air parcels to regions where convective transport of water vapour from below is significant, at least to the extent that the analysis/forecast captures this process. The inclusion of hydration and dehydration mechanisms in LACM results in total water fields near tropical convection that have more of the "stripey" character of satellite observations of high cloud, than do either the ECMWF analysis or trajectories without microphysics. The mixing ratios of total water in the TTL, measured by a high-altitude aircraft over Brazil (during the TROCCINOX campaign), have been reconstructed by LACM using trajectories generated from ECMWF analysis. Two other Lagrangian reconstructions are also tested: linear interpolation of ECMWF analysed specific humidity onto the aircraft flight track, and instantaneous dehydration to the saturation vapour pressure over ice along trajectories. The reconstructed total water mixing ratios along aircraft flight tracks are compared with observations from the FISH total water hygrometer. Process-oriented analysis shows that modelled cirrus cloud events are responsible for dehydrating the air parcels coming from lower levels, resulting in total water mixing ratios as low as 2 μmol/mol. Without adding water back to some of the trajectories, the LACM and instantaneous-dehydration reconstructions have a dry bias. The interpolated-ECMWF reconstruction does not suffer this dry bias, because convection in the ECMWF model moistens air parcels dramatically, by pumping moist air upwards. This indicates that the ECMWF model captures the gross features of the rehydration of air in the TTL by convection. Overall, the ECMWF models captures well the exponential decrease in total water mixing ratio with height above 250 hPa, so that all the reconstruction techniques capture more than 75% of the variance in the measured total water mixing ratios over the depth of the TTL. We have therefore developed a simple method for re-setting the total water in LACM using the ECMWF-analysed specific humidity in regions where the model predicts convection. By picking up the main contributing processes to dehydration and rehydration in the TTL, LACM reconstructs total water mixing ratios along aircraft flight tracks at the top of the TTL, close to the cold point, that are always in substantially better agreement with observations than instantaneous-dehydration reconstructions, and better than the ECMWF analysis for regions of high relative humidity and cloud.


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