| 1. |
- Achtert, Peggy, et al.
(författare)
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Properties of Arctic liquid and mixed-phase clouds from shipborne Cloudnet observations during ACSE 2014
- 2020
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Ingår i: Atmospheric Chemistry And Physics. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1680-7316 .- 1680-7324. ; 20:23, s. 14983-15002
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study presents Cloudnet retrievals of Arctic clouds from measurements conducted during a 3-month research expedition along the Siberian shelf during summer and autumn 2014. During autumn, we find a strong reduction in the occurrence of liquid clouds and an increase for both mixed-phase and ice clouds at low levels compared to summer. About 80 % of all liquid clouds observed during the research cruise show a liquid water path below the infrared black body limit of approximately 50 g m(-2). The majority of mixed-phase and ice clouds had an ice water path below 20 g m(-2). Cloud properties are analysed with respect to cloud-top temperature and boundary layer structure. Changes in these parameters have little effect on the geometric thickness of liquid clouds while mixed-phase clouds during warm-air advection events are generally thinner than when such events were absent. Cloud-top temperatures are very similar for all mixed-phase clouds. However, more cases of lower cloudtop temperature were observed in the absence of warm-air advection. Profiles of liquid and ice water content are normalized with respect to cloud base and height. For liquid water clouds, the liquid water content profile reveals a strong increase with height with a maximum within the upper quarter of the clouds followed by a sharp decrease towards cloud top. Liquid water content is lowest for clouds observed below an inversion during warm-air advection events. Most mixedphase clouds show a liquid water content profile with a very similar shape to that of liquid clouds but with lower maximum values during events with warm air above the planetary boundary layer. The normalized ice water content profiles in mixed-phase clouds look different from those of liquid water content. They show a wider range in maximum values with the lowest ice water content for clouds below an inversion and the highest values for clouds above or extending through an inversion. The ice water content profile generally peaks at a height below the peak in the liquid water content profile - usually in the centre of the cloud, sometimes closer to cloud base, likely due to particle sublimation as the crystals fall through the cloud.
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| 2. |
- Birch, C. E., et al.
(författare)
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Modelling atmospheric structure, cloud and their response to CCN in the central Arctic : ASCOS case studies
- 2012
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Ingår i: Atmospheric Chemistry And Physics. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1680-7316 .- 1680-7324. ; 12:7, s. 3419-3435
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Observations made during late summer in the central Arctic Ocean, as part of the Arctic Summer Cloud Ocean Study (ASCOS), are used to evaluate cloud and vertical temperature structure in the Met Office Unified Model (MetUM). The observation period can be split into 5 regimes; the first two regimes had a large number of frontal systems, which were associated with deep cloud. During the remainder of the campaign a layer of low-level cloud occurred, typical of central Arctic summer conditions, along with two periods of greatly reduced cloud cover. The short-range operational NWP forecasts could not accurately reproduce the observed variations in near-surface temperature. A major source of this error was found to be the temperature-dependant surface albedo parameterisation scheme. The model reproduced the low-level cloud layer, though it was too thin, too shallow, and in a boundary-layer that was too frequently well-mixed. The model was also unable to reproduce the observed periods of reduced cloud cover, which were associated with very low cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations (< 1 cm(-3)). As with most global NWP models, the MetUM does not have a prognostic aerosol/cloud scheme but uses a constant CCN concentration of 100 cm(-3) over all marine environments. It is therefore unable to represent the low CCN number concentrations and the rapid variations in concentration frequently observed in the central Arctic during late summer. Experiments with a single-column model configuration of the MetUM show that reducing model CCN number concentrations to observed values reduces the amount of cloud, increases the near-surface stability, and improves the representation of both the surface radiation fluxes and the surface temperature. The model is shown to be sensitive to CCN only when number concentrations are less than 10-20 cm(-3).
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| 3. |
- Bulatovic, Ines, 1991-, et al.
(författare)
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Large-eddy simulation of a two-layer boundary-layer cloud system from the Arctic Ocean 2018 expedition
- 2023
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Ingår i: Atmospheric Chemistry And Physics. - 1680-7316 .- 1680-7324. ; 23:12, s. 7033-7055
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Climate change is particularly noticeable in the Arctic. The most common type of cloud at these latitudes is mixed-phase stratocumulus. These clouds occur frequently and persistently during all seasons and play a critical role in the Arctic energy budget. Previous observations in the central (north of 80∘ N) Arctic have shown a high occurrence of prolonged periods of a shallow, single-layer mixed-phase stratocumulus at the top of the boundary layer (BL; altitudes ∼ 300 to 400 m). However, recent observations from the summer of 2018 instead showed a prevalence of a two-layer boundary-layer cloud system. Here we use large-eddy simulation to examine the maintenance of one of the cloud systems observed in the summer of 2018 and the sensitivity of the cloud layers to different micro- and macro-scale parameters. We find that the model generally reproduces the observed thermodynamic structure well, with two near-neutrally stratified layers in the BL caused by a low cloud (located within the first few hundred meters) capped by a lower-altitude temperature inversion and an upper cloud layer (based around one kilometer or slightly higher) capped by the main temperature inversion of the BL. The simulated cloud structure is persistent unless there are low aerosol number concentrations (≤ 5 cm−3), which cause the upper cloud layer to dissipate, or high large-scale wind speeds (≥ 8.5 m s−1), which erode the lower inversion and the related cloud layer. The changes in cloud structure alter both the short- and longwave cloud radiative effect at the surface. This results in changes in the net radiative effect of the modeled cloud system, which can impact the surface melting or freezing. The findings highlight the importance of better understanding and representing aerosol sources and sinks over the central Arctic Ocean. Furthermore, they underline the significance of meteorological parameters, such as the large-scale wind speed, for maintaining the two-layer boundary-layer cloud structure encountered in the lower atmosphere of the central Arctic.
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| 4. |
- Chang, R. Y. -W, et al.
(författare)
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Aerosol composition and sources in the central Arctic Ocean during ASCOS
- 2011
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Ingår i: Atmospheric Chemistry And Physics. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1680-7316 .- 1680-7324. ; 11:20, s. 10619-10636
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Measurements of submicron aerosol chemical composition were made over the central Arctic Ocean from 5 August to 8 September 2008 as a part of the Arctic Summer Cloud Ocean Study (ASCOS) using an aerosol mass spectrometer (AMS). The median levels of sulphate and organics for the entire study were 0.051 and 0.055 mu gm(-3), respectively. Positive matrix factorisation was performed on the entire mass spectral time series and this enabled marine biogenic and continental sources of particles to be separated. These factors accounted for 33% and 36% of the sampled ambient aerosol mass, respectively, and they were both predominantly composed of sulphate, with 47% of the sulphate apportioned to marine biogenic sources and 48% to continental sources, by mass. Within the marine biogenic factor, the ratio of methane sulphonate to sulphate was 0.25+/-0.02, consistent with values reported in the literature. The organic component of the continental factor was more oxidised than that of the marine biogenic factor, suggesting that it had a longer photochemical lifetime than the organics in the marine biogenic factor. The remaining ambient aerosol mass was apportioned to an organic-rich factor that could have arisen from a combination of marine and continental sources. In particular, given that the factor does not correlate with common tracers of continental influence, we cannot rule out that the organic factor arises from a primary marine source.
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| 5. |
- de Boer, G., et al.
(författare)
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Near-surface meteorology during the Arctic Summer Cloud Ocean Study (ASCOS) : evaluation of reanalyses and global climate models
- 2014
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Ingår i: Atmospheric Chemistry And Physics. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1680-7316 .- 1680-7324. ; 14:1, s. 427-445
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Atmospheric measurements from the Arctic Summer Cloud Ocean Study (ASCOS) are used to evaluate the performance of three atmospheric reanalyses (European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF)-Interim reanalysis, National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP)-National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) reanalysis, and NCEP-DOE (Department of Energy) reanalysis) and two global climate models (CAM5 (Community Atmosphere Model 5) and NASA GISS (Goddard Institute for Space Studies) ModelE2) in simulation of the high Arctic environment. Quantities analyzed include near surface meteorological variables such as temperature, pressure, humidity and winds, surface-based estimates of cloud and precipitation properties, the surface energy budget, and lower atmospheric temperature structure. In general, the models perform well in simulating large-scale dynamical quantities such as pressure and winds. Near-surface temperature and lower atmospheric stability, along with surface energy budget terms, are not as well represented due largely to errors in simulation of cloud occurrence, phase and altitude. Additionally, a development version of CAMS, which features improved handling of cloud macro physics, has demonstrated to improve simulation of cloud properties and liquid water amount. The ASCOS period additionally provides an excellent example of the benefits gained by evaluating individual budget terms, rather than simply evaluating the net end product, with large compensating errors between individual surface energy budget terms that result in the best net energy budget.
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| 6. |
- Devasthale, A., et al.
(författare)
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Characteristics of water-vapour inversions observed over the Arctic by Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and radiosondes
- 2011
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Ingår i: Atmospheric Chemistry And Physics. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1680-7316 .- 1680-7324. ; 11:18, s. 9813-9823
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- An accurate characterization of the vertical structure of the Arctic atmosphere is useful in climate change and attribution studies as well as for the climate modelling community to improve projections of future climate over this highly sensitive region. Here, we investigate one of the dominant features of the vertical structure of the Arctic atmosphere, i.e. water-vapour inversions, using eight years of Atmospheric Infrared Sounder data (2002-2010) and radiosounding profiles released from the two Arctic locations (North Slope of Alaska at Barrow and during SHEBA). We quantify the characteristics of clear-sky water vapour inversions in terms of their frequency of occurrence, strength and height covering the entire Arctic for the first time. We found that the frequency of occurrence of water-vapour inversions is highest during winter and lowest during summer. The inversion strength is, however, higher during summer. The observed peaks in the median inversion-layer heights are higher during the winter half of the year, at around 850 hPa over most of the Arctic Ocean, Siberia and the Canadian Archipelago, while being around 925 hPa during most of the summer half of the year over the Arctic Ocean. The radiosounding profiles agree with the frequency, location and strength of water-vapour inversions in the Pacific sector of the Arctic. In addition, the radiosoundings indicate that multiple inversions are the norm with relatively few cases without inversions. The amount of precipitable water within the water-vapour inversion structures is estimated and we find a distinct, two-mode contribution to the total column precipitable water. These results suggest that water-vapour inversions are a significant source to the column thermodynamics, especially during the colder winter and spring seasons. We argue that these inversions are a robust metric to test the reproducibility of thermodynamics within climate models. An accurate statistical representation of water-vapour inversions in models would mean that the large-scale coupling of moisture transport, precipitation, temperature and water-vapour vertical structure and radiation are essentially captured well in such models.
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| 7. |
- Devasthale, A., et al.
(författare)
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Influence of the arctic oscillation on the vertical distribution of clouds as observed by the a train constellation of satellites
- 2012
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Ingår i: Atmospheric Chemistry And Physics. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1680-7316 .- 1680-7324. ; 12:21, s. 10535-10544
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The main purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of the Arctic Oscillation (AO), the dominant mode of natural variability over the northerly high latitudes, on the spatial (horizontal and vertical) distribution of clouds in the Arctic. To that end, we use a suite of sensors on-board NASA's A-Train satellites that provide accurate observations of the distribution of clouds along with information on atmospheric thermodynamics. Data from three independent sensors are used (AQUA-AIRS, CALIOP-CALIPSO and CPR-CloudSat) covering two time periods (winter half years, November through March, of 2002-2011 and 2006-2011, respectively) along with data from the ERA-Interim reanalysis. We show that the zonal vertical distribution of cloud fraction anomalies averaged over 67-82 degrees N to a first approximation follows a dipole structure (referred to as Greenland cloud dipole anomaly, GCDA), such that during the positive phase of the AO, positive and negative cloud anomalies are observed eastwards and westward of Greenland respectively, while the opposite is true for the negative phase of AO. By investigating the concurrent meteorological conditions (temperature, humidity and winds), we show that differences in the meridional energy and moisture transport during the positive and negative phases of the AO and the associated thermodynamics are responsible for the conditions that are conducive for the formation of this dipole structure. All three satellite sensors broadly observe this large-scale GCDA despite differences in their sensitivities, spatio-temporal and vertical resolutions, and the available lengths of data records, indicating the robustness of the results. The present study also provides a compelling case to carry out process-based evaluation of global and regional climate models.
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| 8. |
- Johansson, Erik, et al.
(författare)
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The vertical structure of cloud radiative heating over the Indian subcontinent during summer monsoon
- 2015
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Ingår i: Atmospheric Chemistry And Physics. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1680-7316 .- 1680-7324. ; 15:20, s. 11557-11570
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Clouds forming during the summer monsoon over the Indian subcontinent affect its evolution through their radiative impact as well as the release of latent heat. While the latter is previously studied to some extent, comparatively little is known about the radiative impact of different cloud types and the vertical structure of their radiative heating/cooling effects. Therefore, the main aim of this study is to partly fill this knowledge gap by investigating and documenting the vertical distributions of the different cloud types associated with the Indian monsoon and their radiative heating/cooling using the active radar and lidar sensors on-board CloudSat and CALIPSO. The intraseasonal evolution of clouds from May to October is also investigated to understand pre-to-post monsoon transitioning of their radiative heating/cooling effects. The vertical structure of cloud radiative heating (CRH) follows the northward migration and retreat of the monsoon from May to October. Throughout this time period, stratiform clouds radiatively warm the middle troposphere and cool the upper troposphere by more than +/- 0.2 K day(-1) (after weighing by cloud fraction), with the largest impacts observed in June, July and August. During these months, the fraction of high thin cloud remains high in the tropical tropopause layer (TTL). Deep convective towers cause considerable radiative warming in the middle and upper troposphere, but strongly cool the base and inside of the TTL. This cooling is stronger during active (-1.23 K day(-1)) monsoon periods compared to break periods (-0.36 K day(-1)). The contrasting radiative warming effect of high clouds in the TTL is twice as largeduring active periods than in break periods. These results highlight the increasing importance of CRH with altitude, especially in the TTL. Stratiform (made up of alto- and nimbostratus clouds) and deep convection clouds radiatively cool the surface by approximately -100 and -400Wm(-2) respectively while warming the atmosphere radiatively by about 40 to 150Wm(-2). While the cooling at the surface induced by deep convection and stratiform clouds is largest during active periods of monsoon, the importance of stratiform clouds further increases during break periods. The contrasting CREs (cloud radiative effects) in the atmosphere and at surface, and during active and break periods, should have direct implications for the monsoonal circulation.
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| 9. |
- Kupiszewski, Pjotr, et al.
(författare)
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Vertical profiling of aerosol particles and trace gases over the central Arctic Ocean during summer
- 2013
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Ingår i: Atmospheric Chemistry And Physics. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1680-7316 .- 1680-7324. ; 13:24, s. 12405-12431
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Unique measurements of vertical size-resolved aerosol particle concentrations, trace gas concentrations and meteorological data were obtained during the Arctic Summer Cloud Ocean Study (ASCOS, www.ascos.se), an International Polar Year project aimed at establishing the processes responsible for formation and evolution of low-level clouds over the high Arctic summer pack ice. The experiment was conducted from on board the Swedish icebreaker Oden, and provided both ship-and helicopter-based measurements. This study focuses on the vertical helicopter profiles and onboard measurements obtained during a three-week period when Oden was anchored to a drifting ice floe, and sheds light on the characteristics of Arctic aerosol particles and their distribution throughout the lower atmosphere. Distinct differences in aerosol particle characteristics within defined atmospheric layers are identified. Within the lowermost couple hundred metres, transport from the marginal ice zone (MIZ), condensational growth and cloud processing develop the aerosol population. During two of the four representative periods defined in this study, such influence is shown. At altitudes above about 1 km, long-range transport occurs frequently. However, only infrequently does large-scale subsidence descend such air masses to become entrained into the mixed layer in the high Arctic, and there-fore long-range transport plumes are unlikely to directly influence low-level stratiform cloud formation. Nonetheless, such plumes can influence the radiative balance of the planetary boundary layer (PBL) by influencing formation and evolution of higher clouds, as well as through precipitation transport of particles downwards. New particle formation was occasionally observed, particularly in the near-surface layer. We hypothesize that the origin of these ultrafine particles could be in biological processes, both primary and secondary, within the open leads between the pack ice and/or along the MIZ. In general, local sources, in combination with upstream boundary-layer transport of precursor gases from the MIZ, are considered to constitute the origin of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) particles and thus be of importance for the formation of interior Arctic low-level clouds during summer, and subsequently, through cloud influences, for the melting and freezing of sea ice.
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| 10. |
- Loewe, Katharina, et al.
(författare)
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Modelling micro- and macrophysical contributors to the dissipation of an Arctic mixed-phase cloud during the Arctic Summer Cloud Ocean Study (ASCOS)
- 2017
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Ingår i: Atmospheric Chemistry And Physics. - : Copernicus GmbH. - 1680-7316 .- 1680-7324. ; 17:11, s. 6693-6704
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Arctic climate is changing; temperature changes in the Arctic are greater than at midlatitudes, and changing atmospheric conditions influence Arctic mixed-phase clouds, which are important for the Arctic surface energy budget. These low-level clouds are frequently observed across the Arctic. They impact the turbulent and radiative heating of the open water, snow, and sea-ice-covered surfaces and influence the boundary layer structure. Therefore the processes that affect mixed-phase cloud life cycles are extremely important, yet relatively poorly understood. In this study, we present sensitivity studies using semi-idealized large eddy simulations (LESs) to identify processes contributing to the dissipation of Arctic mixed-phase clouds. We found that one potential main contributor to the dissipation of an observed Arctic mixed-phase cloud, during the Arctic Summer Cloud Ocean Study (ASCOS) field campaign, was a low cloud droplet number concentration (CDNC) of about 2 cm(-3). Introducing a high ice crystal concentration of 10 L-1 also resulted in cloud dissipation, but such high ice crystal concentrations were deemed unlikely for the present case. Sensitivity studies simulating the advection of dry air above the boundary layer inversion, as well as a modest increase in ice crystal concentration of 1 L-1, did not lead to cloud dissipation. As a requirement for small droplet numbers, pristine aerosol conditions in the Arctic environment are therefore considered an important factor determining the lifetime of Arctic mixed-phase clouds.
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