Atmospheric moisture supersaturation in the near-surface atmosphere at Dome C, Antarctic Plateau
Supersaturation often occurs at the top of the troposphere where cirrus clouds form, but is comparatively unusual near the surface where the air is generally warmer and laden with liquid and/or ice condensation nuclei. One exception is the surface of the high Antarctic Plateau. One year of atmospher...
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ftnonlinearchiv:oai:noa.gwlb.de:cop_mods_00042815 2023-05-15T14:02:33+02:00 Atmospheric moisture supersaturation in the near-surface atmosphere at Dome C, Antarctic Plateau Genthon, Christophe Piard, Luc Vignon, Etienne Madeleine, Jean-Baptiste Casado, Mathieu Gallée, Hubert 2017-01 electronic https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-691-2017 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00042815 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00042435/acp-17-691-2017.pdf https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/17/691/2017/acp-17-691-2017.pdf eng eng Copernicus Publications Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics -- http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/volumes_and_issues.html -- http://www.bibliothek.uni-regensburg.de/ezeit/?2069847 -- 1680-7324 https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-691-2017 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00042815 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00042435/acp-17-691-2017.pdf https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/17/691/2017/acp-17-691-2017.pdf uneingeschränkt info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article Verlagsveröffentlichung article Text doc-type:article 2017 ftnonlinearchiv https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-691-2017 2022-02-08T22:40:52Z Supersaturation often occurs at the top of the troposphere where cirrus clouds form, but is comparatively unusual near the surface where the air is generally warmer and laden with liquid and/or ice condensation nuclei. One exception is the surface of the high Antarctic Plateau. One year of atmospheric moisture measurement at the surface of Dome C on the East Antarctic Plateau is presented. The measurements are obtained using commercial hygrometry sensors modified to allow air sampling without affecting the moisture content, even in the case of supersaturation. Supersaturation is found to be very frequent. Common unadapted hygrometry sensors generally fail to report supersaturation, and most reports of atmospheric moisture on the Antarctic Plateau are thus likely biased low. The measurements are compared with results from two models implementing cold microphysics parameterizations: the European Center for Medium-range Weather Forecasts through its operational analyses, and the Model Atmosphérique Régional. As in the observations, supersaturation is frequent in the models but the statistical distribution differs both between models and observations and between the two models, leaving much room for model improvement. This is unlikely to strongly affect estimations of surface sublimation because supersaturation is more frequent as temperature is lower, and moisture quantities and thus water fluxes are small anyway. Ignoring supersaturation may be a more serious issue when considering water isotopes, a tracer of phase change and temperature, largely used to reconstruct past climates and environments from ice cores. Because observations are easier in the surface atmosphere, longer and more continuous in situ observation series of atmospheric supersaturation can be obtained than higher in the atmosphere to test parameterizations of cold microphysics, such as those used in the formation of high-altitude cirrus clouds in meteorological and climate models. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Niedersächsisches Online-Archiv NOA Antarctic The Antarctic Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 17 1 691 704 |
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article Verlagsveröffentlichung Genthon, Christophe Piard, Luc Vignon, Etienne Madeleine, Jean-Baptiste Casado, Mathieu Gallée, Hubert Atmospheric moisture supersaturation in the near-surface atmosphere at Dome C, Antarctic Plateau |
topic_facet |
article Verlagsveröffentlichung |
description |
Supersaturation often occurs at the top of the troposphere where cirrus clouds form, but is comparatively unusual near the surface where the air is generally warmer and laden with liquid and/or ice condensation nuclei. One exception is the surface of the high Antarctic Plateau. One year of atmospheric moisture measurement at the surface of Dome C on the East Antarctic Plateau is presented. The measurements are obtained using commercial hygrometry sensors modified to allow air sampling without affecting the moisture content, even in the case of supersaturation. Supersaturation is found to be very frequent. Common unadapted hygrometry sensors generally fail to report supersaturation, and most reports of atmospheric moisture on the Antarctic Plateau are thus likely biased low. The measurements are compared with results from two models implementing cold microphysics parameterizations: the European Center for Medium-range Weather Forecasts through its operational analyses, and the Model Atmosphérique Régional. As in the observations, supersaturation is frequent in the models but the statistical distribution differs both between models and observations and between the two models, leaving much room for model improvement. This is unlikely to strongly affect estimations of surface sublimation because supersaturation is more frequent as temperature is lower, and moisture quantities and thus water fluxes are small anyway. Ignoring supersaturation may be a more serious issue when considering water isotopes, a tracer of phase change and temperature, largely used to reconstruct past climates and environments from ice cores. Because observations are easier in the surface atmosphere, longer and more continuous in situ observation series of atmospheric supersaturation can be obtained than higher in the atmosphere to test parameterizations of cold microphysics, such as those used in the formation of high-altitude cirrus clouds in meteorological and climate models. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Genthon, Christophe Piard, Luc Vignon, Etienne Madeleine, Jean-Baptiste Casado, Mathieu Gallée, Hubert |
author_facet |
Genthon, Christophe Piard, Luc Vignon, Etienne Madeleine, Jean-Baptiste Casado, Mathieu Gallée, Hubert |
author_sort |
Genthon, Christophe |
title |
Atmospheric moisture supersaturation in the near-surface atmosphere at Dome C, Antarctic Plateau |
title_short |
Atmospheric moisture supersaturation in the near-surface atmosphere at Dome C, Antarctic Plateau |
title_full |
Atmospheric moisture supersaturation in the near-surface atmosphere at Dome C, Antarctic Plateau |
title_fullStr |
Atmospheric moisture supersaturation in the near-surface atmosphere at Dome C, Antarctic Plateau |
title_full_unstemmed |
Atmospheric moisture supersaturation in the near-surface atmosphere at Dome C, Antarctic Plateau |
title_sort |
atmospheric moisture supersaturation in the near-surface atmosphere at dome c, antarctic plateau |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2017 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-691-2017 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00042815 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00042435/acp-17-691-2017.pdf https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/17/691/2017/acp-17-691-2017.pdf |
geographic |
Antarctic The Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic The Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic |
op_relation |
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics -- http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/volumes_and_issues.html -- http://www.bibliothek.uni-regensburg.de/ezeit/?2069847 -- 1680-7324 https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-691-2017 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00042815 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00042435/acp-17-691-2017.pdf https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/17/691/2017/acp-17-691-2017.pdf |
op_rights |
uneingeschränkt info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-691-2017 |
container_title |
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
container_volume |
17 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
691 |
op_container_end_page |
704 |
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1766272857654951936 |