Characteristics of water-vapour inversions observed over the Arctic by Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and radiosondes
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 feat...
Published in: | Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
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Copernicus Publications
2011
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ftnonlinearchiv:oai:noa.gwlb.de:cop_mods_00046372 2023-05-15T14:18:11+02:00 Characteristics of water-vapour inversions observed over the Arctic by Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and radiosondes Devasthale, A. Sedlar, J. Tjernström, M. 2011-09 electronic https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-11-9813-2011 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00046372 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00045992/acp-11-9813-2011.pdf https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/11/9813/2011/acp-11-9813-2011.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-11-9813-2011 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00046372 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00045992/acp-11-9813-2011.pdf https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/11/9813/2011/acp-11-9813-2011.pdf uneingeschränkt info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article Verlagsveröffentlichung article Text doc-type:article 2011 ftnonlinearchiv https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-11-9813-2011 2022-02-08T22:39:06Z 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. Article in Journal/Newspaper Archipelago Arctic Arctic Ocean Barrow Canadian Archipelago Climate change north slope Alaska Siberia Niedersächsisches Online-Archiv NOA Arctic Arctic Ocean Pacific Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 11 18 9813 9823 |
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English |
topic |
article Verlagsveröffentlichung |
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article Verlagsveröffentlichung Devasthale, A. Sedlar, J. Tjernström, M. Characteristics of water-vapour inversions observed over the Arctic by Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and radiosondes |
topic_facet |
article Verlagsveröffentlichung |
description |
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. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Devasthale, A. Sedlar, J. Tjernström, M. |
author_facet |
Devasthale, A. Sedlar, J. Tjernström, M. |
author_sort |
Devasthale, A. |
title |
Characteristics of water-vapour inversions observed over the Arctic by Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and radiosondes |
title_short |
Characteristics of water-vapour inversions observed over the Arctic by Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and radiosondes |
title_full |
Characteristics of water-vapour inversions observed over the Arctic by Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and radiosondes |
title_fullStr |
Characteristics of water-vapour inversions observed over the Arctic by Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and radiosondes |
title_full_unstemmed |
Characteristics of water-vapour inversions observed over the Arctic by Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and radiosondes |
title_sort |
characteristics of water-vapour inversions observed over the arctic by atmospheric infrared sounder (airs) and radiosondes |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2011 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-11-9813-2011 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00046372 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00045992/acp-11-9813-2011.pdf https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/11/9813/2011/acp-11-9813-2011.pdf |
geographic |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Pacific |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Arctic Ocean Pacific |
genre |
Archipelago Arctic Arctic Ocean Barrow Canadian Archipelago Climate change north slope Alaska Siberia |
genre_facet |
Archipelago Arctic Arctic Ocean Barrow Canadian Archipelago Climate change north slope Alaska Siberia |
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-11-9813-2011 https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00046372 https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00045992/acp-11-9813-2011.pdf https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/11/9813/2011/acp-11-9813-2011.pdf |
op_rights |
uneingeschränkt info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-11-9813-2011 |
container_title |
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
container_volume |
11 |
container_issue |
18 |
container_start_page |
9813 |
op_container_end_page |
9823 |
_version_ |
1766289888650461184 |