A Lagrangian analysis of ice-supersaturated air over the North Atlantic
Understanding the nature of air parcels that exhibit ice-supersaturation is important because they are the regions of potential formation of both cirrus and aircraft contrails, which affect the radiation balance. Ice-supersaturated air parcels in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere over the...
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American Geophysical Union
2014
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ftunivreading:oai:centaur.reading.ac.uk:36680 2024-04-21T08:07:37+00:00 A Lagrangian analysis of ice-supersaturated air over the North Atlantic Irvine, E. A. Hoskins, B. J. Shine, K. P. 2014-01-14 text https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/36680/ https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/36680/8/jgrd51061.pdf en eng American Geophysical Union https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/36680/8/jgrd51061.pdf Irvine, E. A. <https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/view/creators/90003238.html>, Hoskins, B. J. <https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/view/creators/90000043.html> and Shine, K. P. <https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/view/creators/90000340.html> orcid:0000-0003-2672-9978 (2014) A Lagrangian analysis of ice-supersaturated air over the North Atlantic. Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres, 119 (1). pp. 90-100. ISSN 0148-0227 doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/2013JD020251 <https://doi.org/10.1002/2013JD020251> Article PeerReviewed 2014 ftunivreading https://doi.org/10.1002/2013JD020251 2024-03-27T18:00:44Z Understanding the nature of air parcels that exhibit ice-supersaturation is important because they are the regions of potential formation of both cirrus and aircraft contrails, which affect the radiation balance. Ice-supersaturated air parcels in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere over the North Atlantic are investigated using Lagrangian trajectories. The trajectory calculations use ERA-Interim data for three winter and three summer seasons, resulting in approximately 200,000 trajectories with ice-supersaturation for each season. For both summer and winter, the median duration of ice-supersaturation along a trajectory is less than 6 hours. 5% of air which becomes ice-supersaturated in the troposphere, and 23% of air which becomes ice-supersaturated in the stratosphere will remain ice-supersaturated for at least 24 hours. Weighting the ice-supersaturation duration with the observed frequency indicates the likely overall importance of the longer duration ice-supersaturated trajectories. Ice-supersaturated air parcels typically experience a decrease in moisture content while ice-supersaturated, suggesting that cirrus clouds eventually form in the majority of such air. A comparison is made between short-lived (less than 24 h) and long-lived (greater than 24 h) ice-supersaturated air flows. For both air flows, ice-supersaturation occurs around the northernmost part of the trajectory. Short-lived ice-supersaturated air flows show no significant differences in speed or direction of movement to subsaturated air parcels. However, long-lived ice-supersaturated air occurs in slower moving air flows, which implies that they are not associated with the fastest moving air through a jet stream. Article in Journal/Newspaper North Atlantic CentAUR: Central Archive at the University of Reading Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 119 1 90 100 |
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Open Polar |
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CentAUR: Central Archive at the University of Reading |
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ftunivreading |
language |
English |
description |
Understanding the nature of air parcels that exhibit ice-supersaturation is important because they are the regions of potential formation of both cirrus and aircraft contrails, which affect the radiation balance. Ice-supersaturated air parcels in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere over the North Atlantic are investigated using Lagrangian trajectories. The trajectory calculations use ERA-Interim data for three winter and three summer seasons, resulting in approximately 200,000 trajectories with ice-supersaturation for each season. For both summer and winter, the median duration of ice-supersaturation along a trajectory is less than 6 hours. 5% of air which becomes ice-supersaturated in the troposphere, and 23% of air which becomes ice-supersaturated in the stratosphere will remain ice-supersaturated for at least 24 hours. Weighting the ice-supersaturation duration with the observed frequency indicates the likely overall importance of the longer duration ice-supersaturated trajectories. Ice-supersaturated air parcels typically experience a decrease in moisture content while ice-supersaturated, suggesting that cirrus clouds eventually form in the majority of such air. A comparison is made between short-lived (less than 24 h) and long-lived (greater than 24 h) ice-supersaturated air flows. For both air flows, ice-supersaturation occurs around the northernmost part of the trajectory. Short-lived ice-supersaturated air flows show no significant differences in speed or direction of movement to subsaturated air parcels. However, long-lived ice-supersaturated air occurs in slower moving air flows, which implies that they are not associated with the fastest moving air through a jet stream. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Irvine, E. A. Hoskins, B. J. Shine, K. P. |
spellingShingle |
Irvine, E. A. Hoskins, B. J. Shine, K. P. A Lagrangian analysis of ice-supersaturated air over the North Atlantic |
author_facet |
Irvine, E. A. Hoskins, B. J. Shine, K. P. |
author_sort |
Irvine, E. A. |
title |
A Lagrangian analysis of ice-supersaturated air over the North Atlantic |
title_short |
A Lagrangian analysis of ice-supersaturated air over the North Atlantic |
title_full |
A Lagrangian analysis of ice-supersaturated air over the North Atlantic |
title_fullStr |
A Lagrangian analysis of ice-supersaturated air over the North Atlantic |
title_full_unstemmed |
A Lagrangian analysis of ice-supersaturated air over the North Atlantic |
title_sort |
lagrangian analysis of ice-supersaturated air over the north atlantic |
publisher |
American Geophysical Union |
publishDate |
2014 |
url |
https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/36680/ https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/36680/8/jgrd51061.pdf |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_relation |
https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/36680/8/jgrd51061.pdf Irvine, E. A. <https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/view/creators/90003238.html>, Hoskins, B. J. <https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/view/creators/90000043.html> and Shine, K. P. <https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/view/creators/90000340.html> orcid:0000-0003-2672-9978 (2014) A Lagrangian analysis of ice-supersaturated air over the North Atlantic. Journal of Geophysical Research - Atmospheres, 119 (1). pp. 90-100. ISSN 0148-0227 doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/2013JD020251 <https://doi.org/10.1002/2013JD020251> |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1002/2013JD020251 |
container_title |
Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres |
container_volume |
119 |
container_issue |
1 |
container_start_page |
90 |
op_container_end_page |
100 |
_version_ |
1796947588375642112 |