Climatological Characteristics of Arctic and Antarctic Surface-Based Inversions

Abstract

Surface-based inversions (SBIs) are frequent features of the Arctic and Antarctic atmospheric boundary layer. They influence vertical mixing of energy, moisture and pollutants, cloud formation, and surface ozone destruction. Their climatic variability is related to that of sea ice and planetary albedo, important factors in climate feedback mechanisms. However, climatological polar SBI properties have not been fully characterized nor have climate model simulations of SBIs been compared comprehensively to observations. Using 20 years of twice-daily observations from 39 Arctic and 6 Antarctic radiosonde stations, this study examines the spatial and temporal variability of three SBI characteristic-frequency of occurrence, depth (from the surface to the inversion top), and intensity (temperature difference over the SBI depth)-and relationships among them. In both polar regions, SBIs are more frequent, deeper, and stronger in winter and autumn than in summer and spring. In the Arctic, these tendencies increase from the Norwegian Sea eastward toward the East Siberian Sea, associated both with (seasonal and diurnal) variations in solar elevation angle at the standard radiosonde observation times and with differences between continental and maritime climates. Two state-of-the-art climate models and one reanalysis dataset show similar seasonal patterns and spatial distributions of SBI properties as the radiosonde observations, but with biases in their magnitudes that differ among the models and that are smaller in winter and autumn than in spring and summer. SBI frequency, depth, and intensity are positively correlated, both spatially and temporally, and all three are anticorrelated with surface temperature.

Characteristics of Arctic low-tropospheric humidity inversions based on radio soundings

“…Arctic temperature inversions have received much more attention during earlier decades (Kahl, 1990;Serreze et al, 1992;Kahl et al, 1996;Liu et al, 2006) as well as recently (Devasthale et al, 2010;Bintanja et al, 2011;Medeiros et al, 2011;Wetzel and Brümmer, 2011;Zhang et al, 2011), although their occurrence in the Arctic is even slightly lower compared to humidity inversions. Temperature inversions have been argued to have a remarkable negative feedback to the surface cooling efficiency (Bintanja et al, 2011), but impacts of Arctic humidity inversions on radiation as well as on atmospheric and surface temperatures have remained nearly unstudied.…”

Advances in understanding and parameterization of small-scale physical processes in the marine Arctic climate system: a review

“…The frequency, depth, and strength of temperature inversions have been found to correlate positively with each other, both spatially and temporally, and correlate negatively with surface temperature (Devasthale et al, 2010;Zhang et al, 2011). However, the negative correlation between the inversion strength and surface temperature is noticeably weaker in summer (Fig.…”

The Impact of Regional Arctic Sea Ice Loss on Atmospheric Circulation and the NAO

“…This is likely connected to a limited vertical extent of the warming (not shown), owing to a very stable structure of the lower atmosphere. Low-level stability with frequent surface-based inversions is a well-known feature in the Arctic seen in both observations and climate models (Zhang et al 2011). Climate models, including the one employed here, even have a tendency to overestimate the stability during the polar night (Boé et al 2009;Barton et al 2014).…”