Intercomparison of stratospheric water vapor observed by satellite experiments: Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment II versus Limb Infrared Monitor of the Stratosphere and Atmospheric Trace Molecule Spectroscopy

Chiou, E. W.; McCormick, M. P.; Mcmaster, L. R.; Chu, William; Larsen, J. C.; Rind, David; Oltmans, S. J.

doi:10.1029/92jd01629

Cited by 22 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Observations [McCormick et al, 1993;Mastenbrook and Oltmans, 1983] indicate that the seasonal cycle in midlatitude lower stratospheric water vapor is driven by the seasonal cycle at the tropical tropopause, as the minimum values appear in midlatitudes about a month or two after the tropical minimum. This is also the case in the model, but the annual subtropical maximum has greater influence on midlatitudes than the wintertime minimum (Figures 7 and 9), and the poleward flux of dry air is only weakly present.…”

Section: Water Vapor In the Midlatitude Lower Stratospherementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Mixing ratios increase upward and poleward, largely due to methane oxidation in the upper stratosphere. As a result of the seasonal cycle in both transport and tropical tropopause mixing ratios, the minimum in midlatitudes occurs in about March in both hemispheres [Mastenbrook and Oltmans, 1983;McCormick et al, 1993]. But there are numerous puzzles about the observed water vapor distribution.…”

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The annual cycle of stratospheric water vapor in a general circulation model

Mote¹

1995

J. Geophys. Res.

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The application of general circulation models (GCMs) to stratospheric chemistry and transport both permits and requires a thorough investigation of stratospheric water vapor. The National Center for Atmospheric Research has redesigned its GCM, the Community Climate Model (CCM2), to enable studies of the chemistry and transport of tracers including water vapor; the importance of water vapor to the climate and chemistry of the stratosphere requires that it be better understood in the atmosphere and well represented in the model. In this study, methane is carried as a tracer and convened to water; this simple chemistry provides an adequate representation of the upper stratospheric water vapor source. The cold temperature bias in the winter polar stratosphere, which the CCM2 shares with other GCMs, produces excessive dehydration in the southern hemisphere, but this dry bias can be ameliorated by setting a minimum vapor pressure. The CCM2's water vapor distribution and seasonality compare favorably with observations in many respects, though seasonal variations including the upper stratospheric semiannual oscillation are generally too small. Southern polar dehydration affects midlatitude water vapor mixing ratios by a few tenths of a part per million, mostly after the demise of the vortex. The annual cycle of water vapor in the tropical and nonhem midlatitude lower stratosphere is dominated by drying at the tropical tropopause. Water vapor has a longer adjustment time than methane and had not reached equilibrium at the end of the 9 years simulated here. IntroductionIn the troposphere, water in all phases plays a crucial role in the energetics of atmospheric transport and in daily weather: its phase changes release latent heat, providing an internal energy source for circulations of all scales. In the stratosphere, where its concentration is orders of magnitude smaller and its turnover time is orders of magnitude longer, water vapor also plays a crucial role, though for different reasons. It plays a chemical role, for instance as a source of OH radicals which participate in most chemical cycles in the stratosphere, and a radiative role, as an absorber and emitter of infrared radiation and as an absorber of solar radiation. Water vapor is unique among long-lived trace gases in that it occasionally saturates under stratospheric conditions (Figure 1), and its saturation varies strongly with temperature, approximately a factor of 6 for a 10 K adiabatic temperature change.The strong dependence of water vapor saturation on temperature is arguably the most interesting and useful attribute of water, from the standpoint of tracer studies; it has contributed in myriad ways to the advancement of our understanding of the middle atmosphere, as a brief historical overview shows.Prior to the late 1940s, it was generally assumed that the stratosphere was in radiative equilibrium and its composition 1Now at U.K. Universities' Global Atmospheric Modelling Programme (Paper number 94JD03301. 0148-0227/95/94JD-0330/$05.00 affected only by t...

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Section: Water Vapor In the Midlatitude Lower Stratospherementioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

The annual cycle of stratospheric water vapor in a general circulation model

Mote¹

1995

J. Geophys. Res.

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“…Considering the aforementioned problems with age of air, further comparisons with independent data would be beneficial, e.g. the satellite products compared by Chiou et al (1992).…”

Section: Age Of Air and The Tape Recorder Signalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of the new UKCA climate-composition model – Part 1: The stratosphere

et al. 2009

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Abstract. The UK Chemistry and Aerosols (UKCA) model is a new aerosol-chemistry model coupled to the Met Office Unified Model capable of simulating composition and climate from the troposphere to the mesosphere. Here we introduce the model and assess its performance with a particular focus on the stratosphere. A 20-year perpetual year-2000 simulation forms the basis of our analysis. We assess basic and derived dynamical and chemical model fields and compare to ERA-40 reanalyses and satellite climatologies. Polar temperatures and the lifetime of the southern polar vortex are well captured, indicating that the model is suitable for assessing the ozone hole. Ozone and long-lived tracers compare favourably to observations. Chemical-dynamical coupling, as evidenced by the anticorrelation between winterspring northern polar ozone columns and the strength of the polar jet, is also well captured. Remaining problems relate to a warm bias at the tropical tropopause, slow ascent in the tropical pipe with implications for the lifetimes of long-lived species, and a general overestimation of ozone columns in middle and high latitudes.

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“…The gradient in water vapor mixing ratio with latitude is significant in the stratosphere [ Chiou et al , 1993, 1997; McCormick et al , 1993; Rind et al , 1993; Eluszkiewicz et al , 1996, 1997; Harries et al , 1996; Pan et al , 1997; Rosenlof et al , 1997; Nedoluha et al , 1998]; thus advection of air from the tropics to higher latitudes can lead to large variability in profiles of [H 2 O] at midlatitudes (brackets denote species volume mixing ratio). Throughout this paper (i.e., except in one of the comparisons with MkIV data) we have accounted for these dynamical factors by identifying comparable profiles (from data sets generally measured within a few days of one another) based on potential vorticity (PV).…”

Section: Comparison Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

ATMOS version 3 water vapor measurements: Comparisons with observations from two ER‐2 Lyman‐α hygrometers, MkIV, HALOE, SAGE II, MAS, and MLS

et al. 2002

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[1] We have compared a new version of Atmospheric Trace Molecule Spectroscopy Experiment (ATMOS) retrievals (version 3) of stratospheric and mesospheric water vapor with observations from shuttleborne, satelliteborne, balloonborne, and aircraftborne instruments. These retrievals show agreement to within 5% with the MkIV observations in the middle and lower stratosphere. ATMOS agrees with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Lyman-a hygrometer to within 5% except for features with spatial scales less than the vertical resolution of ATMOS (such as the lower stratospheric seasonal cycle). ATMOS observations are 10 -16% lower than measurements from the Harvard Lyman-a hygrometer in the lower stratosphere and are 7 -14% higher than those from the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS; prototype version 0104) throughout most of the stratosphere. Agreement is within 7% with the Millimeter-Wave Atmospheric Sounder (MAS; version 20) in the middle and upper stratosphere, but differences are closer to 13% in the lower stratosphere. Throughout the stratosphere, agreement is within 8% with the Halogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE; version 19). ATMOS data from 1994 show agreement with the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment II (SAGE II; version 6) values to within 8% in the middle stratosphere, but ATMOS observations are systematically higher than those from SAGE II by as much as 41% in the lower stratosphere. In contrast, ATMOS 1985 values are systematically $50% lower than SAGE II values from sunset occultations in the lower stratosphere near 70 hPa but appear to be in better agreement with sunrise occultations. Version 3 retrievals in the upper stratosphere and lower mesosphere are typically 5 -10% lower than version 2 values between 1 and 0.05 hPa. This reduction improves agreement with HALOE, MAS, and MLS upper atmospheric observations, but ATMOS values still tend to be higher than values from these instruments in the middle mesosphere. Agreement among the instruments compared here (except for SAGE II) is generally within 15% in the middle to lower stratosphere and mesosphere and within 10% in the middle to upper stratosphere. At altitudes near 30 km, all instruments (including SAGE II) agree to within 10%.

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Intercomparison of stratospheric water vapor observed by satellite experiments: Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment II versus Limb Infrared Monitor of the Stratosphere and Atmospheric Trace Molecule Spectroscopy

Cited by 22 publications

References 28 publications

The annual cycle of stratospheric water vapor in a general circulation model

The annual cycle of stratospheric water vapor in a general circulation model

Evaluation of the new UKCA climate-composition model – Part 1: The stratosphere

ATMOS version 3 water vapor measurements: Comparisons with observations from two ER‐2 Lyman‐α hygrometers, MkIV, HALOE, SAGE II, MAS, and MLS

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