Widespread polar stratospheric ice clouds in the 2015–2016 Arctic winter – implications for ice nucleation
-
Published:2018-10-30
Issue:21
Volume:18
Page:15623-15641
-
ISSN:1680-7324
-
Container-title:Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
-
language:en
-
Short-container-title:Atmos. Chem. Phys.
Author:
Voigt ChristianeORCID, Dörnbrack AndreasORCID, Wirth MartinORCID, Groß Silke M., Pitts Michael C.ORCID, Poole Lamont R., Baumann Robert, Ehard Benedikt, Sinnhuber Björn-MartinORCID, Woiwode Wolfgang, Oelhaf Hermann
Abstract
Abstract. Low planetary wave activity led to a stable vortex with exceptionally cold
temperatures in the 2015–2016 Arctic winter. Extended areas with temperatures
below the ice frost point temperature Tice persisted over weeks in the
Arctic stratosphere as derived from the 36-year temperature climatology of
the ERA-Interim reanalysis data set of the European Centre for Medium-Range
Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). These extreme conditions promoted the formation of
widespread polar stratospheric ice clouds (ice PSCs). The space-borne
Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) instrument on board
the CALIPSO (Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite
Observation) satellite continuously measured ice PSCs for about a month with maximum
extensions of up to 2×106 km2 in the
stratosphere. On 22 January 2016, the WALES (Water Vapor Lidar Experiment in Space –
airborne demonstrator) lidar on board the High Altitude and Long Range
Research Aircraft HALO detected an ice PSC with a horizontal length of more
than 1400 km. The ice PSC extended between 18 and 24 km altitude and was
surrounded by nitric acid trihydrate (NAT) particles, supercooled ternary
solution (STS) droplets and particle mixtures. The ice PSC occurrence
histogram in the backscatter ratio to particle depolarization ratio optical
space exhibits two ice modes with high or low particle depolarization
ratios. Domain-filling 8-day back-trajectories starting in the high
particle depolarization (high-depol) ice mode are continuously below the NAT equilibrium temperature TNAT
and decrease below Tice∼10 h prior to the
observation. Their matches with CALIPSO PSC curtain plots demonstrate the
presence of NAT PSCs prior to high-depol ice, suggesting that the ice had
nucleated on NAT. Vice versa, STS or no PSCs were detected by CALIPSO prior
to the ice mode with low particle depolarization ratio. In addition to ice nucleation in STS potentially having
meteoric inclusions, we find evidence for ice nucleation on NAT in the
Arctic winter 2015–2016. The observation of widespread Arctic ice PSCs with
high or low particle depolarization ratios advances our understanding of ice
nucleation in polar latitudes. It further provides a new observational database for the parameterization of ice nucleation schemes in atmospheric
models.
Publisher
Copernicus GmbH
Subject
Atmospheric Science
Reference95 articles.
1. Achtert, P. and Tesche, M.: Assessing lidar-based classification schemes
for polar stratospheric clouds based on 16 years of measurements at Esrange,
Sweden, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 119, 1386–1405, https://doi.org/10.1002/2013JD020355,
2014. 2. Berrisford, P., Dee, D., Poli, P., Brugge, R., Fielding, K., Fuentes, M.,
Kallberg, P., Kobayashi, S., Uppala, S., and Simmons, A.: The ERA-Interim archive
Version 2.0, ERA Report Series 1, ECMWF, Shinfield Park, Reading, UK, 2011. 3. Carslaw, K. S., Luo, B. P., Clegg, S. L., Peter, Th., Brimblecombe, P., and
Crutzen, P. J.: Stratospheric aerosol growth and HNO3 and water uptake by
liquid particles, Geophys. Res. Lett., 21, 2479–2482, 1994. 4. Carslaw, K. S., Kettleborough, J. A., Northway, M. J., Davies, S., Gao, R.
S., Fahey, D. W., Baumgardner, D. G., Chipperfield, M. P., and Kleinbohl,
A.: A vortex-scale simulation of the growth and sedimentation of large
nitric acid hydrate particles, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 107, SOL 43-1–SOL 43-16, https://doi.org/10.1029/2001jd000467, 2002. 5. Chepfer, H. and Noel, V.: A tropical “NAT-like” belt observed from space, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L03813, https://doi.org/10.1029/2008GL036289, 2009.
Cited by
18 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献
|
|