Gert König-Langlo

Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN/WCRP) : New precision radiometry for Climate Research

To support climate research, the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) initiated a new radiometric network, the Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN). The network aims at providing validation material for satellite radiometry and climate models. It further aims at detecting long-term variations in irradiances at the earth’s surface, which are believed to play an important role in climate change. The network and its instrumentation are designed 1) to cover major climate zones, 2) to provide the accuracy required to meet the objectives, and 3) to ensure homogenized standards for a long period in the future. The limits of the accuracy are defined to reach these goals. The suitable instruments and instrumentations have been determined and the methods for observations and data management have been agreed on at all stations. Measurements of irradiances are at 1 Hz, and the 1-min statistics (mean, standard deviation, and extreme values) with quality flags are stored at a centralized data archive at the WCRP’s World Radiation Monitoring Center (WRMC) in Zurich, Switzerland. The data are quality controlled both at stations and at the WRMC. The original 1-min irradiance statistics will be stored at the WRMC for 10 years, while hourly mean values will be transferred to the World Radiation Data Center in St. Petersburg, Russia. The BSRN, consisting of 15 stations, covers the earth’s surface from 80°N to 90°S, and will soon be joined by seven more stations. The data are available to scientific communities in various ways depending on the communication environment of the users. The present article discusses the scientific base, organizational and technical aspects of the network, and data retrieval methods; shows various application possibilities; and presents the future tasks to be accomplished.

The Polar Ozone and Aerosol Measurement (POAM) III instrument and early validation results

Polar Ozone and Aerosol Measurement (POAM) III, a follow-on to the successful POAM II, is a spaceborne experiment designed to measure the vertical profiles of ozone, water vapor, nitrogen dioxide, and aerosol extinction in the polar stratosphere and upper troposphere with a vertical resolution of 1–2 km. Measurements are made by the solar occultation technique. POAM III, now in polar orbit aboard the SPOT 4 satellite, is providing data on north- and south-polar ozone phenomena, including the south-polar ozone hole, and on the spatial and temporal variability of stratospheric aerosols, polar stratospheric clouds, and polar mesospheric clouds. Differences between the POAM III and POAM II instruments are described. First validations of POAM III data products by comparison with Halogen Occultation Experiment and ozonesonde data are presented.

Validation of Aura Microwave Limb Sounder Ozone by ozonesonde and lidar measurements

We present validation studies of MLS version 2.2 upper tropospheric and stratospheric ozone profiles using ozonesonde and lidar data as well as climatological data. Ozone measurements from over 60 ozonesonde stations worldwide and three lidar stations are compared with coincident MLS data. The MLS ozone stratospheric data between 150 and 3 hPa agree well with ozonesonde measurements, within 8% for the global average. MLS values at 215 hPa are biased high compared to ozonesondes by A`20% at middle to high latitude, although there is a lot of variability in this altitude region. Comparisons between MLS and ground-based lidar measurements from Mauna Loa, Hawaii, from the Table Mountain Facility, California, and from the Observatoire de Haute-Provence, France, give very good agreement, within A`5%, for the stratospheric values. The comparisons between MLS and the Table Mountain Facility tropospheric ozone lidar show that MLS data are biased high by A`30% at 215 hPa, consistent with that indicated by the ozonesonde data. We obtain better global average agreement between MLS and ozonesonde partial column values down to 215 hPa, although the average MLS values at low to middle latitudes are higher than the ozonesonde values by up to a few percent. MLS v2.2 ozone data agree better than the MLS v1.5 data with ozonesonde and lidar measurements. MLS tropical data show the wave one longitudinal pattern in the upper troposphere, with similarities to the average distribution from ozonesondes. High upper tropospheric ozone values are also observed by MLS in the tropical Pacific from June to November.

Seasonal variability of crustal and marine trace elements in the aerosol at Neumayer station, Antarctica

Atmospheric trace element concentrations were measured from March 1999 to December 2003 at the Air Chemistry Observatory of the German Antarctic station Neumayer, by inductively coupled plasma–quadrupol mass spectrometry (ICP–QMS) and ion chromatography (IC). This continuous five-year long record derived from weekly aerosol sampling revealed a distinct seasonal summer maximum for elements linked with mineral dust entry (Al, La, Ce, Nd) and a winter maximum for the mostly sea salt derived elements Li, Na, K, Mg, Ca and Sr. The relative seasonal amplitude was around 1.7 and 1.4 for mineral dust (La) and sea salt aerosol (Na), respectively. On average, a significant deviation regarding mean ocean water composition was apparent for Li, Mg and Sr, which could hardly be explained by mirabilite precipitation on freshly formed sea ice. In addition, we observed all over the year, a not clarified high variability of element ratios Li/Na, K/Na, Mg/Na, Ca/Na and Sr/Na. We found an intriguing co-variation of Se concentrations with biogenic sulphur aerosols (methane sulphonate and non-sea salt sulphate), indicating a dominant marine biogenic source for this element, linked with the marine biogenic sulphur source.

Variability of tropospheric hydroperoxides at a coastal surface site in Antarctica

The annual cycles of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and methylhydroperoxide (MHP) have been investigated at a remote site in Antarctica in order to study seasonal variations as well as chemical processes in the troposphere. The measurements have been performed from March 1997 to January 1998 and in February 1999 at the German Antarctic research station Neumayer which is located at 70°39S, 8°15W. The obtained time series for hydrogen peroxide and methylhydroperoxide in near-surface air represents the first all-year measurements in Antarctica and indicates clearly the occurrence of seasonal variations. During polar night mean values of 0.054 ± 0.046 ppbv (range <0.03 0.11 ppbv) for hydrogen peroxide and 0.089 ± 0.052 ppbv (range <0.05 0.14 ppbv) for methyl-hydroperoxide were detected. At the sunlit period higher mixing ratios were found, 0.20 ± 0.13 ppbv (range <0.03 0.91 ppbv) for hydrogen peroxide and 0.19 ± 0.10 ppbv (range <0.05 0.89 ppbv) for methylhydroperoxide. Occasional long range transport of air masses from mid-latitudes caused enhanced peroxide concentrations at polar night. During the period of stratospheric ozone depletion we observed peroxide mixing ratios comparable to typical winter levels.

Continuous 25-yr aerosol records at coastal Antarctica – I: inter-annual variability of ionic compounds and links to climate indices

The aerosol climatology at the coastal Antarctic Neumayer Station (NM) was investigated based on continuous, 25-yr long observations of biogenic sulphur components (methanesulfonate and non–sea salt sulphate), sea salt and nitrate. Although significant long-term trends could only be detected for nitrate (−3.6 ± 2.5% per year between 1983 and 1993 and +4.0 ± 3.2% per year from 1993–2007), non-harmonic periodicities between 2 and 5 yr were typical for all species. Dedicated time series analyses revealed that relations to sea ice extent and various circulation indices are weak at best or not significant. In particular, no consistent link between sea ice extent and sea salt loadings was evident suggesting only a rather local relevance of the NM sea salt record. Nevertheless, a higher Southern Annular Mode index tended to entail a lower biogenic sulphur signal. In examining the spatial uniformity of the NM findings we contrasted them to respective 17 yr records from the coastal Dumont d’Urville Station. We found similar long-term trends for nitrate, indicating an Antarctic-wide but not identifiable atmospheric signal, although any significant impact of solar activity or pollution could be ruled out. No inter-site variability on the multiannual scale was evident for the other ionic compounds.

Impact of radiosonde observations on forecasting summertime Arctic cyclone formation

The impact of Arctic radiosonde observations on the forecasting of the 2012 early August Arctic cyclone AC12—the “strongest” since records began—has been investigated using an observing system experiment (OSE). An atmospheric ensemble reanalysis (ALERA2) was used as the control experiment (CTL) to reproduce the development of the Arctic cyclone and surrounding large-scale atmospheric fields. The OSE applies the same reanalysis as the CTL except for the exclusion of radiosonde observations from the German icebreaker Polarstern, which cruised near Svalbard during mid-July to early August 2012. Comparison of the two reanalyses revealed a difference in the upper tropospheric circulation over northern mid-Eurasia, just before the Arctic cyclone developed, in the form of a stronger tropopause polar vortex in the CTL. This indicated that the upper tropospheric field in the CTL had greater potential for baroclinic instability over mid-Eurasia. Ensemble predictions were then conducted using the two reanalyses as initial values at which the tropopause polar vortex approached northern mid-Eurasia. The CTL prediction reproduced the formation of the Arctic cyclone, but the OSE shows a significantly weaker one. These results indicate that the improved reproduction of upper tropospheric circulation in the Arctic region due to additional radiosonde observations from a mobile platform was indispensable for the prediction of AC12. In particular, observations being acquired far from the Arctic cyclone affect the prediction of the cyclone via the upper tropospheric circulation in the atmospheric west wind drift.

Surface energy balance, melt and sublimation at Neumayer Station, East Antarctica

Abstract A surface energy balance model is forced by 13 years of high-quality hourly observations from the Antarctic coastal station Neumayer. The model accurately reproduces observed surface temperatures. Surface sublimation is significant in summer, when absorbed solar radiation heats the surface. Including a first order estimate of snowdrift sublimation in the calculation more than triples the total sublimation, removing 19% of the solid precipitation, indicating that snowdrift sublimation is potentially important for the mass balance of Antarctic ice shelves. Surface melt occurs at Neumayer in all summers, but all the meltwater refreezes. In two-thirds of the cases, the refreezing is quasi-instantaneous (within the model timestep of 6 min), so that no liquid water remains in the snow. For all other events, the occurrence of liquid water in the snowpack at Neumayer agrees well with satellite-based liquid water detection.

The Meteorological Information System at the Alfred-Wegener-Institute

The Alfred-Wegener-Institute operates regularly three meteorological stations, an observatory in Antarctica (Neumayer, 70S, 8W), another observatory in the Arctic (Koldewey, 79N, 12E) and a ship station on board of the research ice-breaker POLARSTERN. At Neumayer, the routine observatory programs started in 1981, at Koldewey in 1990, and on board of POLARSTERN in 1982. The observatory programs consist mainly of routine synoptic surface observations, daily upper-air soundings, as well as surface radiation and mast measurements. All data from these programs are stored in the Meteorological Information System at the Alfred-Wegener-Institute, called MISAWI. MISAWI is based on a relational database (Sybase) in a client server environment. A variety of data-validation procedures, triggers, views and external programs are implemented to optimize the data quality and data integrity. Several tools offer routine export functions for users without SQL-knowledge. Additionally, an interface to the World Wide Web gives anybody free and direct access to certain data subsets.

Ozone profiles in the high-latitude stratosphere and lower mesosphere measured by the Improved Limb Atmospheric Spectrometer (ILAS)-II: comparison with other satellite sensors and ozonesondes

A solar occultation sensor, the Improved Limb Atmospheric Spectrometer (ILAS)-II, measured 5890 vertical profiles of ozone concentrations in the stratosphere and lower mesosphere and of other species from January to October 2003. The measurement latitude coverage was 54–71°N and 64–88°S, which is similar to the coverage of ILAS (November 1996 to June 1997). One purpose of the ILAS-II measurements was to continue such high-latitude measurements of ozone and its related chemical species in order to help accurately determine their trends. The present paper assesses the quality of ozone data in the version 1.4 retrieval algorithm, through comparisons with results obtained from comprehensive ozonesonde measurements and four satellite-borne solar occultation sensors. In the Northern Hemisphere (NH), the ILAS-II ozone data agree with the other data within ±10% (in terms of the absolute difference divided by its mean value) at altitudes between 11 and 40 km, with the median coincident ILAS-II profiles being systematically up to 10% higher below 20 km and up to 10% lower between 21 and 40 km after screening possible suspicious retrievals. Above 41 km, the negative bias between the NH ILAS-II ozone data and the other data increases with increasing altitude and reaches 30% at 61–65 km. In the Southern Hemisphere, the ILAS-II ozone data agree with the other data within ±10% in the altitude range of 11–60 km, with the median coincident profiles being on average up to 10% higher below 20 km and up to 10% lower above 20 km. Considering the accuracy of the other data used for this comparative study, the version 1.4 ozone data are suitably used for quantitative analyses in the high-latitude stratosphere in both the Northern and Southern Hemisphere and in the lower mesosphere in the Southern Hemisphere.