Susanne Rohs

Tropopause and hygropause variability over the equatorial Indian Ocean during February and March 1999

Measurements of temperature, water vapor, total water, ozone, and cloud properties were made above the western equatorial Indian Ocean in February and March 1999. The cold-point tropopause was at a mean pressure-altitude of 17 km, equivalent to a potential temperature of 380 K, and had a mean temperature of 190 K. Total water mixing ratios at the hygropause varied between 1.4 and 4.1 ppmv. The mean saturation water vapor mixing ratio at the cold point was 3.0 ppmv. This does not accurately represent the mean of the measured total water mixing ratios because the air was unsaturated at the cold point for about 40% of the measurements. As well as unsaturation at the cold point, saturation was observed above the cold point on almost 30% of the profiles. In such profiles the air was saturated with respect to water ice but was free of clouds (i.e., backscatter ratio <2) at potential temperatures more than 5 K above the tropopause and hygropause. Individual profiles show a great deal of variability in the potential temperatures of the cold point and hygropause. We attribute this to short timescale and space-scale perturbations superimposed on the seasonal cycle. There is neither a clear and consistent “setting” of the tropopause and hygropause to the same altitude by dehydration processes nor a clear and consistent separation of tropopause and hygropause by the Brewer-Dobson circulation. Similarly, neither the tropopause nor the hygropause provides a location where conditions consistently approach those implied by a simple “tropopause freeze drying” or “stratospheric fountain” hypothesis.

Quality assessment of MOZAIC and IAGOS capacitive hygrometers: insights from airborne field studies

In 2011, the MOZAIC (Measurement of Ozone by AIRBUS In-Service Aircraft) successor programme IAGOS (In-service Aircraft for a Global Observing System) started to equip their long-haul passenger aircraft with the modified capacitive hygrometer Vaisala HUMICAP® of type H. The assurance of the data quality and the consistency of the data set during the transition from MOZAIC Capacitive Hygrometers to IAGOS Capacitive Hygrometers were evaluated within the CIRRUS-III and AIRTOSS-ICE field studies. During these performance tests, the capacitive hygrometers were operated aboard a Learjet 35A aircraft together with a closed-cell Lyman-α fluorescence hygrometer, an open-path tunable diode laser (TDL) system and a closed-cell, direct TDL absorption hygrometer for water vapour measurement. For MOZAIC-typical operation conditions, the comparison of relative humidity (RH) data from the capacitive hygrometers and reference instruments yielded remarkably good agreement with an uncertainty of 5% RH. The temperature dependence of the sensors response time was derived from the cross-correlation of capacitive hygrometer data and smoothed data from the fast-responding reference instruments. The resulting exponential moving average function could explain the major part of the observed deviations between the capacitive hygrometers and the reference instruments.

Do Galactic Cosmic Rays Impact the Cirrus Cloud Cover

Atmospheric ions produced through solar-modulated galactic cosmic rays can promote both the nucleation and the growth of aerosols. The potential impact on the cloud cover is subject of current debates. The CAWSES project SAGACITY (SAtellite and model studies of GAlactic cosmic rays and Clouds modulated by solar activITY) focuses on the statistical analysis of this link, using MIPAS-E satellite data. The extinction data, the cloud occurrence frequency, and the cloud index data from MIPAS-E are correlated with the data from the Climax neutron monitor. A superposed epoch analysis of 6 selected Forbush decrease events yields several weak but statistically significant correlations with an excess of positive cloud-GCR correlations. The impact of a 15 % increase in the Climax neutron monitor data is estimated to result in a small decrease in cloud index (corresponding to an increase in cloud opacity) which is most pronounced at 9 km altitude (−9 % to +0.5 %).