Yvan J. Orsolini

Stratospheric effects of energetic particle precipitation in 2003-2004

Upper stratospheric enhancements in NOx (NO and NO2) were observed at high northern latitudes from March through at least July of 2004. Multi-satellite data analysis is used to examine the temporal evolution of the enhancements, to place them in historical context, and to investigate their origin. The enhancements were a factor of 4 higher than nominal at some locations, and are unprecedented in the northern hemisphere since at least 1985. They were accompanied by reductions in O-3 of more than 60% in some cases. The analysis suggests that energetic particle precipitation led to substantial NOx production in the upper atmosphere beginning with the remarkable solar storms in late October 2003 and possibly persisting through January. Downward transport of the excess NOx, facilitated by unique meteorological conditions in 2004 that led to an unusually strong upper stratospheric vortex from late January through March, caused the enhancements.

Autumn atmospheric response to the 2007 low Arctic sea ice extent in coupled ocean–atmosphere hindcasts

The autumn and early winter atmospheric response to the record-low Arctic sea ice extent at the end of summer 2007 is examined in ensemble hindcasts with prescribed sea ice extent, made with the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts state-of-the-art coupled ocean–atmosphere seasonal forecast model. Robust, warm anomalies over the Pacific and Siberian sectors of the Arctic, as high as 10°C at the surface, are found in October and November. A regime change occurs by December, characterized by weaker temperatures anomalies extending through the troposphere. Geopotential anomalies extend from the surface up to the stratosphere, associated to deeper Aleutian and Icelandic Lows. While the upper-level jet is weakened and shifted southward over the continents, it is intensified over both oceanic sectors, especially over the Pacific Ocean. On the American and Eurasian continents, intensified surface Highs are associated with anomalous advection of cold (warm) polar air on their eastern (western) sides, bringing cooler temperatures along the Pacific coast of Asia and Northeastern North America. Transient eddy activity is reduced over Eurasia, intensified over the entrance and exit regions of the Pacific and Atlantic storm tracks, in broad qualitative agreement with the upper-level wind anomalies. Potential predictability calculations indicate a strong influence of sea ice upon surface temperatures over the Arctic in autumn, but also along the Pacific coast of Asia in December. When the observed sea ice extent from 2007 is prescribed throughout the autumn, a higher correlation of surface temperatures with meteorological re-analyses is found at high latitudes from October until mid-November. This further emphasises the relevance of sea ice for seasonal forecasting in the Arctic region, in the autumn.

Descent from the polar mesosphere and anomalously high stratopause observed in 8 years of water vapor and temperature satellite observations by the Odin Sub-Millimeter Radiometer

Using newly analyzed mesospheric water vapor and temperature observations from the Sub-Millimeter Radiometer instrument aboard the Odin research satellite over the period 2001-2009, we present evidence for an anomalously strong descent of dry mesospheric air from the lower mesosphere into the upper stratosphere in the winters of 2004, 2006, and 2009. In the three cases, the descent follows the recovery of the upper stratospheric polar vortex from a major midwinter stratospheric sudden warming. It is also accompanied by the rapid formation of an anomalously warm polar mesospheric layer, i.e., an elevated polar stratopause, near 75 km, and its slower descent to prewarming level (near 1 hPa) over 1.5-2 months. These three winters stand out in the current record of Odin/Sub-Millimeter Radiometer observations started in July 2001.

Geographical Dependence Observed in Blocking High Influence on the Stratospheric Variability through Enhancement and Suppression of Upward Planetary-Wave Propagation

AbstractPrevious studies have suggested the importance of blocking high (BH) development for the occurrence of stratospheric sudden warming (SSW), while there is a recent study that failed to identify their statistical linkage. Through composite analysis applied to high-amplitude anticyclonic anomaly events observed around every grid point over the extratropical Northern Hemisphere, the present study reveals a distinct geographical dependence of BH influence on the upward propagation of planetary waves (PWs) into the stratosphere. Tropospheric BHs that develop over the Euro-Atlantic sector tend to enhance upward PW propagation, leading to the warming in the polar stratosphere and, in some cases, to major SSW events. In contrast, the upward PW propagation tends to be suppressed by BHs developing over the western Pacific and the Far East, resulting in the polar stratospheric cooling. This dependence is found to arise mainly from the sensitivity of the interference between the climatological PWs and upward-p...

The North Atlantic Oscillation and the occurrences of ozone miniholes

The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) induces a clear signature on synoptic-scale ozone fluctuations over the Euro-Atlantic sector, as revealed by a band-pass l- tering analysis of the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) satellite observations over a 20-year period. Low- ozone episodes, or miniholes, appear more frequent over the Euro-Atlantic sector in the high NAO phase, when the pre- vailing, upper tropospheric westerly jet is displaced pole- ward and acquires a stronger northward tilt relative to cli- matology. Thus, the tendency of the NAO to remain in its high phase in late eighties and nineties accounts for re- cent observations of more frequent minihole conditions and episodes of low-latitude, ozone-poor intrusions into high- latitude region of this sector.

Observations of gravity wave forcing of the mesopause region during the January 2013 major Sudden Stratospheric Warming

©2014. The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

Long-lived tracer patterns in the summer polar stratosphere

A three-dimensional off-line simulation of the transport of the long-lived source gas N2O in the summer stratosphere has been made with a global model. We found long-lived westward-propagating patterns resulting from the slow advection of coarsely-mixed structures of ex-vortex air and midlatitude air. The mixing of the air masses with these two different characteristics is a slow process that lasts from spring until late summer. In the regime of summer easterlies above 20 km, we found evidence of long-lived, “fossil” debris from the polar vortex even in August.

Arctic moisture source for Eurasian snow cover variations in autumn

Eurasian fall snow cover changes have been suggested as a driver for changes in the Arctic Oscillation and might provide a link between sea-ice decline in the Arctic during summer and atmospheric circulation in the following winter. However, the mechanism connecting snow cover in Eurasia to sea-ice decline in autumn is still under debate. Our analysis is based on snow observations from 820 Russian land stations, moisture transport using a Lagrangian approach derived from meteorological re-analyses. We show that declining sea-ice in the Barents and Kara Seas (BKS) acts as moisture source for the enhanced Western Siberian snow depth as a result of changed tropospheric moisture transport. Transient disturbances enter the continent from the BKS region related to anomalies in the planetary wave pattern and move southward along the Ural mountains where they merge into the extension of the Mediterranean storm track.

Observed Temperature Two-Day Wave and Its Relatives near the Stratopause

The two-day wave is observed in the Upper Atmosphere Research SatelliteMicrowave Limb Sounder temperature data around 40‐58 km. Between December 1991 and September 1994, the two-day wave temperature signature is most significant after each solstice when the derived easterly winds near the stratopause extend across the equator to at least 208 latitude in the winter hemisphere, and the zonal mean winds near the equator are inertially unstable with observed inertial instability disturbances. The observed two-day wave consists of a 2.0-day period zonal wavenumber-3 and a 1.8-day period zonal wavenumber-4 component, named (3, 2.0) and (4, 1.8), respectively. The (3, 2.0) component is dominant during two of the three available austral summers, but its amplitude is much weaker than the (4, 1.8) component during the two observed boreal summers. During the austral summers, correspondence between amplification of the two-day wave temperature signatures, regions of reversed potential vorticity gradient due to meridional curvature of the zonal mean flow, and the critical lines for the (3, 2.0) and (4, 1.8) modes suggest barotropic instability as a source of both wave components. Momentum redistribution by observed inertial instability appears to barotropically destabilize the equatorward flank of the easterly jet where the wave components subsequently grow. During the boreal summers, the (4, 1.8) component appears to be excited by instability that is associated with vertical shear and curvature of the flow seated above the observational domain. The boreal (3, 2.0) mode appears unrelated to the zonal flow instability within the observational domain and may reflect a normal-mode-like response during these periods.

Layering in stratospheric profiles of long‐lived trace species: Balloon‐borne observations and modeling

A series of balloon flights conducted in March 1993 from Aire-sur-Adour, in southern France, aimed at making in situ measurements of a variety of trace gases in the polar vortex during a dynamically active period. Meteorological analyses indicate that the balloons were launched when the vortex edge was passing aloft. These mid latitude balloon flights revealed coincident layering in long-lived tropospheric source gases such as nitrous oxide, methane and halocarbons as well as in ozone and water vapor. At low altitudes, well-resolved laminations appeared clearly in all these gases. A layer of mid latitude air, enriched in trace gases, was detected at the highest sampled level, near 15 mbar, inducing a pronounced reversal in the profiles of tropospheric source gases. Using global meteorological analyses, trace constituent data derived from the UARS observations and high-resolution advection models, fine-scale distributions of ozone, nitrous oxide, methane, and halocarbons have been constructed. The calculations show qualitatively how such profile reversal arises near 15 mbar, when a filament of air enriched in trace gases is drawn into the outer portion of the vortex. Very high resolution calculations furthermore provide reasonable quantitative agreement between predicted tracer mixing ratios and in situ balloon-borne measurements.