ALBERT

Description: The Southern Hemisphere Antarctic stratosphere experienced two noteworthy events in 2015: a significant injection of sulfur from the Calbuco volcanic eruption in Chile in April, and a record-large Antarctic ozone hole in October and November. Here, we quantify Calbuco's influence on stratospheric ozone depletion in austral spring 2015 using observations and an earth system model. We analyze ozonesondes, as well as data from the Microwave Limb Sounder. We employ the Community Earth System Model, version 1, with the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (CESM1(WACCM)) in a specified dynamics setup, which includes calculations of volcanic effects. The Cloud Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization data indicate enhanced volcanic liquid sulfate 532 nm backscatter values as far poleward as 68°S during October and November (in broad agreement with WACCM). Comparison of the location of the enhanced aerosols to ozone data supports the view that aerosols played a major role in increasing the ozone hole size, especially at pressure levels between 150 and 100 hPa. Ozonesonde vertical ozone profiles from the sites of Syowa, South Pole, and Neumayer, display the lowest individual October or November measurements at 150 hPa since the 1991 Mt. Pinatubo eruption period, with Davis showing similarly low values, but no available 1990s data. The analysis suggests that under the cold conditions ideal for ozone depletion, stratospheric volcanic aerosol particles from the moderate-magnitude eruption of Calbuco in 2015 greatly enhanced austral ozone depletion, particularly at 55–68°S, where liquid binary sulfate aerosols have a large influence on ozone concentrations.

Description: 〈jats:title〉Abstract〈/jats:title〉 〈jats:p〉—J. BLUNDEN, T. BOYER, AND E. BARTOW-GILLIES〈/jats:p〉 〈jats:p〉Earth’s global climate system is vast, complex, and intricately interrelated. Many areas are influenced by global-scale phenomena, including the “triple dip” La Niña conditions that prevailed in the eastern Pacific Ocean nearly continuously from mid-2020 through all of 2022; by regional phenomena such as the positive winter and summer North Atlantic Oscillation that impacted weather in parts the Northern Hemisphere and the negative Indian Ocean dipole that impacted weather in parts of the Southern Hemisphere; and by more localized systems such as high-pressure heat domes that caused extreme heat in different areas of the world. Underlying all these natural short-term variabilities are long-term climate trends due to continuous increases since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the atmospheric concentrations of Earth’s major greenhouse gases.〈/jats:p〉 〈jats:p〉In 2022, the annual global average carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere rose to 417.1±0.1 ppm, which is 50% greater than the pre-industrial level. Global mean tropospheric methane abundance was 165% higher than its pre-industrial level, and nitrous oxide was 24% higher. All three gases set new record-high atmospheric concentration levels in 2022.〈/jats:p〉 〈jats:p〉Sea-surface temperature patterns in the tropical Pacific characteristic of La Niña and attendant atmospheric patterns tend to mitigate atmospheric heat gain at the global scale, but the annual global surface temperature across land and oceans was still among the six highest in records dating as far back as the mid-1800s. It was the warmest La Niña year on record. Many areas observed record or near-record heat. Europe as a whole observed its second-warmest year on record, with sixteen individual countries observing record warmth at the national scale. Records were shattered across the continent during the summer months as heatwaves plagued the region. On 18 July, 104 stations in France broke their all-time records. One day later, England recorded a temperature of 40°C for the first time ever. China experienced its second-warmest year and warmest summer on record. In the Southern Hemisphere, the average temperature across New Zealand reached a record high for the second year in a row. While Australia’s annual temperature was slightly below the 1991–2020 average, Onslow Airport in Western Australia reached 50.7°C on 13 January, equaling Australia's highest temperature on record.〈/jats:p〉 〈jats:p〉While fewer in number and locations than record-high temperatures, record cold was also observed during the year. Southern Africa had its coldest August on record, with minimum temperatures as much as 5°C below normal over Angola, western Zambia, and northern Namibia. Cold outbreaks in the first half of December led to many record-low daily minimum temperature records in eastern Australia.〈/jats:p〉 〈jats:p〉The effects of rising temperatures and extreme heat were apparent across the Northern Hemisphere, where snow-cover extent by June 2022 was the third smallest in the 56-year record, and the seasonal duration of lake ice cover was the fourth shortest since 1980. More frequent and intense heatwaves contributed to the second-greatest average mass balance loss for Alpine glaciers around the world since the start of the record in 1970. Glaciers in the Swiss Alps lost a record 6% of their volume. In South America, the combination of drought and heat left many central Andean glaciers snow free by mid-summer in early 2022; glacial ice has a much lower albedo than snow, leading to accelerated heating of the glacier. Across the global cryosphere, permafrost temperatures continued to reach record highs at many high-latitude and mountain locations.〈/jats:p〉 〈jats:p〉In the high northern latitudes, the annual surface-air temperature across the Arctic was the fifth highest in the 123-year record. The seasonal Arctic minimum sea-ice extent, typically reached in September, was the 11th-smallest in the 43-year record; however, the amount of multiyear ice—ice that survives at least one summer melt season—remaining in the Arctic continued to decline. Since 2012, the Arctic has been nearly devoid of ice more than four years old.〈/jats:p〉 〈jats:p〉In Antarctica, an unusually large amount of snow and ice fell over the continent in 2022 due to several landfalling atmospheric rivers, which contributed to the highest annual surface mass balance, 15% to 16% above the 1991–2020 normal, since the start of two reanalyses records dating to 1980. It was the second-warmest year on record for all five of the long-term staffed weather stations on the Antarctic Peninsula. In East Antarctica, a heatwave event led to a new all-time record-high temperature of −9.4°C—44°C above the March average—on 18 March at Dome C. This was followed by the collapse of the critically unstable Conger Ice Shelf. More than 100 daily low sea-ice extent and sea-ice area records were set in 2022, including two new all-time annual record lows in net sea-ice extent and area in February.〈/jats:p〉 〈jats:p〉Across the world’s oceans, global mean sea level was record high for the 11th consecutive year, reaching 101.2 mm above the 1993 average when satellite altimetry measurements began, an increase of 3.3±0.7 over 2021. Globally-averaged ocean heat content was also record high in 2022, while the global sea-surface temperature was the sixth highest on record, equal with 2018. Approximately 58% of the ocean surface experienced at least one marine heatwave in 2022. In the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand’s longest continuous marine heatwave was recorded.〈/jats:p〉 〈jats:p〉A total of 85 named tropical storms were observed during the Northern and Southern Hemisphere storm seasons, close to the 1991–2020 average of 87. There were three Category 5 tropical cyclones across the globe—two in the western North Pacific and one in the North Atlantic. This was the fewest Category 5 storms globally since 2017. Globally, the accumulated cyclone energy was the lowest since reliable records began in 1981. Regardless, some storms caused massive damage. In the North Atlantic, Hurricane Fiona became the most intense and most destructive tropical or post-tropical cyclone in Atlantic Canada’s history, while major Hurricane Ian killed more than 100 people and became the third costliest disaster in the United States, causing damage estimated at $113 billion U.S. dollars. In the South Indian Ocean, Tropical Cyclone Batsirai dropped 2044 mm of rain at Commerson Crater in Réunion. The storm also impacted Madagascar, where 121 fatalities were reported.〈/jats:p〉 〈jats:p〉As is typical, some areas around the world were notably dry in 2022 and some were notably wet. In August, record high areas of land across the globe (6.2%) were experiencing extreme drought. Overall, 29% of land experienced moderate or worse categories of drought during the year. The largest drought footprint in the contiguous United States since 2012 (63%) was observed in late October. The record-breaking megadrought of central Chile continued in its 13th consecutive year, and 80-year record-low river levels in northern Argentina and Paraguay disrupted fluvial transport. In China, the Yangtze River reached record-low values. Much of equatorial eastern Africa had five consecutive below-normal rainy seasons by the end of 2022, with some areas receiving record-low precipitation totals for the year. This ongoing 2.5-year drought is the most extensive and persistent drought event in decades, and led to crop failure, millions of livestock deaths, water scarcity, and inflated prices for staple food items.〈/jats:p〉 〈jats:p〉In South Asia, Pakistan received around three times its normal volume of monsoon precipitation in August, with some regions receiving up to eight times their expected monthly totals. Resulting floods affected over 30 million people, caused over 1700 fatalities, led to major crop and property losses, and was recorded as one of the world’s costliest natural disasters of all time. Near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Petrópolis received 530 mm in 24 hours on 15 February, about 2.5 times the monthly February average, leading to the worst disaster in the city since 1931 with over 230 fatalities.〈/jats:p〉 〈jats:p〉On 14–15 January, the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai submarine volcano in the South Pacific erupted multiple times. The injection of water into the atmosphere was unprecedented in both magnitude—far exceeding any previous values in the 17-year satellite record—and altitude as it penetrated into the mesosphere. The amount of water injected into the stratosphere is estimated to be 146±5 Terragrams, or ∼10% of the total amount in the stratosphere. It may take several years for the water plume to dissipate, and it is currently unknown whether this eruption will have any long-term climate effect.〈/jats:p〉

Description: Data products from the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) on board Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) were recently updated following the implementation of new (version 4) calibration algorithms for all of the Level 1 attenuated backscatter measurements. In this work we present the motivation for and the implementation of the version 4 nighttime 532 nm parallel channel calibration. The nighttime 532 nm calibration is the most fundamental calibration of CALIOP data, since all of CALIOP's other radiometric calibration procedures – i.e., the 532 nm daytime calibration and the 1064 nm calibrations during both nighttime and daytime – depend either directly or indirectly on the 532 nm nighttime calibration. The accuracy of the 532 nm nighttime calibration has been significantly improved by raising the molecular normalization altitude from 30–34 km to the upper possible signal acquisition range of 36–39 km to substantially reduce stratospheric aerosol contamination. Due to the greatly reduced molecular number density and consequently reduced signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at these higher altitudes, the signal is now averaged over a larger number of samples using data from multiple adjacent granules. Additionally, an enhanced strategy for filtering the radiation-induced noise from high-energy particles was adopted. Further, the meteorological model used in the earlier versions has been replaced by the improved Modern-Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications, Version 2 (MERRA-2), model. An aerosol scattering ratio of 1.01±0.01 is now explicitly used for the calibration altitude. These modifications lead to globally revised calibration coefficients which are, on average, 2–3 % lower than in previous data releases. Further, the new calibration procedure is shown to eliminate biases at high altitudes that were present in earlier versions and consequently leads to an improved representation of stratospheric aerosols. Validation results using airborne lidar measurements are also presented. Biases relative to collocated measurements acquired by the Langley Research Center (LaRC) airborne High Spectral Resolution Lidar (HSRL) are reduced from 3.6 %±2.2 % in the version 3 data set to 1.6 %±2.4 % in the version 4 release.

Description: After 43 years of inactivity, the Calbuco volcano, which is located in the southern part of Chile, erupted on 22 April 2015. The space–time evolutions (distribution and transport) of its aerosol plume are investigated by combining satellite (CALIOP, IASI, OMPS), in situ aerosol counting (LOAC OPC) and lidar observations, and the MIMOSA advection model. The Calbuco aerosol plume reached the Indian Ocean 1 week after the eruption. Over the Reunion Island site (21° S, 55.5° E), the aerosol signal was unambiguously enhanced in comparison with background conditions, with a volcanic aerosol layer extending from 18 to 21 km during the May–July period. All the data reveal an increase by a factor of  ∼  2 in the SAOD (stratospheric aerosol optical depth) with respect to values observed before the eruption. The aerosol mass e-folding time is approximately 90 days, which is rather close to the value ( ∼  80 days) reported for the Sarychev eruption. Microphysical measurements obtained before, during, and after the eruption reflecting the impact of the Calbuco eruption on the lower stratospheric aerosol content have been analyzed over the Reunion Island site. During the passage of the plume, the volcanic aerosol was characterized by an effective radius of 0.16 ± 0.02 µm with a unimodal size distribution for particles above 0.2 µm in diameter. Particle concentrations for sizes larger than 1 µm are too low to be properly detected by the LOAC OPC. The aerosol number concentration was  ∼  20 times higher that observed before and 1 year after the eruption. According to OMPS and lidar observations, a tendency toward conditions before the eruption was observed by April 2016. The volcanic aerosol plume is advected eastward in the Southern Hemisphere and its latitudinal extent is clearly bounded by the subtropical barrier and the polar vortex. The transient behavior of the aerosol layers observed above Reunion Island between May and July 2015 reflects an inhomogeneous spatio-temporal distribution of the plume, which is controlled by the localization of these dynamical barriers.

Description: The article presents new high-quality continuous stratospheric aerosol observations spanning 1994–2015 at the French Observatoire de Haute-Provence (OHP, 44° N, 6° E) obtained by two independent, regularly maintained lidar systems operating within the Network for Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC). Lidar series are compared with global-coverage observations by Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE II), Global Ozone Monitoring by Occultation of Stars (GOMOS), Optical Spectrograph and InfraRed Imaging System (OSIRIS), Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP), and Ozone Mapping Profiling Suite (OMPS) satellite instruments, altogether covering the time span of OHP lidar measurements. Local OHP and zonal-mean satellite series of stratospheric aerosol optical depth are in excellent agreement, allowing for accurate characterization of stratospheric aerosol evolution and variability at northern midlatitudes during the last 2 decades. The combination of local and global observations is used for a careful separation between volcanically perturbed and quiescent periods. While the volcanic signatures dominate the stratospheric aerosol record, the background aerosol abundance is found to be modulated remotely by the poleward transport of convectively cleansed air from the deep tropics and aerosol-laden air from the Asian monsoon region. The annual cycle of background aerosol at midlatitudes, featuring a minimum during late spring and a maximum during late summer, correlates with that of water vapor from the Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS). Observations covering two volcanically quiescent periods over the last 2 decades provide an indication of a growth in the nonvolcanic component of stratospheric aerosol. A statistically significant factor of 2 increase in nonvolcanic aerosol since 1998, seasonally restricted to late summer and fall, is associated with the influence of the Asian monsoon and growing pollution therein.

Description: We report here on measurements of relatively large (up to ≃5-μm maximum dimension) particles detected in the tropical western Pacific lower stratosphere. The particles were observed at low relative humidities and contain no detectable ice mass. We conclude that these particles are silicate ash injected by the Mount Kelud eruption in Indonesia a few weeks prior to the aircraft observations. The Kelud ash particles were detected by cloud probes on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Global Hawk between the lapse rate tropopause (≃16.5 km) and the aircraft ceiling (18.5 km). The ash particles detected in the lowermost stratosphere by the aircraft extended well into the northern subtropics. The concentration of ash particles dropped off rapidly below the lapse rate tropopause, presumably because of rapid removal by ice nucleation scavenging. Although ash particles are very effective ice nuclei, the low particle concentrations detected in the upper troposphere precludes a significant impact on cirrus clouds. ©2018. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. This article has been contributed to by US Government employees and their work is in the public domain in the USA.

Description: We describe the construction of a continuous 38-year record of stratospheric aerosol optical properties. The Global Space-based Stratospheric Aerosol Climatology, or GloSSAC, provided the input data to the construction of the Climate Model Intercomparison Project stratospheric aerosol forcing data set (1979 to 2014) and we have extended it through 2016 following an identical process. GloSSAC focuses on the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) series of instruments through mid-2005 and on the Optical Spectrograph and InfraRed Imager System (OSIRIS) and the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) data thereafter. We also use data from other space instruments and from ground-based, air and balloon borne instruments to fill in key gaps in the data set. The end result is a global and gap-free data set focused on aerosol extinction coefficient at 525 and 1020 nm and other parameters on an as available basis. For the primary data sets, we developed a new method for filling the post-Pinatubo eruption data gap for 1991 to 1993 based on data from the Cryogenic Limb Array Etalon Spectrometer. In addition, we developed a new method for populating wintertime high latitudes during the SAGE period employing a latitude-equivalent latitude conversion process that greatly improves the depiction of aerosol at high latitudes compared to earlier similar efforts. We report data in the troposphere only when and where it is available. This is primarily during the SAGE II period except the most enhanced part of the Pinatubo period. It is likely that the upper troposphere during Pinatubo was greatly enhanced over non-volcanic periods and that domain remains substantially under characterized. We note that aerosol levels during the OSIRIS/CALIPSO period in the lower stratosphere at mid and high latitudes is routinely higher than what we observed during the SAGE II period. While this period had nearly continuous low-level volcanic activity, it is possible that the enhancement in part reflects deficiencies in the data set. We also expended substantial effort to quality assess the data set and the product is by far the best we have produced. GloSSAC version 1.0 is available in netCDF format at the NASA Atmospheric Data Center at https://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/. GloSSAC users should cite this paper and the data set DOI (10.5067/GloSSAC-L3-V1.0).