ALBERT

Description: Author Posting. © American Meteorological Society, 2015. This article is posted here by permission of American Meteorological Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society 96 (2015): 1257–1279, doi:10.1175/BAMS-D-14-00015.1.

Description: Lateral stirring is a basic oceanographic phenomenon affecting the distribution of physical, chemical, and biological fields. Eddy stirring at scales on the order of 100 km (the mesoscale) is fairly well understood and explicitly represented in modern eddy-resolving numerical models of global ocean circulation. The same cannot be said for smaller-scale stirring processes. Here, the authors describe a major oceanographic field experiment aimed at observing and understanding the processes responsible for stirring at scales of 0.1–10 km. Stirring processes of varying intensity were studied in the Sargasso Sea eddy field approximately 250 km southeast of Cape Hatteras. Lateral variability of water-mass properties, the distribution of microscale turbulence, and the evolution of several patches of inert dye were studied with an array of shipboard, autonomous, and airborne instruments. Observations were made at two sites, characterized by weak and moderate background mesoscale straining, to contrast different regimes of lateral stirring. Analyses to date suggest that, in both cases, the lateral dispersion of natural and deliberately released tracers was O(1) m2 s–1 as found elsewhere, which is faster than might be expected from traditional shear dispersion by persistent mesoscale flow and linear internal waves. These findings point to the possible importance of kilometer-scale stirring by submesoscale eddies and nonlinear internal-wave processes or the need to modify the traditional shear-dispersion paradigm to include higher-order effects. A unique aspect of the Scalable Lateral Mixing and Coherent Turbulence (LatMix) field experiment is the combination of direct measurements of dye dispersion with the concurrent multiscale hydrographic and turbulence observations, enabling evaluation of the underlying mechanisms responsible for the observed dispersion at a new level.

Description: The bulk of this work was funded under the Scalable Lateral Mixing and Coherent Turbulence Departmental Research Initiative and the Physical Oceanography Program. The dye experiments were supported jointly by the Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation Physical Oceanography Program (Grants OCE-0751653 and OCE-0751734).

Description: 2016-02-01

Description: Air quality and heat are strong health drivers, and their accurate assessment and forecast are important in densely populated urban areas. However, the sources and processes leading to high concentrations of main pollutants, such as ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and fine and coarse particulate matter, in complex urban areas are not fully understood, limiting our ability to forecast air quality accurately. This paper introduces the Clean Air for London (ClearfLo; www.clearflo.ac.uk) project’s interdisciplinary approach to investigate the processes leading to poor air quality and elevated temperatures. Within ClearfLo, a large multi-institutional project funded by the U.K. Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), integrated measurements of meteorology and gaseous, and particulate composition/loading within the atmosphere of London, United Kingdom, were undertaken to understand the processes underlying poor air quality. Long-term measurement infrastructure installed at multiple levels (street and elevated), and at urban background, curbside, and rural locations were complemented with high-resolution numerical atmospheric simulations. Combining these (measurement–modeling) enhances understanding of seasonal variations in meteorology and composition together with the controlling processes. Two intensive observation periods (winter 2012 and the Summer Olympics of 2012) focus upon the vertical structure and evolution of the urban boundary layer; chemical controls on nitrogen dioxide and ozone production—in particular, the role of volatile organic compounds; and processes controlling the evolution, size, distribution, and composition of particulate matter. The paper shows that mixing heights are deeper over London than in the rural surroundings and that the seasonality of the urban boundary layer evolution controls when concentrations peak. The composition also reflects the seasonality of sources such as domestic burning and biogenic emissions.

Description: Emerging application areas such as air pollution in megacities, wind energy, urban security, and operation of unmanned aerial vehicles have intensified scientific and societal interest in mountain meteorology. To address scientific needs and help improve the prediction of mountain weather, the U.S. Department of Defense has funded a research effort—the Mountain Terrain Atmospheric Modeling and Observations (MATERHORN) Program—that draws the expertise of a multidisciplinary, multi-institutional, and multinational group of researchers. The program has four principal thrusts, encompassing modeling, experimental, technology, and parameterization components, directed at diagnosing model deficiencies and critical knowledge gaps, conducting experimental studies, and developing tools for model improvements. The access to the Granite Mountain Atmospheric Sciences Testbed of the U.S. Army Dugway Proving Ground, as well as to a suite of conventional and novel high-end airborne and surface measurement platforms, has provided an unprecedented opportunity to investigate phenomena of time scales from a few seconds to a few days, covering spatial extents of tens of kilometers down to millimeters. This article provides an overview of the MATERHORN and a glimpse at its initial findings. Orographic forcing creates a multitude of time-dependent submesoscale phenomena that contribute to the variability of mountain weather at mesoscale. The nexus of predictions by mesoscale model ensembles and observations are described, identifying opportunities for further improvements in mountain weather forecasting.

Description: The Convective Transport of Active Species in the Tropics (CONTRAST) experiment was conducted from Guam (13.5°N, 144.8°E) during January–February 2014. Using the NSF/NCAR Gulfstream V research aircraft, the experiment investigated the photochemical environment over the tropical western Pacific (TWP) warm pool, a region of massive deep convection and the major pathway for air to enter the stratosphere during Northern Hemisphere (NH) winter. The new observations provide a wealth of information for quantifying the influence of convection on the vertical distributions of active species. The airborne in situ measurements up to 15-km altitude fill a significant gap by characterizing the abundance and altitude variation of a wide suite of trace gases. These measurements, together with observations of dynamical and microphysical parameters, provide significant new data for constraining and evaluating global chemistry–climate models. Measurements include precursor and product gas species of reactive halogen compounds that impact ozone in the upper troposphere/lower stratosphere. High-accuracy, in situ measurements of ozone obtained during CONTRAST quantify ozone concentration profiles in the upper troposphere, where previous observations from balloonborne ozonesondes were often near or below the limit of detection. CONTRAST was one of the three coordinated experiments to observe the TWP during January–February 2014. Together, CONTRAST, Airborne Tropical Tropopause Experiment (ATTREX), and Coordinated Airborne Studies in the Tropics (CAST), using complementary capabilities of the three aircraft platforms as well as ground-based instrumentation, provide a comprehensive quantification of the regional distribution and vertical structure of natural and pollutant trace gases in the TWP during NH winter, from the oceanic boundary to the lower stratosphere.

Description: Precipitation over the southwestern United States exhibits distinctive seasonality, and contrasting ocean–atmospheric dynamics are involved in the interannual variability of cool- and warm-season totals. Tree-ring chronologies based on annual-ring widths of conifers in the southwestern United States are well correlated with accumulated precipitation and have previously been used to reconstruct cool-season and annual precipitation totals. However, annual-ring-width chronologies cannot typically be used to derive a specific record of summer monsoon-season precipitation. Some southwestern conifers exhibit a clear anatomical transition from the earlywood and latewood components of the annual ring, and these exactly dated subannual ring components can be measured separately and used as unique proxies of cool- and warm-season precipitation and their associated large-scale ocean–atmospheric dynamics. Two 2139-yr-long reconstructions of cool- (November–May) and early-warm season (July) precipitation have been developed from ancient conifers and relict wood at El Malpais National Monument, New Mexico. Both reconstructions have been verified on independent precipitation data and reproduce the spatial correlation patterns detected in the large-scale SST and 500-mb height fields using instrumental precipitation data from New Mexico. Above-average precipitation in the cool-season reconstruction is related to El Niño conditions and to the positive phase of the Pacific decadal oscillation. Above-average precipitation in July is related to the onset of the North American monsoon over New Mexico and with anomalies in the 500-mb height field favoring moisture advection into the Southwest from the North Pacific, the Gulf of California, and the Gulf of Mexico. Cool- and warm-season precipitation totals are not correlated on an interannual basis in the 74-yr instrumental or 2139-yr reconstructed records, but wet winter–spring extremes tend to be followed by dry conditions in July and very dry winters tend to be followed by wet Julys in the reconstructions. This antiphasing of extremes could arise from the hypothesized cool- to early-warm-season change in the sign of large-scale ocean–atmospheric forcing of southwestern precipitation, from the negative land surface feedback hypothesis in which winter–spring precipitation and snow cover reduce surface warming and delay the onset of the monsoon, or perhaps from an interaction of both large-scale and regional forcing. Episodes of simultaneous interseasonal drought (“perfect” interseasonal drought) persisted for a decade or more during the 1950s drought of the instrumental era and during the eighth- and sixteenth-century droughts, which appear to have been two of the most profound droughts over the Southwest in the past 1400 yr. Simultaneous interseasonal drought is doubly detrimental to dry-land crop yields and is estimated to have occurred during the mid-seventeenth-century famines of colonial New Mexico but was less frequent during the late-thirteenth-century Great Drought among the Anasazi, which was most severe during the cool season.

Description: Background: Bortezomib (Bz, VELCADE®) is a novel proteasome inhibitor that has demonstrated efficacy and safety in patients (pts) with relapsed and/or refractory multiple myeloma (MM) in clinical trials. In a large randomized phase 3 trial, Bz achieved superior response rates (RR), TTP, and survival compared with high-dose dexamethasone in relapsed MM pts after 1–3 prior therapies. Peripheral neuropathy (PN) has been dose limiting, especially in pts with pre-existing PN. The objective of this multicenter phase 2 trial was to evaluate the activity and safety of Bz as monotherapy in previously untreated MM pts and prospectively examine PN at baseline (BL) and across treatment. Methods: Pts received Bz 1.3 mg/m2 on d 1, 4, 8, 11 of a 21-d cycle, with RR (CR + PR; EBMT) assessed every 2 cycles. Eligible pts had symptomatic MM with measurable disease and no prior chemotherapy. Concomitant steroids (〉 10 mg/d), plt count 〈 30 x 109/L within 14 d of enrollment or 〉 grade (G) 2 PN were exclusion criteria. RR, TTP, safety and incidence/severity of PN were evaluated. The effect on PN of dose modification (DM) and supplements with specified interventions for symptoms was assessed. Neurologic evaluation involving a pt questionnaire and neurologist’s exam was performed before and after treatment. A 33 pt subset had BL nerve conduction studies (NCS), quantitative sensory testing (QST), autonomic testing, and skin biopsy for quantitation of small-diameter neurite densities (ND). Toxicities were assessed by NCI-CTC, v3.0. Results: 63 pts (median age 60 y) have been treated. Data are available for 50 pts; 27 pts had IgG kappa MM and 21 pts had stage III disease. BL small-fiber neuropathy (SFN; normal NCS but abnormal QST or autonomic studies) was seen in 16/33 pts (48%). BL skin biopsy showed that 18/30 pts (60%) had small-fiber ND at the 15th percentile of age-adjusted norms; global mean density was at the 23rd percentile. NCS revealed BL axonal PN in 3/33 pts (9%). Among 46 pts evaluable for response, best response after ≥ 2 cycles was CR in 5 pts (11%) and PR in 9 pts (20%) for a RR of 30%. 13 pts (28%) achieved MR, 17 (37%) had SD, and 2 had PD (4%). The most common adverse events were PN, fatigue and rash. 24 pts (48%) developed PN, including 18 with G1 and 5 with G2. One pt had G3 PN and was discontinued. DM (dose reduction or discontinuation) was required in 9 pts. 23 pts have been studied after treatment. New large-fiber neuropathy (LFN) was seen in 4/23 pts (17%) and new SFN in 8 pts. Of 3 pts with BL LFN, 1 was not restudied, 1 had worsening SFN and 1 was unchanged. Small-fiber neurite counts were increased to the 35th percentile. Of 16 pts with BL SFN, 7 had worsening SFN (by QST). Bz was otherwise generally well tolerated. Conclusion: Bz as monotherapy has shown activity in newly diagnosed MM pts, with a CR of 11% and manageable toxicity. Underlying SFN appears more common in MM than appreciated. Treatment-emergent ≥ G2 PN was observed in 12% of pts and was G3 in 1 pt. Assessment of PN, the effect of interventions and skin biopsy analyses are ongoing.

Description: The Iceland Greenland Seas Project (IGP) is a coordinated atmosphere–ocean research program investigating climate processes in the source region of the densest waters of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation. During February and March 2018, a field campaign was executed over the Iceland and southern Greenland Seas that utilized a range of observing platforms to investigate critical processes in the region, including a research vessel, a research aircraft, moorings, sea gliders, floats, and a meteorological buoy. A remarkable feature of the field campaign was the highly coordinated deployment of the observing platforms, whereby the research vessel and aircraft tracks were planned in concert to allow simultaneous sampling of the atmosphere, the ocean, and their interactions. This joint planning was supported by tailor-made convection-permitting weather forecasts and novel diagnostics from an ensemble prediction system. The scientific aims of the IGP are to characterize the atmospheric forcing and the ocean response of coupled processes; in particular, cold-air outbreaks in the vicinity of the marginal ice zone and their triggering of oceanic heat loss, and the role of freshwater in the generation of dense water masses. The campaign observed the life cycle of a long-lasting cold-air outbreak over the Iceland Sea and the development of a cold-air outbreak over the Greenland Sea. Repeated profiling revealed the immediate impact on the ocean, while a comprehensive hydrographic survey provided a rare picture of these subpolar seas in winter. A joint atmosphere–ocean approach is also being used in the analysis phase, with coupled observational analysis and coordinated numerical modeling activities underway.

Description: The development of a daily historical European–North Atlantic mean sea level pressure dataset (EMSLP) for 1850–2003 on a 5° latitude by longitude grid is described. This product was produced using 86 continental and island stations distributed over the region 25°–70°N, 70°W–50°E blended with marine data from the International Comprehensive Ocean–Atmosphere Data Set (ICOADS). The EMSLP fields for 1850–80 are based purely on the land station data and ship observations. From 1881, the blended land and marine fields are combined with already available daily Northern Hemisphere fields. Complete coverage is obtained by employing reduced space optimal interpolation. Squared correlations (r 2) indicate that EMSLP generally captures 80%–90% of daily variability represented in an existing historical mean sea level pressure product and over 90% in modern 40-yr European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts Re-Analyses (ERA-40) over most of the region. A lack of sufficient observations over Greenland and the Middle East, however, has resulted in poorer reconstructions there. Error estimates, produced as part of the reconstruction technique, flag these as regions of low confidence. It is shown that the EMSLP daily fields and associated error estimates provide a unique opportunity to examine the circulation patterns associated with extreme events across the European–North Atlantic region, such as the 2003 heat wave, in the context of historical events.