ALBERT

Description: [1]  Thirty years of balloon-borne measurements over Boulder (40 ∘ N, 105 ∘ W) are used to investigate the water vapor trend in the tropopause region. This analysis extends previously published trends, usually focusing on altitudes greater than 16km, to lower altitudes. Two new concepts are applied: 1) Trends are presented in a thermal tropopause (TP) relative coordinate system from − 2km below to 10km above the TP. 2) Sonde profiles are selected according to TP height. Tropical (TP z  〉 14km), extratropical (TP z  〈 12km), and transitional air mass types (12km 〈 TP z  〈 14km), reveal three different water vapor reservoirs. The analysis based on these concepts reduces the dynamically–induced water vapor variability at the TP and principally favors refined water vapor trend studies in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. Nonetheless, this study showshow uncertain trends are at altitudes −2 to + 4km around the TP. This uncertainty in turn has an influence on the uncertainty and interpretation of water vapor radiative effects at the TP, which are locally estimated for the 30 year period to be of uncertain sign. The much discussed decrease in water vapor at the beginning of 2001 is not detectable between −2 to 2km around the TP. On lower stratospheric isentropes, the water vapor change at the beginning of 2001 is more intense for extratropical than for tropical air mass types. This suggests a possible link with changing dynamics above the jet stream such as changes in the shallow branch of the Brewer–Dobson circulation.

Description: [1]  Observations of SF 6 are used to quantify the mean time since air was in (“mean age” from) the northern hemisphere (NH) mid-latitude surface layer. The mean age is a fundamental property of tropospheric transport that can be used in theoretical studies and used to evaluate transport in comprehensive models. Comparisons of simulated SF 6 and an idealized clock tracer confirm that the time lag between the SF 6 mixing ratio at a given location and the NH mid-latitude surface provides an accurate estimate of the mean age. The ages calculated from surface SF 6 measurements show large meridional gradients in the tropics but weak gradients in the extratropics, with near zero ages at the surface north of 30 o N and ages around 1.4 yr south of 30 o S. Aircraft measurements show weak vertical age gradients in the lower-middle troposphere, with only slight increases of age with height in the NH and slight decreases with height in the SH. There are large seasonal variations in the age at tropical stations (annual amplitudes around 0.5-1.0 yr), with younger ages during northern winter, but only weak seasonal variations at higher latitudes. The seasonality and interannual variations in the tropics and southern hemisphere are related to changes in locations of tropical convection. There is qualitative agreement, in both spatial and temporal variations, between the simulated ages and observations. The model ages tend to be older than observed, with differences of ~0.2 yr in the northern hemisphere upper troposphere and throughout the southern hemisphere troposphere.

Description: [1]  We analyse the relation between atmospheric temperature and water vapor - a fundamental component of the global climate system - for stratospheric water vapor (SWV). We compare measurements of SWV (and methane where available) over the period 1980–2011 from NOAA-FPH, SAGE II, HALOE, MLS/Aura, and ACE-FTS to model predictions based on troposphere-to-stratosphere transport from ERA-Interim, and temperatures from ERA-Interim, MERRA, CFSR, RATPAC, HadAT2 and RICHv1.5. All model predictions are dry biased. The interannual anomalies of the model predictions show periods of fairly regular oscillations, alternating with more quiescent periods and a few large-amplitude oscillations. They all agree well (correlation coefficients 0.9 and larger) with observations for higher-frequency variations (periods up to 2–3 years). Differences between SWV observations, and temperature data, respectively, render analysis of the model minus observation residual difficult. However, we find fairly well-defined periods of drifts in the residuals. For the 1980's model predictions differ most, and only the calculation with ERA-Interim temperatures is roughly within observational uncertainties. All model predictions show a drying relative to HALOE in the 1990's, followed by a moistening in the early 2000's. Drifts to NOAA-FPH are similar (but stronger), whereas no drift is present against SAGE II. As a result, the model calculations have a less pronounced drop in SWV in 2000 than HALOE. From the mid-2000's onwards, models and observations agree reasonably, and some differences can be traced to problems in the temperature data. These results indicate that both SWV and temperature data may still suffer from artefacts that need to be resolved in order to answer the question whether the large-scale flow and temperature field is sufficient to explain water entering the stratosphere.

Description: Mount Telout, situated at the edge of the Murzuq Basin, is a 325 m high conical hill within a circular collapse structure that records 0·5 km 3 of sand intrusion into Silurian shales. Based on a comparison with other similar circular collapse structures around the Murzuq Basin, it is argued that sand injection in the form of pipes occurred during the Devonian. The overpressures triggering the process are inferred to result from a combination of: (i) tectonic uplift at a basin scale that initially focused regional ground water flows; and (ii) igneous intrusion within the sand-rich Cambrian–Ordovician strata. The palaeorelief buried under the regionally extensive Silurian shales may have locally focused overpressures and localized sand injection at the 1 to 10 km scale. The Mount Telout injected sandbody and related features offer exceptional, seismic-scale outcrop analogues for sand injections that are often identified in seismic reflection data. Large-scale sand injections might be essential in petroleum exploration of the North African Lower Palaeozoic basins as they form seal-bypass systems.

Description: [1]  We present measurements from the Water Vapor Millimeter-wave Spectrometer (WVMS) instruments at Table Mountain, California (34.4°N, 242.3°E), and Mauna Loa, Hawaii (19.5°N, 204.4°E), and highlight the extended altitude range of the measurements at these sites, which now provide measurements down to 26 km. We show that this extended altitude range has been acquired without disturbing the existing long-term WVMS data set at Mauna Loa. Validation of the successful transition is provided by comparing WVMS measurements with coincident satellite measurements from the Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS), the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment, and the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding. At the lowest altitudes where WVMS measurements are possible, we also compare with frost-point hygrometer balloon measurements. The water vapor mixing ratios measured at 50 km over Mauna Loa are the highest ever reported in the WVMS (since 1996) or MLS (since 2004) time series. Particularly encouraging for the new 26 km WVMS measurements is that they indicate an increase between 2010 and 2011 that is comparable to that observed by other instruments. This shows that these measurements are sensitive to variations at this altitude and that the instrumental baseline remains stable.

Description: Erosion rates dictate the morphology of landscapes, and therefore quantifying them is a critical part of many geomorphic studies. Methods to directly measure erosion rates are expensive and time consuming, whereas topographic analysis facilitates prediction of erosion rates rapidly and over large spatial extents. If hillslope sediment flux is nonlinearly dependent on slope then the curvature of hilltops will be linearly proportional to erosion rates. In this contribution we develop new techniques to extract hilltop networks and sample their adjacent hillslopes in order to test the utility of hilltop curvature for estimating erosion rates using high-resolution (1 m) digital elevation data. Published and new cosmogenic radionuclide analyses in the Feather River basin, California, suggest that erosion rates vary by over an order of magnitude (10 to 250 mm kyr−1). Hilltop curvature increases with erosion rates, allowing calibration of the hillslope sediment transport coefficient, which controls the relationship between gradient and sediment flux. Having constraints on sediment transport efficiency allows estimation of erosion rates throughout the landscape by mapping the spatial distribution of hilltop curvature. Additionally, we show that hilltop curvature continues to increase with rising erosion rates after gradient-limited hillslopes have emerged. Hence hilltop curvature can potentially reflect higher erosion rates than can be predicted by hillslope gradient, providing soil production on hilltops can keep pace with erosion. Finally, hilltop curvature can be used to estimate erosion rates in landscapes undergoing a transient adjustment to changing boundary conditions if the response timescale of hillslopes is short relative to channels.

Description: Mount Telout, situated at the edge of the Murzuq Basin, is a 325 m high conical hill within a circular collapse structure that records 0.5 km 3 of sand intrusion into Silurian shales. Based on a comparison with other similar circular collapse structures around the Murzuq Basin, it is argued that sand injection in the form of pipes occurred during the Devonian. The overpressures triggering the process are inferred to result from a combination of: (i) tectonic uplift at a basin scale that initially focused regional ground water flows; and (ii) igneous intrusion within the sand-rich Cambrian–Ordovician strata. The palaeorelief buried under the regionally extensive Silurian shales may have locally focused overpressures and localised sand injection at the 1 to 10 km scale. The Mount Telout injected sand body and related features offer exceptional, seismic-scale outcrop analogues for sand injections that are often identified in seismic reflection data. Large-scale sand injections might be essential in petroleum exploration of the North African Lower Palaeozoic basins as they form seal-bypass systems.

Description: Trend analyses are presented for 30 years (1980–2010) of balloon-borne stratospheric water vapor measurements over Boulder, Colorado. The data record is broken into four multiple-year periods of water vapor trends, including two that span the well-examined but unattributed 1980–2000 period of stratospheric water vapor growth. Trends are determined for five 2 km stratospheric layers (16–26 km) utilizing weighted, piecewise regression analyses. Stratospheric water vapor abundance increased by an average of 1.0 ± 0.2 ppmv (27 ± 6%) during 1980–2010 with significant shorter-term variations along the way. Growth during period 1 (1980–1989) was positive and weakened with altitude from 0.44 ± 0.13 ppmv at 16–18 km to 0.07 ± 0.07 ppmv at 24–26 km. Water vapor increased during period 2 (1990–2000) by an average 0.57 ± 0.25 ppmv, decreased during period 3 (2001–2005) by an average 0.35 ± 0.04 ppmv, then increased again during period 4 (2006–2010) by an average 0.49 ± 0.17 ppmv. The diminishing growth with altitude observed during period 1 is consistent with a water vapor increase in the tropical lower stratosphere that propagated to the midlatitudes. In contrast, growth during periods 2 and 4 is stronger at higher altitudes, revealing contributions from at least one mechanism that strengthens with altitude, such as methane oxidation. The amount of methane oxidized in the stratosphere increased considerably during 1980–2010, but this source can account for at most 28 ± 4%, 14 ± 4%, and 25 ± 5% of the net stratospheric water vapor increases during 1980–2000, 1990–2000, and 1980–2010, respectively.

Description: [1]  Acquiring accurate measurements of water vapor at the low mixing ratios (〈 10 ppm) encountered in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere has proven to be a significant analytical challenge evidenced by persistent disagreements between high-precision hygrometers. These disagreements have caused uncertainties in the description of the physical processes controlling dehydration of air in the tropical tropopause layer and entry of water into the stratosphere, and have hindered validation of satellite water vapor retrievals. A 2011 airborne intercomparison of a large group of in situ hygrometers onboard the NASA WB-57F high-altitude research aircraft and balloons has provided an excellent opportunity to evaluate progress in the scientific community towards improved measurement agreement. In this work we intercompare the measurements from the Mid-latitude Airborne Cirrus Properties Experiment (MACPEX) and discuss the quality of agreement. Differences between values reported by the instruments were reduced in comparison to some prior campaigns, but were non-negligible and on the order of 20% (0.8 ppm). Our analysis suggests that unrecognized errors in the quantification of instrumental background for some or all of the hygrometers are a likely cause. Until these errors are understood, differences at this level will continue to somewhat limit our understanding of cirrus microphysical processes and dehydration in the tropical tropopause layer.

Description: [1]  Differences between stratospheric water vapor measurements by NOAA frost point hygrometers (FPHs) and the Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) are evaluated for the period August 2004 through December 2012 at Boulder, Colorado (40.0°N, 105.2°W), Hilo, Hawaii (19.7°N, 155.1°W), and Lauder, New Zealand (45.0°S, 169.7°E). Two groups of MLS profiles coincident with the FPH soundings at each site are identified using unique sets of temporal and spatial criteria. Before evaluating the differences between coincident FPH and MLS profiles each FPH profile is convolved with the MLS averaging kernels for 8 pressure levels from 100 to 26 hPa (~16 to 25 km) to reduce its vertical resolution to that of the MLS water vapor retrievals. The mean FPH–MLS differences at every pressure level (100 to 26 hPa) are well within the combined measurement uncertainties of the two instruments. However, the mean differences at 100 and 83 hPa are statistically significant and negative, ranging from –0.46 ± 0.22 ppmv (–10.3 ± 4.8%) to –0.10 ± 0.05 ppmv (–2.2 ± 1.2%). Mean differences at the 6 pressure levels from 68 to 26 hPa are on average 0.8% (0.04 ppmv) and only a few are statistically significant. The FPH–MLS differences at each site are examined for temporal trends using weighted linear regression analyses. The vast majority of trends determined here are not statistically significant and most are smaller than the minimum trends detectable in this analysis. Except at 100 and 83 hPa the average agreement between MLS retrievals and FPH measurements of stratospheric water vapor is better than 1%.