ALBERT

Beschreibung: In this paper, we present a new version of the chemistry–climate model SOCOL-AERv2 supplemented by an iodine chemistry module. We perform three 20-year ensemble experiments to assess the validity of the modeled iodine and to quantify the effects of iodine on ozone. The iodine distributions obtained with SOCOL-AERv2-I agree well with AMAX-DOAS observations and with CAM-chem model simulations. For the present-day atmosphere, the model suggests that the iodine-induced chemistry leads to a 3 %–4 % reduction in the ozone column, which is greatest at high latitudes. The model indicates the strongest influence of iodine in the lower stratosphere with 30 ppbv less ozone at low latitudes and up to 100 ppbv less at high latitudes. In the troposphere, the account of the iodine chemistry reduces the tropospheric ozone concentration by 5 %–10 % depending on geographical location. In the lower troposphere, 75 % of the modeled ozone reduction originates from inorganic sources of iodine, 25 % from organic sources of iodine. At 50 hPa, the results show that the impacts of iodine from both sources are comparable. Finally, we determine the sensitivity of ozone to iodine by applying a 2-fold increase in iodine emissions, as it might be representative for iodine by the end of this century. This reduces the ozone column globally by an additional 1.5 %–2.5 %. Our results demonstrate the sensitivity of atmospheric ozone to iodine chemistry for present and future conditions, but uncertainties remain high due to the paucity of observational data of iodine species.

Beschreibung: Aeromagnetic exploration is an important method of geophysical exploration. We study the compensation method of the towed bird system and establish the towed bird interference model. Due to the geomagnetic gradient changing greatly, the geomagnetic gradient is considered in the towed bird interference model. In this paper, we model the geomagnetic field gradient and analyze the influence of the towed bird system on the aeromagnetic compensation results. Finally, we apply the ridge regression method to solve the problem. We verify the feasibility of this compensation method through actual flight tests and further improve the data quality of the towed bird interference.

Beschreibung: Frequently occurring mega-droughts under current global climate change have attracted broad social attention. A paleoclimatic perspective is needed to increase our understanding of the causes and effects of droughts. South-western (SW) China has been threatened by severe seasonal droughts. Our current knowledge of millennial-scale dry and wet phases in this region is primarily based on the variability of the Indian summer monsoon. However, water availability over land does not always follow patterns of monsoonal precipitation but also depends on water loss from evaporation and transpiration. Here, we reconstructed precipitation intensity, lake hydrological balance and the soil water stress index (SWSI) for the last 27 000 years. Grain size, geochemical and pollen records from Yilong Lake reveal the long-term relationships and inconsistencies of dry–wet patterns in meteorological, hydrological and soil systems in the central Yunnan region, SW China. Our results show that the long-term trends among precipitation, hydrological balance and soil moisture varied through time. The hydrological balance and soil moisture were primarily controlled by temperature-induced evaporation change during periods of low precipitation such as the Last Glacial Maximum and Younger Dryas. During periods of high precipitation (the early to late Holocene), intensified evaporation from the lake surface offset the effects of increased precipitation on the hydrological balance. However, abundant rainfall and the dense vegetation canopy circumvented a soil moisture deficit that might have resulted from rising temperature. In conclusion, the hydrological balance in the central Yunnan region was more sensitive to temperature change while soil moisture could be further regulated by vegetation changes over millennial timescales. Therefore, under future climate warming, the surface water shortage in the central Yunnan region may become even more serious. Our study suggests that reforestation efforts may provide some relief to soil moisture deficits in this region.

Beschreibung: A new luminescence erosion meter has huge potential for inferring erosion rates on sub-millennial scales for both steady and transient states of erosion, which is not currently possible with any existing techniques capable of measuring erosion. This study applies new rock luminescence techniques to a well-constrained scenario provided by the Beinn Alligin rock avalanche, NW Scotland. Boulders in this deposit are lithologically consistent and have known cosmogenic nuclide ages and independently derived Holocene erosion rates. We find that luminescence-derived exposure ages for the Beinn Alligin rock avalanche were an order of magnitude younger than existing cosmogenic nuclide exposure ages, suggestive of high erosion rates (as supported by field evidence of quartz grain protrusions on the rock surfaces). Erosion rates determined by luminescence were consistent with independently derived rates measured from boulder edge roundness. Inversion modelling indicates a transient state of erosion reflecting the stochastic nature of erosional processes over the last ∼4.5 kyr in the wet, temperate climate of NW Scotland. Erosion was likely modulated by known fluctuations in moisture availability and to a lesser extent temperature, which controlled the extent of chemical weathering of these highly lithified rocks prior to erosion. The use of a multi-elevated temperature, post-infra-red, infra-red stimulated luminescence (MET-pIRIR) protocol (50, 150 and 225 ∘C) was advantageous as it identified samples with complexities that would not have been observed using only the standard infra-red stimulated luminescence (IRSL) signal measured at 50 ∘C, such as that introduced by within-sample variability (e.g. surficial coatings). This study demonstrates that the luminescence erosion meter can infer accurate erosion rates on sub-millennial scales and identify transient states of erosion (i.e. stochastic processes) in agreement with independently derived erosion rates for the same deposit.

Beschreibung: Icequakes are the result of processes occurring within the ice mass or between the ice and its environment. Studying icequakes provides a unique view on ice dynamics, specifically on the basal conditions. Changes in conditions due to environmental or climate changes are reflected in icequakes. Counting and characterizing icequakes is thus essential to monitor them. Most of the icequakes recorded by the seismic station at the Belgian Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Station (PE) have small amplitudes corresponding to maximal displacements of a few nanometres. Their detection threshold is highly variable because of the rapid and strong changes in the local seismic noise level. Therefore, we evaluated the influence of katabatic winds on the noise measured by the well-protected PE surface seismometer. Our purpose is to identify whether the lack of icequake detection during some periods could be associated with variations in the processes generating them or simply with a stronger seismic noise linked to stronger wind conditions. We observed that the wind mainly influences seismic noise at frequencies greater than 1 Hz. The seismic noise power exhibits a bilinear correlation with the wind velocity, with two different slopes at a wind velocity lower and greater than 6 m s−1 and with, for example at a period of 0.26 s, a respective variation of 0.4 dB (m −1 s) and 1.4 dB (m −1 s). These results allowed a synthetic frequency and wind-speed-dependent noise model to be presented that explains the behaviour of the wind-induced seismic noise at PE, which shows that seismic noise amplitude increases exponentially with increasing wind speed. This model enables us to study the influence of the wind on the original seismic dataset, which improves the observation of cryoseismic activity near the PE station.

Beschreibung: The mass of the Greenland ice sheet is declining as mass gain from snow accumulation is exceeded by mass loss from surface meltwater runoff, marine-terminating glacier calving and submarine melting, and basal melting. Here we use the input–output (IO) method to estimate mass change from 1840 through next week. Surface mass balance (SMB) gains and losses come from a semi-empirical SMB model from 1840 through 1985 and three regional climate models (RCMs; HIRHAM/HARMONIE, Modèle Atmosphérique Régional – MAR, and RACMO – Regional Atmospheric Climate MOdel) from 1986 through next week. Additional non-SMB losses come from a marine-terminating glacier ice discharge product and a basal mass balance model. From these products we provide an annual estimate of Greenland ice sheet mass balance from 1840 through 1985 and a daily estimate at sector and region scale from 1986 through next week. This product updates daily and is the first IO product to include the basal mass balance which is a source of an additional ∼24 Gt yr−1 of mass loss. Our results demonstrate an accelerating ice-sheet-scale mass loss and general agreement (coefficient of determination, r2, ranges from 0.62 to 0.94) among six other products, including gravitational, volume, and other IO mass balance estimates. Results from this study are available at https://doi.org/10.22008/FK2/OHI23Z (Mankoff et al., 2021).

Beschreibung: Recent observational and modeling studies show that variations of stratospheric ozone and the resulting interaction between ozone and the stratospheric circulation play an important role in surface weather and climate. However, in many cases, computationally expensive coupled chemistry models have been used to study these effects. Here, we demonstrate how a much simpler idealized general circulation model (GCM) can be used for studying the impact of interactive stratospheric ozone on the circulation. The model, named Simplified Chemistry-Dynamical Model (SCDM V1.0), is constructed from a preexisting idealized GCM, into which a simplified linear ozone scheme and a parameterization for the shortwave radiative effects of ozone are implemented. The distribution and variability of stratospheric ozone simulated by the new model are in good agreement with the MERRA2 reanalysis, even for extreme circulation events such as Arctic stratospheric sudden warmings. The model thus represents a promising new tool for the study of ozone–circulation interaction in the stratosphere and its associated effects on tropospheric weather and climate.

Beschreibung: The earthquake early warning systems (EEWSs) in China have achieved great progress, with warning alerts being successfully delivered to the public in some regions. We examined the performance of the EEWS in China's Sichuan Province during the 2019 Changning earthquake. Although its technical effectiveness was tested with the first alert released 10 s after the earthquake, we found that a big gap existed between the EEWS's message and the public's response. We highlight the importance of EEWS alert effectiveness and public participation for long-term resiliency, such as delivering useful alert messages through appropriate communication channels and training people to understand and properly respond.

Beschreibung: The source apportionment of aerosol iron (Fe), including natural and combustion Fe, is an important issue because aerosol Fe can enhance oceanic primary production in the surface ocean. Based on our previous finding that combustion Fe emitted by evaporation processes has Fe isotope ratios (δ56Fe) that are approximately 4 ‰ lower than those of natural Fe, this study aimed to distinguish aerosol Fe sources over the northwestern Pacific using two size-fractionated marine aerosols. The δ56Fe values of fine and coarse particles from the eastern or northern Pacific were found to be similar to each other, ranging from 0.0 ‰ to 0.4 ‰. Most of them were close to the crustal average, suggesting the dominance of natural Fe. On the other hand, particles from the direction of East Asia demonstrated lower δ56Fe values in fine particles (−0.5 ‰ to −2.2 ‰) than in coarse particles (on average −0.02 ± 0.12 ‰). The correlations between the δ56Fe values and the enrichment factors of lead and vanadium suggested that the low δ56Fe values obtained were due to the presence of combustion Fe. The δ56Fe values of the soluble component of fine particles in this region were lower than the total, indicating the preferential dissolution of combustion Fe. In addition, we found a negative correlation between the δ56Fe value and the fractional Fe solubility in air masses from the direction of East Asia. These results suggest that the presence of combustion Fe is an important factor in controlling the fractional Fe solubility in air masses from the direction of East Asia, whereas other factors are more important in the other areas. By assuming typical δ56Fe values for combustion and natural Fe, the contribution of combustion Fe to the total (acid-digested) Fe in aerosols was estimated to reach up to 50 % of fine and 21 % of bulk (coarse + fine) particles in air masses from the direction of East Asia, whereas its contribution was small in the other areas. The contribution of combustion Fe to the soluble Fe component estimated for one sample was approximately twice as large as the total, indicating the importance of combustion Fe as a soluble Fe source despite lower emissions than the natural. These isotope-based estimates were compared with those estimated using an atmospheric chemical transport model (IMPACT), in which the fractions of combustion Fe in fine particles, especially in air masses from the direction of East Asia, were consistent with each other. In contrast, the model estimated a relatively large contribution from combustion Fe in coarse particles, probably because of the different characteristics of combustion Fe that are included in the model calculation and the isotope-based estimation. This highlights the importance of observational data on δ56Fe for size-fractionated aerosols to scale the combustion Fe emission by the model. The average deposition fluxes of soluble Fe to the surface ocean were 1.4 and 2.9 nmol m−2 d−1 from combustion and natural aerosols, respectively, in air masses from the direction of East Asia, which suggests that combustion Fe could be an important Fe source to the surface seawater among other Fe sources. Distinguishing Fe sources using the δ56Fe values of marine aerosols and seawater is anticipated to lead to a more quantitative understanding of the Fe cycle in the atmosphere and surface ocean.

Beschreibung: Forest fires modify soil organic carbon and suppress soil respiration for many decades after the initial disturbance. The associated changes in soil autotrophic and heterotrophic respiration from the time of the forest fire, however, are less well characterized. The FireResp model predicts soil autotrophic and heterotrophic respiration parameterized with a novel dataset across a fire chronosequence in the Yukon and Northwest Territories of Canada. The dataset consisted of soil incubation experiments and field measurements of soil respiration and soil carbon stocks. The FireResp model contains submodels that consider a Q10 (exponential) model of respiration compared to models of heterotrophic respiration using Michaelis–Menten kinetics parameterized with soil microbial carbon. For model evaluation we applied the Akaike information criterion and compared predicted patterns in components of soil respiration across the chronosequence. Parameters estimated with data from the 5 cm soil depth had better model–data comparisons than parameters estimated with data from the 10 cm soil depth. The model–data fit was improved by including parameters estimated from soil incubation experiments. Models that incorporated microbial carbon with Michaelis–Menten kinetics reproduced patterns in autotrophic and heterotrophic soil respiration components across the chronosequence. Autotrophic respiration was associated with aboveground tree biomass at more recently burned sites, but this association was less robust at older sites in the chronosequence. Our results provide support for more structured soil respiration models than standard Q10 exponential models.