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Smoke-charged vortices in the stratosphere generated by wildfires and their behaviour in both hemispheres: comparing Australia 2020 to Canada 2017

Following the 2020 Australian fires, it was recently discovered that stratospheric wildfire smoke plumes self-organize as anticyclonic vortices that persist for months and rise by 10 km due to the radiative heating from the absorbing smoke. In this study, we show that smoke-charged vortices previously occurred in the aftermath of the 2017 Canadian fires. We use meteorological analysis to characterize this new object in geophysical fluid dynamics, which likely impacts radiation and climate.

Heterogeneous interactions between SO2 and organic peroxides in submicron aerosol

Discrepancies between atmospheric modeling and field observations, especially in highly polluted cities, have highlighted the lack of understanding of sulfate formation mechanisms and kinetics. Here, we directly quantify the reactive uptake coefficient of SO2 onto organic peroxides and study the important governing factors. The SO2 uptake rate was observed to depend on RH, peroxide amount and reactivity, pH, and ionic strength, which provides a framework to better predict sulfate formation.

Observing the timescales of aerosol–cloud interactions in snapshot satellite images

Cloud responses to aerosol are time-sensitive, but this development is rarely observed. This study uses isolated aerosol perturbations from ships to measure this development and shows that macrophysical (width, cloud fraction, detectability) and microphysical (droplet number) properties of ship tracks vary strongly with time since emission, background cloud and meteorological state. This temporal development should be considered when constraining aerosol–cloud interactions with observations.

Uncertainties in the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR) emission inventory of greenhouse gases

We conducted an extensive analysis of the structural uncertainty of the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR) emission inventory of greenhouse gases, which adds a much needed reliability dimension to the accuracy of the emission estimates. The study undertakes in-depth analyses of the implication of aggregating emissions from different sources and/or countries on the accuracy. Results are presented for all emissions sectors according to IPCC definitions.

EDGAR) emission inventory of greenhouse gases">Read more

Captured cirrus ice particles in high definition

The cryo-electron microscopy images and analysis in this paper result from the first balloon-borne capture, preservation, and high-resolution imaging of ice particles from cirrus clouds. The images show cirrus particle complexity in unprecedented detail, revealing unexpected morphology, a mixture of surface roughness scales and patterns, embedded aerosols, and a large variety of habits within a single cloud. The results should inform ongoing efforts to refine modeling of cirrus radiative impact.

Evaluating stratospheric ozone and water vapour changes in CMIP6 models from 1850 to 2100

Stratospheric ozone and water vapour are key components of the Earth system; changes to both have important impacts on global and regional climate. We evaluate changes to these species from 1850 to 2100 in the new generation of CMIP6 models. There is good agreement between the multi-model mean and observations, although there is substantial variation between the individual models. The future evolution of both ozone and water vapour is strongly dependent on the assumed future emissions scenario.

The behavior of high-CAPE (convective available potential energy) summer convection in large-domain large-eddy simulations with ICON

Current state-of-the-art regional numerical weather prediction (NWP) models employ kilometer-scale horizontal grid resolutions, thereby simulating convection within the grey zone. Increasing resolution leads to resolving the 3D motion field and has been shown to improve the representation of clouds and precipitation. Using a hectometer-scale model in forecasting mode on a large domain therefore offers a chance to study processes that require the simulation of the 3D motion field at small horizontal scales.

CAPE (convective available potential energy) summer convection in large-domain large-eddy simulations with ICON">Read more

Interhemispheric transport of metallic ions within ionospheric sporadic E layers by the lower thermospheric meridional circulation

Here, we report a study of ionospheric irregularities using scintillation data from COSMIC satellites and identify a large-scale horizontal transport of long-lived metallic ions, combining the simulations of the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model with the chemistry of metals and ground-based observations from two meridional chains of stations from 1975–2016.

Sensitivities to biological aerosol particle properties and ageing processes: potential implications for aerosol–cloud interactions and optical properties

Primary biological aerosol particles (PBAPs), such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, and pollen, represent a small fraction of the total aerosol burden. Given that PBAPs are highly efficient atmospheric ice nuclei (IN) at T > -10 ∘C, we suggest that small changes in their sizes or surface properties due to chemical, physical, or biological processing might translate into large impacts on ice initiation in clouds.

Model physics and chemistry causing intermodel disagreement within the VolMIP-Tambora Interactive Stratospheric Aerosol ensemble

As part of the Model Intercomparison Project on the climatic response to Volcanic forcing (VolMIP), several climate modeling centers performed a coordinated pre-study experiment with interactive stratospheric aerosol models simulating the volcanic aerosol cloud from an eruption resembling the 1815 Mt. Tambora eruption (VolMIP-Tambora ISA ensemble).

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