Search results for "atmosphere"
showing 10 items of 673 documents
Titan's surface and atmosphere from Cassini/VIMS data with updated methane opacity
2013
International audience; We present an analysis of Titan data acquired by the Cassini Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS), making use of recent improvements in methane spectroscopic parameters in the region 1.3-5.2 μm. We first analyzed VIMS spectra covering a 8 × 10-km2 area near the Huygens landing site in order to constrain the single scattering albedo (ω0) of the aerosols over all of the VIMS spectral range. Our aerosol model agrees with that derived from Huygens Probe Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer (DISR) in situ measurements below 1.6 μm. At longer wavelengths, ω0 steadily decreases from 0.92 at 1.6 μm to about 0.70 at 2.5 μm and abruptly drops to about 0.50 near 2.6 μm…
Evaluation of observed and modelled aerosol lifetimes using radioactive tracers of opportunity and an ensemble of 19 global models
2015
Abstract. Aerosols have important impacts on air quality and climate, but the processes affecting their removal from the atmosphere are not fully understood and are poorly constrained by observations. This makes modelled aerosol lifetimes uncertain. In this study, we make use of an observational constraint on aerosol lifetimes provided by radionuclide measurements and investigate the causes of differences within a set of global models. During the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant accident of March 2011, the radioactive isotopes cesium-137 (137Cs) and xenon-133 (133Xe) were released in large quantities. Cesium attached to particles in the ambient air, approximately according to their av…
Convective hydration in the tropical tropopause layer during the StratoClim aircraft campaign: pathway of an observed hydration patch
2018
The source and pathway of the hydration patch in the TTL (tropical tropopause layer) that was measured during the Stratospheric and upper tropospheric processes for better climate predictions (StratoClim) field campaign during the Asian summer monsoon in 2017 and its connection to convective overshoots are investigated. During flight no. 7, two remarkable layers are measured in the TTL, namely (1) the moist layer (ML) with a water vapour content of 4.8–5.7 ppmv in altitudes of 18–19 km in the lower stratosphere and (2) the ice layer (IL) with ice content up to 1.9 eq. ppmv (equivalent parts per million by volume) in altitudes of 17–18 km in the upper tropo…
Decreasing Phanerozoic extinction intensity as a consequence of Earth surface oxygenation and metazoan ecophysiology
2021
The decline in background extinction rates of marine animals through geologic time is an established but unexplained feature of the Phanerozoic fossil record. There is also growing consensus that the ocean and atmosphere did not become oxygenated to near-modern levels until the mid-Paleozoic, coinciding with the onset of generally lower extinction rates. Physiological theory provides us with a possible causal link between these two observations-predicting that the synergistic impacts of oxygen and temperature on aerobic respiration would have made marine animals more vulnerable to ocean warming events during periods of limited surface oxygenation. Here, we evaluate the hypothesis that chang…
Global sea-to-air flux climatology for bromoform, dibromomethane and methyl iodide
2013
Volatile halogenated organic compounds containing bromine and iodine, which are naturally produced in the ocean, are involved in ozone depletion in both the troposphere and stratosphere. Three prominent compounds transporting large amounts of marine halogens into the atmosphere are bromoform (CHBr3), dibromomethane (CH2Br2) and methyl iodide (CH3I). The input of marine halogens to the stratosphere has been estimated from observations and modelling studies using low-resolution oceanic emission scenarios derived from top-down approaches. In order to improve emission inventory estimates, we calculate data-based high resolution global sea-to-air flux estimates of these compounds from surface ob…
Variabilité intra-saisonnière et multi-décennale de la téléconnexion entre les pressions de surface (100°W–50°E ; 30°–70°N) et les ENSO/LNSO (1873–19…
2000
Abstract The relationships between an index of the NINO3.4 region and the wintertime sea level pressure (hereafter SLP) anomalies on the extratropical North Atlantic and the bordering areas (100°W–50°E; 30°–70°N) are studied for 1873–1996. This study emphasizes the need of a careful pooling of months and the multi-decadal variability of the ENSO/LNSO influence on the extratropical North Atlantic. We calculate the mean monthly climate anomalies for the 20 warmest and the 20 coldest NINO3.4 (170°–120°W; 5°N–5°S) years from October to March. The composite of SLP anomalies for the 20 warmest NINO3.4 years shows an anomalous trough centered near 30°W in November–December, and positive (respectiv…
Impact of Manaus City on the Amazon Green Ocean atmosphere: ozone production, precursor sensitivity and aerosol load
2010
As a contribution to the Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia – Cooperative LBA Airborne Regional Experiment (LBA-CLAIRE-2001) field campaign in the heart of the Amazon Basin, we analyzed the temporal and spatial dynamics of the urban plume of Manaus City during the wet-to-dry season transition period in July 2001. During the flights, we performed vertical stacks of crosswind transects in the urban outflow downwind of Manaus City, measuring a comprehensive set of trace constituents including O<sub>3</sub>, NO, NO<sub>2</sub>, CO, VOC, CO<sub>2</sub>, and H<sub>2</sub>O. Aerosol loads were characterized by concentrations of t…
Global equatorial variability of 850 and 200 hPa zonal winds from rawinsondes between 1963 and 1989
1995
The longitude-height-time variability of 3-month averaged zonal wind anomalies at 850 and 200 hPa over the equatorial area (5{degrees}N-5{degrees}S) is analyzed using a three-dimensional dataset constructed from rawinsonde data (1963-1989). The first mode, closely related to the Southern Oscillation Index, suggests a strong vertical coupling associated with a horizontal out-of-phase pattern between the central/western Pacific and the remainder of the equatorial belt. The vertical coupling appears to be phase-locked to the annual cycle with strongest intensities found over South America and near the maritime continent early in the calendar year and over the Pacific basin and Africa during th…
Sahel droughts and Enso dynamics
1996
Correlations between summer Sahel rainfall and Southern Oscillation Index has increased during the last thirty years. At high frequency time scale (periods lower than 8 years), an intertropical Atlantic zonal divergent circulation anomaly is forced by the difference of sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies between the eastern equatorial parts of Pacific and Atlantic. This zonal connection worked well during most of the E1 Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events occurring after 1970; positive/negative SST anomalies in the eastern Pacific/Atlantic led to rainfall deficits over the whole West Africa. At low frequency time scale (periods greater than 8 years), positive SST anomalies in the In…
Abstracts of the 6th FECS Conference 1998 Lectures.
1998
International audience