A potential vorticity-based determination of the transport barrier in the Asian summer monsoon anticyclone

Ploeger, F.; Gottschling, C.; Griessbach, S.; Grooß, J.-U.; Guenther, G.; Konopka, P.; Müller, R.; Riese, M.; Stroh, F.; Tao, M.; Ungermann, J.; Vogel, B.; von Hobe, M.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-13145-2015

Articles | Volume 15, issue 22

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-13145-2015

© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-13145-2015

© Author(s) 2015. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 15, issue 22

Research article

|

27 Nov 2015

Research article |

| 27 Nov 2015

A potential vorticity-based determination of the transport barrier in the Asian summer monsoon anticyclone

F. Ploeger, C. Gottschling, S. Griessbach, J.-U. Grooß, G. Guenther, P. Konopka, R. Müller, M. Riese, F. Stroh, M. Tao, J. Ungermann, B. Vogel, and M. von Hobe

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Final revised paper (published on 27 Nov 2015)
Preprint (discussion started on 13 Apr 2015)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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RC C2202: 'Review of acp-2015-103', Anonymous Referee #1, 04 May 2015
- AC C5906: 'Reply to comments of Reviewer 1', Felix Ploeger, 14 Aug 2015
RC C2316: 'Review of “A PV-based determination of the transport barrier in the Asian summer monsoon anticyclone” by F. Ploeger et al.', Anonymous Referee #2, 06 May 2015
- AC C5912: 'Reply to comments of Reviewer 2', Felix Ploeger, 14 Aug 2015
RC C2406: 'Review of Ploeger et al.', Gloria Manney, 09 May 2015
- AC C5920: 'Reply to comments of Reviewer 3 (Gloria Manney)', Felix Ploeger, 14 Aug 2015

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Felix Ploeger on behalf of the Authors (14 Aug 2015) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (16 Sep 2015) by Timothy J. Dunkerton

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (23 Sep 2015)

RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (28 Sep 2015)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

I think the authors made significant improvement to the previous manuscript in this revised version. I only have a couple of minor comments, which I think is important to ponder over before its final publication.

P2, L82 – I am not sure if ‘already’ is the best choice of word.

P7, L368 (Consequently…) – This sentence seems to be containing duplicated information with the previous sentence (L364-, Therefore…). Therefore, I suggest considering simplifying this paragraph.

P7, L378 (To summarize…) – The meaning of this sentence can be misleading. I assume what the authors meant by minimum is the minimum in anticyclonic circulation. As actual horizontal wind vectors are strongest adjacent to the boundary of the anticyclone, the absolute magnitude of the circulation can be strongest at the barrier.

P7, L389 (possibly related to enhanced convective activity of the anticyclone during these days…) – I am not sure how the enhanced convective activity is related to not-well defined anticyclonic boundary. For monsoon dynamics, convection acts as a forcing and strengthens anticyclonic circulation itself. Therefore, I would expect stronger convection with enhanced (and well defined) boundary of the anticyclonic circulation.

P9, L443 (Hence, only during the main monsoon season…) – This can be one of the biggest caveats of the method introduced in this study. First, the definition of the main monsoon season is not clear. Second, if reliability of the method defining the transport barrier is subject to dynamical conditions of the monsoon anticyclone, it will consequently diminish applicability of this method to other studies. I wonder if the authors would have any comments on recommended use of this method.

P12, L610 – taifoon -> typhoon

P12, L626 - in in Fig. 3 -> in Fig. 3

Version of the MLS data – I am aware that the new version of MLS data, which is v4.2, has become available recently. I doubt using new version of MLS data will change the conclusion of this work significantly. I recommend for the authors to contact MLS team for their opinion whether to use v3 or v4 for this work. However, I’ll leave this to the authors’ own choice.

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RR by Gloria Manney (06 Oct 2015)

ED: Reconsider after minor revisions (Editor review) (15 Oct 2015) by Timothy J. Dunkerton

AR by Felix Ploeger on behalf of the Authors (28 Oct 2015) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish subject to technical corrections (15 Nov 2015) by Timothy J. Dunkerton

AR by Felix Ploeger on behalf of the Authors (19 Nov 2015) Manuscript

Short summary

The Asian summer monsoon provides an important pathway of tropospheric source gases and pollution into the lower stratosphere. This transport is characterized by deep convection and steady upwelling, combined with confinement inside a large-scale anticyclonic circulation in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. In this paper, we show that a barrier to horizontal transport in the monsoon can be determined from a local maximum in the gradient of potential vorticity.