Articles | Volume 17, issue 24
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-15095-2017
© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-15095-2017
© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
21 Dec 2017
Research article |
| 21 Dec 2017
| 21 Dec 2017
Characterizing energy budget variability at a Sahelian site: a test of NWP model behaviour
School of GeoSciences, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
Paul I. Palmer
School of GeoSciences, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
National Centre for Earth Observation, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
Helen Brindley
National Centre for Earth Observation, Imperial College London, London, UK
Related authors
No articles found.
Sanjeevani Panditharatne, Helen Brindley, Caroline Cox, Rui Song, Richard Siddans, Richard Bantges, Jonathan Murray, Stuart Fox, and Cathryn Fox
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-647, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-647, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
Short summary
Short summary
Upwelling radiation with wavelengths between 15 and 100 microns is theorised to be highly sensitive to the properties of ice clouds, particularly the shape of the ice crystals. We exploit this sensitivity and perform the first retrieval of ice cloud properties using these wavelengths from an observation taken on an aircraft and evaluate it against measurements of the cloud’s properties.
Samantha Petch, Liang Feng, Paul Palmer, Robert P. King, Tristan Quaife, and Keith Haines
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.22541/essoar.173343481.12875858/v1, https://doi.org/10.22541/essoar.173343481.12875858/v1, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Biogeosciences (BG).
Short summary
Short summary
The growth rate of atmospheric CO2 varies year to year, mainly due to land ecosystems. Understanding factors controlling the land carbon uptake is crucial. Our study examines the link between terrestrial water storage and the CO2 growth rate from 2002–2023, revealing a strong negative correlation. We highlight the key role of tropical forests, especially in tropical America, and assess how regional contributions shift over time.
Zhu Deng, Philippe Ciais, Liting Hu, Adrien Martinez, Marielle Saunois, Rona L. Thompson, Kushal Tibrewal, Wouter Peters, Brendan Byrne, Giacomo Grassi, Paul I. Palmer, Ingrid T. Luijkx, Zhu Liu, Junjie Liu, Xuekun Fang, Tengjiao Wang, Hanqin Tian, Katsumasa Tanaka, Ana Bastos, Stephen Sitch, Benjamin Poulter, Clément Albergel, Aki Tsuruta, Shamil Maksyutov, Rajesh Janardanan, Yosuke Niwa, Bo Zheng, Joël Thanwerdas, Dmitry Belikov, Arjo Segers, and Frédéric Chevallier
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 1121–1152, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1121-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1121-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
This study reconciles national greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories with updated atmospheric inversion results to evaluate discrepancies for three principal GHG fluxes at the national level. Compared to our previous study, new satellite-based CO2 inversions were included and an updated mask of managed lands was used, improving agreement for Brazil and Canada. The proposed methodology can be regularly applied as a check to assess the gap between top-down inversions and bottom-up inventories.
Pierre Friedlingstein, Michael O'Sullivan, Matthew W. Jones, Robbie M. Andrew, Judith Hauck, Peter Landschützer, Corinne Le Quéré, Hongmei Li, Ingrid T. Luijkx, Are Olsen, Glen P. Peters, Wouter Peters, Julia Pongratz, Clemens Schwingshackl, Stephen Sitch, Josep G. Canadell, Philippe Ciais, Robert B. Jackson, Simone R. Alin, Almut Arneth, Vivek Arora, Nicholas R. Bates, Meike Becker, Nicolas Bellouin, Carla F. Berghoff, Henry C. Bittig, Laurent Bopp, Patricia Cadule, Katie Campbell, Matthew A. Chamberlain, Naveen Chandra, Frédéric Chevallier, Louise P. Chini, Thomas Colligan, Jeanne Decayeux, Laique M. Djeutchouang, Xinyu Dou, Carolina Duran Rojas, Kazutaka Enyo, Wiley Evans, Amanda R. Fay, Richard A. Feely, Daniel J. Ford, Adrianna Foster, Thomas Gasser, Marion Gehlen, Thanos Gkritzalis, Giacomo Grassi, Luke Gregor, Nicolas Gruber, Özgür Gürses, Ian Harris, Matthew Hefner, Jens Heinke, George C. Hurtt, Yosuke Iida, Tatiana Ilyina, Andrew R. Jacobson, Atul K. Jain, Tereza Jarníková, Annika Jersild, Fei Jiang, Zhe Jin, Etsushi Kato, Ralph F. Keeling, Kees Klein Goldewijk, Jürgen Knauer, Jan Ivar Korsbakken, Xin Lan, Siv K. Lauvset, Nathalie Lefèvre, Zhu Liu, Junjie Liu, Lei Ma, Shamil Maksyutov, Gregg Marland, Nicolas Mayot, Patrick C. McGuire, Nicolas Metzl, Natalie M. Monacci, Eric J. Morgan, Shin-Ichiro Nakaoka, Craig Neill, Yosuke Niwa, Tobias Nützel, Lea Olivier, Tsuneo Ono, Paul I. Palmer, Denis Pierrot, Zhangcai Qin, Laure Resplandy, Alizée Roobaert, Thais M. Rosan, Christian Rödenbeck, Jörg Schwinger, T. Luke Smallman, Stephen M. Smith, Reinel Sospedra-Alfonso, Tobias Steinhoff, Qing Sun, Adrienne J. Sutton, Roland Séférian, Shintaro Takao, Hiroaki Tatebe, Hanqin Tian, Bronte Tilbrook, Olivier Torres, Etienne Tourigny, Hiroyuki Tsujino, Francesco Tubiello, Guido van der Werf, Rik Wanninkhof, Xuhui Wang, Dongxu Yang, Xiaojuan Yang, Zhen Yu, Wenping Yuan, Xu Yue, Sönke Zaehle, Ning Zeng, and Jiye Zeng
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 965–1039, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-965-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-965-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
The Global Carbon Budget 2024 describes the methodology, main results, and datasets used to quantify the anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and their partitioning among the atmosphere, land ecosystems, and the ocean over the historical period (1750–2024). These living datasets are updated every year to provide the highest transparency and traceability in the reporting of CO2, the key driver of climate change.
Chlöe Natasha Schooling, Paul I. Palmer, Auke Visser, and Nicolas Bousserez
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3949, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3949, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
Short summary
Short summary
This study presents a new method to estimate fossil fuel CO2 (ffCO2) emissions by modelling NOx chemistry. Our regression models predict NOx chemical rates and NO2:NO ratios with R² values above 0.95 using meteorological inputs. Incorporating these regressions reduces computational time compared to traditional methods and enables integration into model inversion frameworks. This scalable approach supports global emissions monitoring and climate change mitigation efforts.
Shihan Sun, Paul I. Palmer, Richard Siddans, Brian J. Kerridge, Lucy Ventress, Achim Edtbauer, Akima Ringsdorf, Eva Y. Pfannerstill, and Jonathan Williams
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-778, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-778, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Isoprene released by plants can impact atmospheric chemistry and climate. The Amazon rainforest is a major source of isoprene. We derived isoprene emissions using satellite retrievals of isoprene columns and a chemical transport model. We evaluated our isoprene emission estimates using ground-based isoprene observations and satellite retrievals of formaldehyde. We found that using satellite retrievals of isoprene can help better understand isoprene emissions over the Amazon.
Sanjeevani Panditharatne, Helen Brindley, Caroline Cox, Richard Siddans, Jonathan Murray, Laura Warwick, and Stuart Fox
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 717–735, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-717-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-717-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Observations from the upcoming European Space Agency’s Far-Infrared Outgoing Radiation Understanding and Monitoring (FORUM) satellite are theorised to be highly sensitive to distributions of water vapour within Earth’s atmosphere. We exploit this sensitivity and extend the Infrared Microwave Sounding retrieval scheme for use on observations from FORUM. This scheme is evaluated on both simulated and observed measurements and shows good agreement with references of the atmospheric state.
Alexander Kurganskiy, Liang Feng, Neil Humpage, Paul I. Palmer, A. Jerome P. Woodwark, Stamatia Doniki, and Damien Weidmann
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-94, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-94, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (AMT).
Short summary
Short summary
This study introduces GEMINI-UK, the first UK-wide network using ground-based instruments to monitor net fluxes of CO2 and methane. By simulating its performance, we show that GEMINI-UK will significantly reduce uncertainties in these flux estimates, complementing data from existing tall towers and future satellite missions. The network will strengthen the UK's ability to track greenhouse gases, evaluate climate policies, and meet net-zero goals.
Petri Clusius, Metin Baykara, Carlton Xavier, Putian Zhou, Juniper Tyree, Benjamin Foreback, Mikko Äijälä, Frans Graeffe, Tuukka Petäjä, Markku Kulmala, Pauli Paasonen, Paul I. Palmer, and Michael Boy
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-39, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-39, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
Short summary
Short summary
Cloud condensation nuclei are necessary to form clouds, and their size distribution affects cloud properties and therefore Earth’s energy budget. This study modelled the origins of cloud condensation nuclei at SMEAR II, Hyytiälä, Finland, and found that primary emissions and new particle formation separately contribute to more than half of the condensation nuclei, but they suppress each other, leading to current concentrations. Largest condensation nuclei originated mostly from emissions.
Ingrid Super, Tia Scarpelli, Arjan Droste, and Paul I. Palmer
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 7263–7284, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-7263-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-7263-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Monitoring greenhouse gas emission reductions requires a combination of models and observations, as well as an initial emission estimate. Each component provides information with a certain level of certainty and is weighted to yield the most reliable estimate of actual emissions. We describe efforts for estimating the uncertainty in the initial emission estimate, which significantly impacts the outcome. Hence, a good uncertainty estimate is key for obtaining reliable information on emissions.
Neil Humpage, Hartmut Boesch, William Okello, Jia Chen, Florian Dietrich, Mark F. Lunt, Liang Feng, Paul I. Palmer, and Frank Hase
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5679–5707, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5679-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5679-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
We used a Bruker EM27/SUN spectrometer within an automated weatherproof enclosure to measure greenhouse gas column concentrations over a 3-month period in Jinja, Uganda. The portability of the EM27/SUN allows us to evaluate satellite and model data in locations not covered by traditional validation networks. This is of particular value in tropical Africa, where extensive terrestrial ecosystems are a significant store of carbon and play a key role in the atmospheric budgets of CO2 and CH4.
Tia R. Scarpelli, Paul I. Palmer, Mark Lunt, Ingrid Super, and Arjan Droste
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 10773–10791, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10773-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10773-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Under the Paris Agreement, countries must track their anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. This study describes a method to determine self-consistent estimates for combustion emissions and natural fluxes of CO2 from atmospheric data. We report consistent estimates inferred using this approach from satellite data and ground-based data over Europe, suggesting that satellite data can be used to determine national anthropogenic CO2 emissions for countries where ground-based CO2 data are absent.
Jacqueline E. Russell, Richard J. Bantges, Helen E. Brindley, and Alejandro Bodas-Salcedo
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 4243–4266, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-4243-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-4243-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
We present a dataset of top-of-atmosphere diurnally resolved reflected solar and emitted thermal energy for Earth system model evaluation. The multi-year, monthly hourly dataset, derived from observations made by the Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget instrument, covers the range 60° N–60° S, 60° E–60° W at 1° resolution. Comparison with two versions of the Hadley Centre Global Environmental Model highlight how the data can be used to assess updates to key model parameterizations.
Laura Warwick, Jonathan E. Murray, and Helen Brindley
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4777–4787, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4777-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4777-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
We describe a method for measuring the emissivity of natural surfaces using data from the new Far-INfrarEd Spectrometer for Surface Emissivity (FINESSE) instrument. We demonstrate our method by making measurements of the emissivity of water. We then compare our results to the emissivity predicted using a model and find good agreement. The observations from FINESSE are novel because they allow us to determine surface emissivity at longer wavelengths than have been routinely measured before.
Jonathan E. Murray, Laura Warwick, Helen Brindley, Alan Last, Patrick Quigley, Andy Rochester, Alexander Dewar, and Daniel Cummins
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4757–4775, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4757-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4757-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The Far INfrarEd Spectrometer for Surface Emissivity, FINESSE, is designed to measure the ability of natural surfaces to emit infrared radiation. FINESSE combines a commercial instrument with custom-built optics to view a surface from different angles with complementary views of the sky. Its choice of internal components means it can cover a wide range of wavelengths, extending into the far-infrared. We characterize FINESSE’s uncertainty budget and provide examples of its measurement capability.
Margaret R. Marvin, Paul I. Palmer, Fei Yao, Mohd Talib Latif, and Md Firoz Khan
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 3699–3715, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-3699-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-3699-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
We use an atmospheric chemistry model to investigate aerosols emitted from fire activity across Southeast Asia. We find that the limited nature of measurements in this region leads to large uncertainties that significantly hinder the model representation of these aerosols and their impacts on air quality. As a result, the number of monthly attributable deaths is underestimated by as many as 4500, particularly in March at the peak of the mainland burning season.
Dien Wu, Joshua L. Laughner, Junjie Liu, Paul I. Palmer, John C. Lin, and Paul O. Wennberg
Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 6161–6185, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-6161-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-6161-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
To balance computational expenses and chemical complexity in extracting emission signals from tropospheric NO2 columns, we propose a simplified non-linear Lagrangian chemistry transport model and assess its performance against TROPOMI v2 over power plants and cities. Using this model, we then discuss how NOx chemistry affects the relationship between NOx and CO2 emissions and how studying NO2 columns helps quantify modeled biases in wind directions and prior emissions.
Matthew J. McGrath, Ana Maria Roxana Petrescu, Philippe Peylin, Robbie M. Andrew, Bradley Matthews, Frank Dentener, Juraj Balkovič, Vladislav Bastrikov, Meike Becker, Gregoire Broquet, Philippe Ciais, Audrey Fortems-Cheiney, Raphael Ganzenmüller, Giacomo Grassi, Ian Harris, Matthew Jones, Jürgen Knauer, Matthias Kuhnert, Guillaume Monteil, Saqr Munassar, Paul I. Palmer, Glen P. Peters, Chunjing Qiu, Mart-Jan Schelhaas, Oksana Tarasova, Matteo Vizzarri, Karina Winkler, Gianpaolo Balsamo, Antoine Berchet, Peter Briggs, Patrick Brockmann, Frédéric Chevallier, Giulia Conchedda, Monica Crippa, Stijn N. C. Dellaert, Hugo A. C. Denier van der Gon, Sara Filipek, Pierre Friedlingstein, Richard Fuchs, Michael Gauss, Christoph Gerbig, Diego Guizzardi, Dirk Günther, Richard A. Houghton, Greet Janssens-Maenhout, Ronny Lauerwald, Bas Lerink, Ingrid T. Luijkx, Géraud Moulas, Marilena Muntean, Gert-Jan Nabuurs, Aurélie Paquirissamy, Lucia Perugini, Wouter Peters, Roberto Pilli, Julia Pongratz, Pierre Regnier, Marko Scholze, Yusuf Serengil, Pete Smith, Efisio Solazzo, Rona L. Thompson, Francesco N. Tubiello, Timo Vesala, and Sophia Walther
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 4295–4370, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-4295-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-4295-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Accurate estimation of fluxes of carbon dioxide from the land surface is essential for understanding future impacts of greenhouse gas emissions on the climate system. A wide variety of methods currently exist to estimate these sources and sinks. We are continuing work to develop annual comparisons of these diverse methods in order to clarify what they all actually calculate and to resolve apparent disagreement, in addition to highlighting opportunities for increased understanding.
Alice Drinkwater, Paul I. Palmer, Liang Feng, Tim Arnold, Xin Lan, Sylvia E. Michel, Robert Parker, and Hartmut Boesch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 8429–8452, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8429-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8429-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Changes in atmospheric methane over the last few decades are largely unexplained. Previous studies have proposed different hypotheses to explain short-term changes in atmospheric methane. We interpret observed changes in atmospheric methane and stable isotope source signatures (2004–2020). We argue that changes over this period are part of a large-scale shift from high-northern-latitude thermogenic energy emissions to tropical biogenic emissions, particularly from North Africa and South America.
Thomas E. Taylor, Christopher W. O'Dell, David Baker, Carol Bruegge, Albert Chang, Lars Chapsky, Abhishek Chatterjee, Cecilia Cheng, Frédéric Chevallier, David Crisp, Lan Dang, Brian Drouin, Annmarie Eldering, Liang Feng, Brendan Fisher, Dejian Fu, Michael Gunson, Vance Haemmerle, Graziela R. Keller, Matthäus Kiel, Le Kuai, Thomas Kurosu, Alyn Lambert, Joshua Laughner, Richard Lee, Junjie Liu, Lucas Mandrake, Yuliya Marchetti, Gregory McGarragh, Aronne Merrelli, Robert R. Nelson, Greg Osterman, Fabiano Oyafuso, Paul I. Palmer, Vivienne H. Payne, Robert Rosenberg, Peter Somkuti, Gary Spiers, Cathy To, Brad Weir, Paul O. Wennberg, Shanshan Yu, and Jia Zong
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3173–3209, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3173-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3173-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2 and 3 (OCO-2 and OCO-3, respectively) provide complementary spatiotemporal coverage from a sun-synchronous and precession orbit, respectively. Estimates of total column carbon dioxide (XCO2) derived from the two sensors using the same retrieval algorithm show broad consistency over a 2.5-year overlapping time record. This suggests that data from the two satellites may be used together for scientific analysis.
Liang Feng, Paul I. Palmer, Robert J. Parker, Mark F. Lunt, and Hartmut Bösch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 4863–4880, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4863-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4863-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
Our understanding of recent changes in atmospheric methane has defied explanation. Since 2007, the atmospheric growth of methane has accelerated to record-breaking values in 2020 and 2021. We use satellite observations of methane to show that (1) increasing emissions over the tropics are mostly responsible for these recent atmospheric changes, and (2) changes in the OH sink during the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown can explain up to 34% of changes in atmospheric methane for that year.
Ana Maria Roxana Petrescu, Chunjing Qiu, Matthew J. McGrath, Philippe Peylin, Glen P. Peters, Philippe Ciais, Rona L. Thompson, Aki Tsuruta, Dominik Brunner, Matthias Kuhnert, Bradley Matthews, Paul I. Palmer, Oksana Tarasova, Pierre Regnier, Ronny Lauerwald, David Bastviken, Lena Höglund-Isaksson, Wilfried Winiwarter, Giuseppe Etiope, Tuula Aalto, Gianpaolo Balsamo, Vladislav Bastrikov, Antoine Berchet, Patrick Brockmann, Giancarlo Ciotoli, Giulia Conchedda, Monica Crippa, Frank Dentener, Christine D. Groot Zwaaftink, Diego Guizzardi, Dirk Günther, Jean-Matthieu Haussaire, Sander Houweling, Greet Janssens-Maenhout, Massaer Kouyate, Adrian Leip, Antti Leppänen, Emanuele Lugato, Manon Maisonnier, Alistair J. Manning, Tiina Markkanen, Joe McNorton, Marilena Muntean, Gabriel D. Oreggioni, Prabir K. Patra, Lucia Perugini, Isabelle Pison, Maarit T. Raivonen, Marielle Saunois, Arjo J. Segers, Pete Smith, Efisio Solazzo, Hanqin Tian, Francesco N. Tubiello, Timo Vesala, Guido R. van der Werf, Chris Wilson, and Sönke Zaehle
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 1197–1268, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-1197-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-1197-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
This study updates the state-of-the-art scientific overview of CH4 and N2O emissions in the EU27 and UK in Petrescu et al. (2021a). Yearly updates are needed to improve the different respective approaches and to inform on the development of formal verification systems. It integrates the most recent emission inventories, process-based model and regional/global inversions, comparing them with UNFCCC national GHG inventories, in support to policy to facilitate real-time verification procedures.
Kai Wu, Paul I. Palmer, Dien Wu, Denis Jouglet, Liang Feng, and Tom Oda
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 581–602, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-581-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-581-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
We evaluate the theoretical ability of the upcoming MicroCarb satellite to estimate urban CO2 emissions over Paris and London. We explore the relative performance of alternative two-sweep and three-sweep city observing modes and take into account the impacts of cloud cover and urban biological CO2 fluxes. Our results find both the two-sweep and three-sweep observing modes are able to reduce prior flux errors by 20 %–40 % depending on the prevailing wind direction and cloud coverage.
Robert J. Parker, Chris Wilson, Edward Comyn-Platt, Garry Hayman, Toby R. Marthews, A. Anthony Bloom, Mark F. Lunt, Nicola Gedney, Simon J. Dadson, Joe McNorton, Neil Humpage, Hartmut Boesch, Martyn P. Chipperfield, Paul I. Palmer, and Dai Yamazaki
Biogeosciences, 19, 5779–5805, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-5779-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-5779-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Wetlands are the largest natural source of methane, one of the most important climate gases. The JULES land surface model simulates these emissions. We use satellite data to evaluate how well JULES reproduces the methane seasonal cycle over different tropical wetlands. It performs well for most regions; however, it struggles for some African wetlands influenced heavily by river flooding. We explain the reasons for these deficiencies and highlight how future development will improve these areas.
Dien Wu, Junjie Liu, Paul O. Wennberg, Paul I. Palmer, Robert R. Nelson, Matthäus Kiel, and Annmarie Eldering
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 14547–14570, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14547-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14547-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Prior studies have derived the combustion efficiency for a region/city using observed CO2 and CO. We further zoomed into the urban domain and accounted for factors affecting the calculation of spatially resolved combustion efficiency from two satellites. The intra-city variability in combustion efficiency was linked to heavy industry within Shanghai and LA without relying on emission inventories. Such an approach can be applied when analyzing data from future geostationary satellites.
Pierre Friedlingstein, Michael O'Sullivan, Matthew W. Jones, Robbie M. Andrew, Luke Gregor, Judith Hauck, Corinne Le Quéré, Ingrid T. Luijkx, Are Olsen, Glen P. Peters, Wouter Peters, Julia Pongratz, Clemens Schwingshackl, Stephen Sitch, Josep G. Canadell, Philippe Ciais, Robert B. Jackson, Simone R. Alin, Ramdane Alkama, Almut Arneth, Vivek K. Arora, Nicholas R. Bates, Meike Becker, Nicolas Bellouin, Henry C. Bittig, Laurent Bopp, Frédéric Chevallier, Louise P. Chini, Margot Cronin, Wiley Evans, Stefanie Falk, Richard A. Feely, Thomas Gasser, Marion Gehlen, Thanos Gkritzalis, Lucas Gloege, Giacomo Grassi, Nicolas Gruber, Özgür Gürses, Ian Harris, Matthew Hefner, Richard A. Houghton, George C. Hurtt, Yosuke Iida, Tatiana Ilyina, Atul K. Jain, Annika Jersild, Koji Kadono, Etsushi Kato, Daniel Kennedy, Kees Klein Goldewijk, Jürgen Knauer, Jan Ivar Korsbakken, Peter Landschützer, Nathalie Lefèvre, Keith Lindsay, Junjie Liu, Zhu Liu, Gregg Marland, Nicolas Mayot, Matthew J. McGrath, Nicolas Metzl, Natalie M. Monacci, David R. Munro, Shin-Ichiro Nakaoka, Yosuke Niwa, Kevin O'Brien, Tsuneo Ono, Paul I. Palmer, Naiqing Pan, Denis Pierrot, Katie Pocock, Benjamin Poulter, Laure Resplandy, Eddy Robertson, Christian Rödenbeck, Carmen Rodriguez, Thais M. Rosan, Jörg Schwinger, Roland Séférian, Jamie D. Shutler, Ingunn Skjelvan, Tobias Steinhoff, Qing Sun, Adrienne J. Sutton, Colm Sweeney, Shintaro Takao, Toste Tanhua, Pieter P. Tans, Xiangjun Tian, Hanqin Tian, Bronte Tilbrook, Hiroyuki Tsujino, Francesco Tubiello, Guido R. van der Werf, Anthony P. Walker, Rik Wanninkhof, Chris Whitehead, Anna Willstrand Wranne, Rebecca Wright, Wenping Yuan, Chao Yue, Xu Yue, Sönke Zaehle, Jiye Zeng, and Bo Zheng
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 4811–4900, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-4811-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-4811-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
The Global Carbon Budget 2022 describes the datasets and methodology used to quantify the anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and their partitioning among the atmosphere, the land ecosystems, and the ocean. These living datasets are updated every year to provide the highest transparency and traceability in the reporting of CO2, the key driver of climate change.
Selena Georgiou, Edward T. A. Mitchard, Bart Crezee, Paul I. Palmer, Greta C. Dargie, Sofie Sjögersten, Corneille E. N. Ewango, Ovide B. Emba, Joseph T. Kanyama, Pierre Bola, Jean-Bosco N. Ndjango, Nicholas T. Girkin, Yannick E. Bocko, Suspense A. Ifo, and Simon L. Lewis
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-580, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-580, 2022
Preprint archived
Short summary
Short summary
Two major vegetation types, hardwood trees and palms, overlay the Central Congo Basin peatland complex, each dominant in different locations. We investigated the influence of terrain and climatological variables on their distribution, using a regression model, and found elevation and seasonal rainfall and temperature contribute significantly. There are indications of an optimal range of net water input for palm swamp to dominate, above and below which hardwood swamp dominates.
Carlos Alberti, Frank Hase, Matthias Frey, Darko Dubravica, Thomas Blumenstock, Angelika Dehn, Paolo Castracane, Gregor Surawicz, Roland Harig, Bianca C. Baier, Caroline Bès, Jianrong Bi, Hartmut Boesch, André Butz, Zhaonan Cai, Jia Chen, Sean M. Crowell, Nicholas M. Deutscher, Dragos Ene, Jonathan E. Franklin, Omaira García, David Griffith, Bruno Grouiez, Michel Grutter, Abdelhamid Hamdouni, Sander Houweling, Neil Humpage, Nicole Jacobs, Sujong Jeong, Lilian Joly, Nicholas B. Jones, Denis Jouglet, Rigel Kivi, Ralph Kleinschek, Morgan Lopez, Diogo J. Medeiros, Isamu Morino, Nasrin Mostafavipak, Astrid Müller, Hirofumi Ohyama, Paul I. Palmer, Mahesh Pathakoti, David F. Pollard, Uwe Raffalski, Michel Ramonet, Robbie Ramsay, Mahesh Kumar Sha, Kei Shiomi, William Simpson, Wolfgang Stremme, Youwen Sun, Hiroshi Tanimoto, Yao Té, Gizaw Mengistu Tsidu, Voltaire A. Velazco, Felix Vogel, Masataka Watanabe, Chong Wei, Debra Wunch, Marcia Yamasoe, Lu Zhang, and Johannes Orphal
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 2433–2463, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2433-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2433-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Space-borne greenhouse gas missions require ground-based validation networks capable of providing fiducial reference measurements. Here, considerable refinements of the calibration procedures for the COllaborative Carbon Column Observing Network (COCCON) are presented. Laboratory and solar side-by-side procedures for the characterization of the spectrometers have been refined and extended. Revised calibration factors for XCO2, XCO and XCH4 are provided, incorporating 47 new spectrometers.
Zhu Deng, Philippe Ciais, Zitely A. Tzompa-Sosa, Marielle Saunois, Chunjing Qiu, Chang Tan, Taochun Sun, Piyu Ke, Yanan Cui, Katsumasa Tanaka, Xin Lin, Rona L. Thompson, Hanqin Tian, Yuanzhi Yao, Yuanyuan Huang, Ronny Lauerwald, Atul K. Jain, Xiaoming Xu, Ana Bastos, Stephen Sitch, Paul I. Palmer, Thomas Lauvaux, Alexandre d'Aspremont, Clément Giron, Antoine Benoit, Benjamin Poulter, Jinfeng Chang, Ana Maria Roxana Petrescu, Steven J. Davis, Zhu Liu, Giacomo Grassi, Clément Albergel, Francesco N. Tubiello, Lucia Perugini, Wouter Peters, and Frédéric Chevallier
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 1639–1675, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-1639-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-1639-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
In support of the global stocktake of the Paris Agreement on climate change, we proposed a method for reconciling the results of global atmospheric inversions with data from UNFCCC national greenhouse gas inventories (NGHGIs). Here, based on a new global harmonized database that we compiled from the UNFCCC NGHGIs and a comprehensive framework presented in this study to process the results of inversions, we compared their results of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O).
Maya Ben-Yami, Hilke Oetjen, Helen Brindley, William Cossich, Dulce Lajas, Tiziano Maestri, Davide Magurno, Piera Raspollini, Luca Sgheri, and Laura Warwick
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 1755–1777, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1755-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1755-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Spectral emissivity is a key property of the Earth's surface. Few measurements exist in the far-infrared, despite recent work showing that its contribution is important for accurate modelling of global climate. In preparation for ESA’s EE9 FORUM mission (launch in 2026), this study takes the first steps towards the development of an operational emissivity retrieval for FORUM by investigating the sensitivity of the emissivity product to different physical and operational parameters.
Douglas P. Finch, Paul I. Palmer, and Tianran Zhang
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 721–733, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-721-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-721-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
We developed a machine learning model to detect plumes of nitrogen dioxide satellite observations over 2 years. We find over 310 000 plumes, mainly over cities, industrial regions, and areas of oil and gas production. Our model performs well in comparison to other datasets and in some cases finds emissions that are not included in other datasets. This method could be used to help locate and measure emission hotspots across the globe and help inform climate policies.
Thomas E. Taylor, Christopher W. O'Dell, David Crisp, Akhiko Kuze, Hannakaisa Lindqvist, Paul O. Wennberg, Abhishek Chatterjee, Michael Gunson, Annmarie Eldering, Brendan Fisher, Matthäus Kiel, Robert R. Nelson, Aronne Merrelli, Greg Osterman, Frédéric Chevallier, Paul I. Palmer, Liang Feng, Nicholas M. Deutscher, Manvendra K. Dubey, Dietrich G. Feist, Omaira E. García, David W. T. Griffith, Frank Hase, Laura T. Iraci, Rigel Kivi, Cheng Liu, Martine De Mazière, Isamu Morino, Justus Notholt, Young-Suk Oh, Hirofumi Ohyama, David F. Pollard, Markus Rettinger, Matthias Schneider, Coleen M. Roehl, Mahesh Kumar Sha, Kei Shiomi, Kimberly Strong, Ralf Sussmann, Yao Té, Voltaire A. Velazco, Mihalis Vrekoussis, Thorsten Warneke, and Debra Wunch
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 325–360, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-325-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-325-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
We provide an analysis of an 11-year record of atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations derived using an optimal estimation retrieval algorithm on measurements made by the GOSAT satellite. The new product (version 9) shows improvement over the previous version (v7.3) as evaluated against independent estimates of CO2 from ground-based sensors and atmospheric inversion systems. We also compare the new GOSAT CO2 values to collocated estimates from NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2.
Mark F. Lunt, Alistair J. Manning, Grant Allen, Tim Arnold, Stéphane J.-B. Bauguitte, Hartmut Boesch, Anita L. Ganesan, Aoife Grant, Carole Helfter, Eiko Nemitz, Simon J. O'Doherty, Paul I. Palmer, Joseph R. Pitt, Chris Rennick, Daniel Say, Kieran M. Stanley, Ann R. Stavert, Dickon Young, and Matt Rigby
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 16257–16276, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16257-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16257-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
We present an evaluation of the UK's methane emissions between 2013 and 2020 using a network of tall tower measurement sites. We find emissions that are consistent in both magnitude and trend with the UK's reported emissions, with a declining trend driven by a decrease in emissions from England. The impact of various components of the modelling set-up on these findings are explored through a number of sensitivity studies.
Mehliyar Sadiq, Paul I. Palmer, Mark F. Lunt, Liang Feng, Ingrid Super, Stijn N. C. Dellaert, and Hugo A. C. Denier van der Gon
Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2021-816, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2021-816, 2021
Publication in ACP not foreseen
Short summary
Short summary
We make use of high-resolution emission inventory of CO2 and co-emitted tracers, satellite measurements, together with nested atmospheric transport model simulation, to investigate how reactive trace gases such as nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide can be used as proxies to determine the combustion contribution to atmospheric CO2 over Europe. We find stronger correlation in ratios of nitrogen dioxide and carbon dioxide between emission and satellite observed and modelled column concentration.
Antoine Berchet, Espen Sollum, Rona L. Thompson, Isabelle Pison, Joël Thanwerdas, Grégoire Broquet, Frédéric Chevallier, Tuula Aalto, Adrien Berchet, Peter Bergamaschi, Dominik Brunner, Richard Engelen, Audrey Fortems-Cheiney, Christoph Gerbig, Christine D. Groot Zwaaftink, Jean-Matthieu Haussaire, Stephan Henne, Sander Houweling, Ute Karstens, Werner L. Kutsch, Ingrid T. Luijkx, Guillaume Monteil, Paul I. Palmer, Jacob C. A. van Peet, Wouter Peters, Philippe Peylin, Elise Potier, Christian Rödenbeck, Marielle Saunois, Marko Scholze, Aki Tsuruta, and Yuanhong Zhao
Geosci. Model Dev., 14, 5331–5354, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-5331-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-5331-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
We present here the Community Inversion Framework (CIF) to help rationalize development efforts and leverage the strengths of individual inversion systems into a comprehensive framework. The CIF is a programming protocol to allow various inversion bricks to be exchanged among researchers.
The ensemble of bricks makes a flexible, transparent and open-source Python-based tool. We describe the main structure and functionalities and demonstrate it in a simple academic case.
Caterina Mogno, Paul I. Palmer, Christoph Knote, Fei Yao, and Timothy J. Wallington
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 10881–10909, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10881-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10881-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
We use a 3-D atmospheric chemistry model to investigate how seasonal emissions sources and meteorological conditions affect the surface distribution of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and organic aerosol (OA) over the Indo-Gangetic Plain. We find that all seasonal mean values of PM2.5 still exceed safe air quality levels, with human emissions contributing to PM2.5 all year round, open fires during post- and pre-monsoon, and biogenic emissions during monsoon. OA contributes up to 30 % to PM2.5.
Margaret R. Marvin, Paul I. Palmer, Barry G. Latter, Richard Siddans, Brian J. Kerridge, Mohd Talib Latif, and Md Firoz Khan
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 1917–1935, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-1917-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-1917-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
We use an atmospheric chemistry model in combination with satellite and surface observations to investigate how biomass burning affects tropospheric ozone over Southeast Asia during its fire seasons. We find that nitrogen oxides from biomass burning were responsible for about 30 % of the regional ozone formation potential, and we estimate that ozone from biomass burning caused more than 400 excess premature deaths in Southeast Asia during the peak burning months of March and September 2014.
James D. Lee, Will S. Drysdale, Doug P. Finch, Shona E. Wilde, and Paul I. Palmer
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 15743–15759, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15743-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15743-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Efforts to prevent the COVID-19 virus spreading across the globe have included travel restrictions and the closure of workplaces, leading to a significant drop in emissions of primary air pollutants. This provides for a unique opportunity to examine how air pollutant concentrations respond to an abrupt and prolonged reduction. We examine how NO2 and O3 have been affected at several urban measurement sites in the UK. We look at the change in NO2 compared to previous years and the effect on O3.
Robert J. Parker, Alex Webb, Hartmut Boesch, Peter Somkuti, Rocio Barrio Guillo, Antonio Di Noia, Nikoleta Kalaitzi, Jasdeep S. Anand, Peter Bergamaschi, Frederic Chevallier, Paul I. Palmer, Liang Feng, Nicholas M. Deutscher, Dietrich G. Feist, David W. T. Griffith, Frank Hase, Rigel Kivi, Isamu Morino, Justus Notholt, Young-Suk Oh, Hirofumi Ohyama, Christof Petri, David F. Pollard, Coleen Roehl, Mahesh K. Sha, Kei Shiomi, Kimberly Strong, Ralf Sussmann, Yao Té, Voltaire A. Velazco, Thorsten Warneke, Paul O. Wennberg, and Debra Wunch
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 3383–3412, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-3383-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-3383-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
This work presents the latest release of the University of Leicester GOSAT methane data and acts as the definitive description of this dataset. We detail the processing, validation and evaluation involved in producing these data and highlight its many applications. With now over a decade of global atmospheric methane observations, this dataset has helped, and will continue to help, us better understand the global methane budget and investigate how it may respond to a future changing climate.
Pierre Friedlingstein, Michael O'Sullivan, Matthew W. Jones, Robbie M. Andrew, Judith Hauck, Are Olsen, Glen P. Peters, Wouter Peters, Julia Pongratz, Stephen Sitch, Corinne Le Quéré, Josep G. Canadell, Philippe Ciais, Robert B. Jackson, Simone Alin, Luiz E. O. C. Aragão, Almut Arneth, Vivek Arora, Nicholas R. Bates, Meike Becker, Alice Benoit-Cattin, Henry C. Bittig, Laurent Bopp, Selma Bultan, Naveen Chandra, Frédéric Chevallier, Louise P. Chini, Wiley Evans, Liesbeth Florentie, Piers M. Forster, Thomas Gasser, Marion Gehlen, Dennis Gilfillan, Thanos Gkritzalis, Luke Gregor, Nicolas Gruber, Ian Harris, Kerstin Hartung, Vanessa Haverd, Richard A. Houghton, Tatiana Ilyina, Atul K. Jain, Emilie Joetzjer, Koji Kadono, Etsushi Kato, Vassilis Kitidis, Jan Ivar Korsbakken, Peter Landschützer, Nathalie Lefèvre, Andrew Lenton, Sebastian Lienert, Zhu Liu, Danica Lombardozzi, Gregg Marland, Nicolas Metzl, David R. Munro, Julia E. M. S. Nabel, Shin-Ichiro Nakaoka, Yosuke Niwa, Kevin O'Brien, Tsuneo Ono, Paul I. Palmer, Denis Pierrot, Benjamin Poulter, Laure Resplandy, Eddy Robertson, Christian Rödenbeck, Jörg Schwinger, Roland Séférian, Ingunn Skjelvan, Adam J. P. Smith, Adrienne J. Sutton, Toste Tanhua, Pieter P. Tans, Hanqin Tian, Bronte Tilbrook, Guido van der Werf, Nicolas Vuichard, Anthony P. Walker, Rik Wanninkhof, Andrew J. Watson, David Willis, Andrew J. Wiltshire, Wenping Yuan, Xu Yue, and Sönke Zaehle
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 3269–3340, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-3269-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-3269-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
The Global Carbon Budget 2020 describes the data sets and methodology used to quantify the emissions of carbon dioxide and their partitioning among the atmosphere, land, and ocean. These living data are updated every year to provide the highest transparency and traceability in the reporting of CO2, the key driver of climate change.
Richard J. Bantges, Helen E. Brindley, Jonathan E. Murray, Alan E. Last, Jacqueline E. Russell, Cathryn Fox, Stuart Fox, Chawn Harlow, Sebastian J. O'Shea, Keith N. Bower, Bryan A. Baum, Ping Yang, Hilke Oetjen, and Juliet C. Pickering
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 12889–12903, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12889-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12889-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Understanding how ice clouds influence the Earth's energy balance remains a key challenge for predicting the future climate. These clouds are ubiquitous and are composed of ice crystals that have complex shapes that are incredibly difficult to model. This work exploits new measurements of the Earth's emitted thermal energy made from instruments flown on board an aircraft to test how well the latest ice cloud models can represent these clouds. Results indicate further developments are required.
Ruqian Miao, Qi Chen, Yan Zheng, Xi Cheng, Yele Sun, Paul I. Palmer, Manish Shrivastava, Jianping Guo, Qiang Zhang, Yuhan Liu, Zhaofeng Tan, Xuefei Ma, Shiyi Chen, Limin Zeng, Keding Lu, and Yuanhang Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 12265–12284, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12265-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12265-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
In this study we evaluated the model performances for simulating secondary inorganic aerosol (SIA) and organic aerosol (OA) in PM2.5 in China against comprehensive datasets. The potential biases from factors related to meteorology, emission, chemistry, and atmospheric removal are systematically investigated. This study provides a comprehensive understanding of modeling PM2.5, which is important for studies on the effectiveness of emission control strategies.
Mark F. Lunt, Paul I. Palmer, Liang Feng, Christopher M. Taylor, Hartmut Boesch, and Robert J. Parker
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 14721–14740, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-14721-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-14721-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
Using data from the GOSAT satellite between 2010 and 2016 and a Bayesian inversion approach, we estimate monthly emissions of methane from tropical Africa. We find an increase in methane emissions during this period, driven in part by rising emissions from South Sudan. Using ancillary data we attribute this short-term emissions rise to an increase in the extent of the Sudd wetlands driven by increased outflow from the East African lakes.
Sean Crowell, David Baker, Andrew Schuh, Sourish Basu, Andrew R. Jacobson, Frederic Chevallier, Junjie Liu, Feng Deng, Liang Feng, Kathryn McKain, Abhishek Chatterjee, John B. Miller, Britton B. Stephens, Annmarie Eldering, David Crisp, David Schimel, Ray Nassar, Christopher W. O'Dell, Tomohiro Oda, Colm Sweeney, Paul I. Palmer, and Dylan B. A. Jones
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 9797–9831, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-9797-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-9797-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
Space-based retrievals of carbon dioxide offer the potential to provide dense data in regions that are sparsely observed by the surface network. We find that flux estimates that are informed by the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2) show different character from that inferred using surface measurements in tropical land regions, particularly in Africa, with a much larger total emission and larger amplitude seasonal cycle.
Joseph R. Pitt, Grant Allen, Stéphane J.-B. Bauguitte, Martin W. Gallagher, James D. Lee, Will Drysdale, Beth Nelson, Alistair J. Manning, and Paul I. Palmer
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 8931–8945, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-8931-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-8931-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
This paper presents a new method to assess inventory estimates of greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions for large cities and their surrounding regions. A case study using data sampled by a research aircraft around London was used to test the method. We found that the UK national inventory agrees with our observations for CO but needed lower emissions for CH4 to agree with the measured data. Repeated studies could help determine how these emissions vary on different timescales.
Christophe Bellisario, Helen E. Brindley, Simon F. B. Tett, Rolando Rizzi, Gianluca Di Natale, Luca Palchetti, and Giovanni Bianchini
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 7927–7937, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-7927-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-7927-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
We explore the possibility of inferring far-infrared downwelling radiances from mid-infrared observations to better constrain radiation schemes in climate models. Our results imply that while it is feasible to use this type of approach, the quality of the extension will be strongly dependent on the noise characteristics of the observations and on the accurate characterisation of the atmospheric state.
Zongbo Shi, Tuan Vu, Simone Kotthaus, Roy M. Harrison, Sue Grimmond, Siyao Yue, Tong Zhu, James Lee, Yiqun Han, Matthias Demuzere, Rachel E. Dunmore, Lujie Ren, Di Liu, Yuanlin Wang, Oliver Wild, James Allan, W. Joe Acton, Janet Barlow, Benjamin Barratt, David Beddows, William J. Bloss, Giulia Calzolai, David Carruthers, David C. Carslaw, Queenie Chan, Lia Chatzidiakou, Yang Chen, Leigh Crilley, Hugh Coe, Tie Dai, Ruth Doherty, Fengkui Duan, Pingqing Fu, Baozhu Ge, Maofa Ge, Daobo Guan, Jacqueline F. Hamilton, Kebin He, Mathew Heal, Dwayne Heard, C. Nicholas Hewitt, Michael Hollaway, Min Hu, Dongsheng Ji, Xujiang Jiang, Rod Jones, Markus Kalberer, Frank J. Kelly, Louisa Kramer, Ben Langford, Chun Lin, Alastair C. Lewis, Jie Li, Weijun Li, Huan Liu, Junfeng Liu, Miranda Loh, Keding Lu, Franco Lucarelli, Graham Mann, Gordon McFiggans, Mark R. Miller, Graham Mills, Paul Monk, Eiko Nemitz, Fionna O'Connor, Bin Ouyang, Paul I. Palmer, Carl Percival, Olalekan Popoola, Claire Reeves, Andrew R. Rickard, Longyi Shao, Guangyu Shi, Dominick Spracklen, David Stevenson, Yele Sun, Zhiwei Sun, Shu Tao, Shengrui Tong, Qingqing Wang, Wenhua Wang, Xinming Wang, Xuejun Wang, Zifang Wang, Lianfang Wei, Lisa Whalley, Xuefang Wu, Zhijun Wu, Pinhua Xie, Fumo Yang, Qiang Zhang, Yanli Zhang, Yuanhang Zhang, and Mei Zheng
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 7519–7546, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-7519-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-7519-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
APHH-Beijing is a collaborative international research programme to study the sources, processes and health effects of air pollution in Beijing. This introduction to the special issue provides an overview of (i) the APHH-Beijing programme, (ii) the measurement and modelling activities performed as part of it and (iii) the air quality and meteorological conditions during joint intensive field campaigns as a core activity within APHH-Beijing.
Jamie R. Banks, Anja Hünerbein, Bernd Heinold, Helen E. Brindley, Hartwig Deneke, and Kerstin Schepanski
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 6893–6911, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-6893-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-6893-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
Saharan dust storms may be observed over the desert using false-colour infrared satellite imagery; in one widely used scheme dust displays characteristic pink colours. Simulating satellite imagery using a dust transport model, we confirm that water vapour is a major control on the apparent colour of dust in the false-colour imagery and that dust displays its deepest colours when it is at a high altitude and when the atmosphere is dry. Water vapour can obscure the presence of low-altitude dust.
Paul I. Palmer, Emily L. Wilson, Geronimo L. Villanueva, Giuliano Liuzzi, Liang Feng, Anthony J. DiGregorio, Jianping Mao, Lesley Ott, and Bryan Duncan
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 2579–2594, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-2579-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-2579-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
We describe the potential impact of a new, low-cost, portable ground instrument (the mini-LHR) that measures methane and carbon dioxide in the atmospheric column. This region is key in quantifying the global carbon budget but has geographical gaps in measurements left by ground-based networks and space-based observations. A deployment of 50 mini-LHRs would add new data products in the Amazon, the Arctic, and southern Asia and significantly improve knowledge of regional and global carbon budgets.
Emily D. White, Matthew Rigby, Mark F. Lunt, T. Luke Smallman, Edward Comyn-Platt, Alistair J. Manning, Anita L. Ganesan, Simon O'Doherty, Ann R. Stavert, Kieran Stanley, Mathew Williams, Peter Levy, Michel Ramonet, Grant L. Forster, Andrew C. Manning, and Paul I. Palmer
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 4345–4365, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-4345-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-4345-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
Understanding carbon dioxide (CO2) fluxes from the terrestrial biosphere on a national scale is important for evaluating land use strategies to mitigate climate change. We estimate emissions of CO2 from the UK biosphere using atmospheric data in a top-down approach. Our findings show that bottom-up estimates from models of biospheric fluxes overestimate the amount of CO2 uptake in summer. This suggests these models wrongly estimate or omit key processes, e.g. land disturbance due to harvest.
Carole Helfter, Neil Mullinger, Massimo Vieno, Simon O'Doherty, Michel Ramonet, Paul I. Palmer, and Eiko Nemitz
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 3043–3063, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-3043-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-3043-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
We present a novel approach to estimate the annual budgets of carbon dioxide (881.0 ± 128.5 Tg) and methane (2.55 ± 0.48 Tg) of the British Isles from shipborne measurements taken over a 3-year period (2015–2017). This study brings independent verification of the emission budgets estimated using alternative products and investigates the seasonality of these emissions, which is usually not possible.
Sarah Connors, Alistair J. Manning, Andrew D. Robinson, Stuart N. Riddick, Grant L. Forster, Anita Ganesan, Aoife Grant, Stephen Humphrey, Simon O'Doherty, Dave E. Oram, Paul I. Palmer, Robert L. Skelton, Kieran Stanley, Ann Stavert, Dickon Young, and Neil R. P. Harris
Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2018-1187, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2018-1187, 2018
Preprint withdrawn
Short summary
Short summary
Methane is an important greenhouse gas & reducing its emissions is a vital part of climate change mitigation to limit global temperature increase to 1.5 °C or 2.0 °C. This paper explains a way to estimate emitted methane over a sub-national area by combining measurements & computer dispersion modelling in a so-called
inversiontechnique. Compared with the current national inventory, our results show lower emissions for Cambridgeshire, possibly due to waste sector emission differences.
Oscar B. Dimdore-Miles, Paul I. Palmer, and Lori P. Bruhwiler
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 17895–17907, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-17895-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-17895-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
The Arctic is experiencing warming trends higher than the global mean. Arctic ecosystems are a large store of carbon. As the soil organic carbon thaws and decomposes, some fraction of this store will eventually be released to the atmosphere as methane. We show that a previously used measurement-based metric to identify changes in Arctic methane emissions does not reliably quantify these changes because it neglects the effect of atmospheric transport. A better metric will combine data and models.
Christopher W. O'Dell, Annmarie Eldering, Paul O. Wennberg, David Crisp, Michael R. Gunson, Brendan Fisher, Christian Frankenberg, Matthäus Kiel, Hannakaisa Lindqvist, Lukas Mandrake, Aronne Merrelli, Vijay Natraj, Robert R. Nelson, Gregory B. Osterman, Vivienne H. Payne, Thomas E. Taylor, Debra Wunch, Brian J. Drouin, Fabiano Oyafuso, Albert Chang, James McDuffie, Michael Smyth, David F. Baker, Sourish Basu, Frédéric Chevallier, Sean M. R. Crowell, Liang Feng, Paul I. Palmer, Mavendra Dubey, Omaira E. García, David W. T. Griffith, Frank Hase, Laura T. Iraci, Rigel Kivi, Isamu Morino, Justus Notholt, Hirofumi Ohyama, Christof Petri, Coleen M. Roehl, Mahesh K. Sha, Kimberly Strong, Ralf Sussmann, Yao Te, Osamu Uchino, and Voltaire A. Velazco
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 6539–6576, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-6539-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-6539-2018, 2018
Liang Feng, Paul I. Palmer, Robyn Butler, Stephen J. Andrews, Elliot L. Atlas, Lucy J. Carpenter, Valeria Donets, Neil R. P. Harris, Ross J. Salawitch, Laura L. Pan, and Sue M. Schauffler
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 14787–14798, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-14787-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-14787-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
We infer surface fluxes of bromoform (CHBr3) and dibromoform (CH2Br2) from CAST and CONTRAST aircraft observations over the western Pacific, using a tagged version of the GEOS-Chem global 3-D atmospheric chemistry model and a Maximum A Posteriori inverse model. Using the aircraft data, we estimate the regional fluxes about 20–40 % smaller than the prior inventories by Ordóñez et al. (2012). We find no evidence to support a robust linear relationship between CHBr3 and CH2Br2 oceanic emissions.
Robyn Butler, Paul I. Palmer, Liang Feng, Stephen J. Andrews, Elliot L. Atlas, Lucy J. Carpenter, Valeria Donets, Neil R. P. Harris, Stephen A. Montzka, Laura L. Pan, Ross J. Salawitch, and Sue M. Schauffler
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 13135–13153, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-13135-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-13135-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
Natural sources of short-lived bromoform and dibromomethane are important for determining the inorganic bromine budget in the stratosphere that drives ozone loss. Two new modelling techniques describe how different geographical source regions influence their atmospheric variability over the western Pacific. We find that it is driven primarily by open ocean sources, and we use atmospheric observations to help estimate their contributions to the upper tropospheric inorganic bromine budget.
Neil Humpage, Hartmut Boesch, Paul I. Palmer, Andy Vick, Phil Parr-Burman, Martyn Wells, David Pearson, Jonathan Strachan, and Naidu Bezawada
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 5199–5222, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-5199-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-5199-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
We present an overview of the GreenHouse gas Observations of the Stratosphere and Troposphere (GHOST) instrument, a novel shortwave infrared grating spectrometer designed for remote sensing of total column greenhouse gas concentrations from an aircraft. Using laboratory measurements we show that the GHOST design is able to achieve its science objectives. We conclude by describing GHOST's maiden flights on board the NASA Global Hawk UAV during CAST/ATTREX and show some of the initial results.
Paul I. Palmer, Simon O'Doherty, Grant Allen, Keith Bower, Hartmut Bösch, Martyn P. Chipperfield, Sarah Connors, Sandip Dhomse, Liang Feng, Douglas P. Finch, Martin W. Gallagher, Emanuel Gloor, Siegfried Gonzi, Neil R. P. Harris, Carole Helfter, Neil Humpage, Brian Kerridge, Diane Knappett, Roderic L. Jones, Michael Le Breton, Mark F. Lunt, Alistair J. Manning, Stephan Matthiesen, Jennifer B. A. Muller, Neil Mullinger, Eiko Nemitz, Sebastian O'Shea, Robert J. Parker, Carl J. Percival, Joseph Pitt, Stuart N. Riddick, Matthew Rigby, Harjinder Sembhi, Richard Siddans, Robert L. Skelton, Paul Smith, Hannah Sonderfeld, Kieran Stanley, Ann R. Stavert, Angelina Wenger, Emily White, Christopher Wilson, and Dickon Young
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 11753–11777, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-11753-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-11753-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
This paper provides an overview of the Greenhouse gAs Uk and Global Emissions (GAUGE) experiment. GAUGE was designed to quantify nationwide GHG emissions of the UK, bringing together measurements and atmospheric transport models. This novel experiment is the first of its kind. We anticipate it will inform the blueprint for countries that are building a measurement infrastructure in preparation for global stocktakes, which are a key part of the Paris Agreement.
Jamie R. Banks, Kerstin Schepanski, Bernd Heinold, Anja Hünerbein, and Helen E. Brindley
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 9681–9703, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-9681-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-9681-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
Satellite observations are used to visualize dust storms over the Sahara, and specific infrared channel combinations can highlight dust with distinctive pink colours. Using output from a dust-atmosphere model to simulate satellite imagery, we explore the consequences of particle size, shape, and refractive index for the colour of dust in the imagery. Particles with a radius of ~ 1.5 microns perturb the colour the most and an assumption of spherical dust appears to be insufficient.
Jake J. Gristey, J. Christine Chiu, Robert J. Gurney, Cyril J. Morcrette, Peter G. Hill, Jacqueline E. Russell, and Helen E. Brindley
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 5129–5145, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-5129-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-5129-2018, 2018
Luke Surl, Paul I. Palmer, and Gonzalo González Abad
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 4549–4566, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-4549-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-4549-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
We used observations of HCHO formaldehyde columns from the OMI satellite instrument and the GEOS-Chem atmospheric chemistry model to investigate how and why HCHO varies over India. We find that emissions of biogenic VOC from forests are the most powerful driver, with forests' response to seasonal temperature variations causing variation over time. Human-driven emissions of VOC and burning of vegetation have detectable, but more limited, impacts.
Liang Feng, Paul I. Palmer, Hartmut Bösch, Robert J. Parker, Alex J. Webb, Caio S. C. Correia, Nicholas M. Deutscher, Lucas G. Domingues, Dietrich G. Feist, Luciana V. Gatti, Emanuel Gloor, Frank Hase, Rigel Kivi, Yi Liu, John B. Miller, Isamu Morino, Ralf Sussmann, Kimberly Strong, Osamu Uchino, Jing Wang, and Andreas Zahn
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 4781–4797, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-4781-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-4781-2017, 2017
Short summary
Short summary
We use the GEOS-Chem global 3-D model of atmospheric chemistry and transport and an ensemble Kalman filter to simultaneously infer regional fluxes of methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) directly from GOSAT retrievals of XCH4:XCO2, using sparse ground-based CH4 and CO2 mole fraction data to anchor the ratio. Our results show that assimilation of GOSAT data significantly reduced the posterior uncertainty and changed the a priori spatial distribution of CH4 emissions.
Hyeong-Ahn Kwon, Rokjin J. Park, Jaein I. Jeong, Seungun Lee, Gonzalo González Abad, Thomas P. Kurosu, Paul I. Palmer, and Kelly Chance
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 4673–4686, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-4673-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-4673-2017, 2017
Short summary
Short summary
A geostationary satellite can measure daytime hourly HCHO columns. Atmospheric conditions such as synoptic meteorology and the presence of other gases and aerosols may affect HCHO measurements. We examine the effects of their temporal variation on the HCHO measurement of a geostationary satellite in East Asia. We find that the hourly variation of other species could be important. Especially the inclusion of hourly aerosol variation in the retrieval could lead to improving HCHO measurements.
Jamie R. Banks, Helen E. Brindley, Georgiy Stenchikov, and Kerstin Schepanski
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 3987–4003, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-3987-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-3987-2017, 2017
Short summary
Short summary
From an 11-year analysis of satellite measurements of atmospheric dust presence over the Red Sea, it is clear that there is a strong north–south gradient in dust activity and a pronounced interannual variability in this activity. Analysing two commonly used satellite retrieval methods to quantify dust presence, we find that under the most extreme dust storm conditions the measured dust optical thicknesses can diverge strongly between the two methods.
Eleonora Aruffo, Fabio Biancofiore, Piero Di Carlo, Marcella Busilacchio, Marco Verdecchia, Barbara Tomassetti, Cesare Dari-Salisburgo, Franco Giammaria, Stephane Bauguitte, James Lee, Sarah Moller, James Hopkins, Shalini Punjabi, Stephen J. Andrews, Alistair C. Lewis, Paul I. Palmer, Edward Hyer, Michael Le Breton, and Carl Percival
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 5591–5606, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-5591-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-5591-2016, 2016
Short summary
Short summary
During the BORTAS aircraft campaign, we measured NO2 and their oxidtation products (as peroxy nitrates) with a custom laser-induced fluorescence instrument. Because of the high correlation between known pyrogenic tracers (i.e., carbon monoxide) and peroxy nitrates, we provide two methods to use these species for the identification of biomass burning (BB) plumes. Using an artifical neural network, we improved the BB identification taking into account of a meteorological parameter (pressure).
Dennis Booge, Christa A. Marandino, Cathleen Schlundt, Paul I. Palmer, Michael Schlundt, Elliot L. Atlas, Astrid Bracher, Eric S. Saltzman, and Douglas W. R. Wallace
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 11807–11821, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-11807-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-11807-2016, 2016
Short summary
Short summary
Isoprene, a biogenic trace gas, is an important precursor of secondary organic aerosol/cloud condensation nuclei. Here, we use isoprene and related field measurements from three different ocean data sets together with remotely sensed satellite data to model global marine isoprene emissions. Our findings suggest that there is at least one missing oceanic source of isoprene and possibly other unknown factors in the ocean or atmosphere influencing the atmospheric values.
J. M. Barlow, P. I. Palmer, and L. M. Bruhwiler
Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2016-752, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2016-752, 2016
Revised manuscript has not been submitted
Short summary
Short summary
We report significant changes in the amplitude of the atmospheric CH4 seasonal cycle at sites over the Arctic. All corresponding evidence points to a persistent increase in wetlands. We show using a global 3-d chemistry transport model that reductions in North American and European fossil fuel emissions could explain a large portion of the amplitude decrease, but we still require significant, persistent emissions from wetlands to reconcile observed trends in the seasonal cycle.
R. Hossaini, P. K. Patra, A. A. Leeson, G. Krysztofiak, N. L. Abraham, S. J. Andrews, A. T. Archibald, J. Aschmann, E. L. Atlas, D. A. Belikov, H. Bönisch, L. J. Carpenter, S. Dhomse, M. Dorf, A. Engel, W. Feng, S. Fuhlbrügge, P. T. Griffiths, N. R. P. Harris, R. Hommel, T. Keber, K. Krüger, S. T. Lennartz, S. Maksyutov, H. Mantle, G. P. Mills, B. Miller, S. A. Montzka, F. Moore, M. A. Navarro, D. E. Oram, K. Pfeilsticker, J. A. Pyle, B. Quack, A. D. Robinson, E. Saikawa, A. Saiz-Lopez, S. Sala, B.-M. Sinnhuber, S. Taguchi, S. Tegtmeier, R. T. Lidster, C. Wilson, and F. Ziska
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 9163–9187, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-9163-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-9163-2016, 2016
Marcella Busilacchio, Piero Di Carlo, Eleonora Aruffo, Fabio Biancofiore, Cesare Dari Salisburgo, Franco Giammaria, Stephane Bauguitte, James Lee, Sarah Moller, James Hopkins, Shalini Punjabi, Stephen Andrews, Alistair C. Lewis, Mark Parrington, Paul I. Palmer, Edward Hyer, and Glenn M. Wolfe
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 3485–3497, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-3485-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-3485-2016, 2016
Short summary
Short summary
Boreal fire emissions have little effect on ozone concentrations but evident impact on some NOx reservoirs as peroxy nitrates that we quantified. This should be taken into account since NOx reservoirs can be efficiently transported and may influence the ozone budget far away from the fire emission.
The study is based on observations carried out on board the BAe 146 aircraft during BORTAS in Canada. We used a custom laser-induced fluorescence system to measure NO2 and NOx reservoirs.
John H. Marsham, Douglas J. Parker, Martin C. Todd, Jamie R. Banks, Helen E. Brindley, Luis Garcia-Carreras, Alexander J. Roberts, and Claire L. Ryder
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 3563–3575, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-3563-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-3563-2016, 2016
Short summary
Short summary
The roles of water, clouds and airborne dust in controlling the heating of the Sahara are uncertain, which has major implications for the West African monsoon. Observations from the Fennec project, with satellite data, show that total atmospheric water content provides a far stronger control on total radiative heating than dust does, but dust provides the stronger control on surface heating. Therefore major heating errors in global models are likely due to known errors in water transport.
L. Feng, P. I. Palmer, R. J. Parker, N. M. Deutscher, D. G. Feist, R. Kivi, I. Morino, and R. Sussmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 1289–1302, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-1289-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-1289-2016, 2016
Short summary
Short summary
There is an on-going debate on the larger European biospheric uptake inferred from GOSAT XCO2 retrievals than those inferred from in situ data. Using a set of 15 experiments, we found that the elevated uptake over Europe could largely be explained by mis-fitting data due to regional XCO2 biases: 50–80 % of the elevated European uptake is due to retrievals outside the immediate European; and a varying monthly bias of up to 0.5 ppm for XCO2 retrievals over Europe could explain most of the remainder.
J. R. Pitt, M. Le Breton, G. Allen, C. J. Percival, M. W. Gallagher, S. J.-B. Bauguitte, S. J. O'Shea, J. B. A. Muller, M. S. Zahniser, J. Pyle, and P. I. Palmer
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 63–77, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-63-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-63-2016, 2016
Short summary
Short summary
We present details of an Aerodyne quantum cascade laser absorption spectrometer (QCLAS) used to make airborne measurements of N2O and CH4, including its configuration for use on board an aircraft. Two different methods to correct for the influence of water vapour on the measurements are evaluated. We diagnose a sensitivity of the instrument to changes in pressure, introduce a new calibration procedure to account for this effect, and assess its performance.
J. M. Barlow, P. I. Palmer, L. M. Bruhwiler, and P. Tans
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 13739–13758, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-13739-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-13739-2015, 2015
Short summary
Short summary
The major results from our analysis include (1) a significant revision to previously reported estimates of phase changes in the seasonal cycle atmospheric CO2, which are more closely related to changes in the terrestrial biosphere; and (2) an indirect observation that is consistent with high northern latitude ecosystems progressively taking up more CO2 during spring and early summer.
H. Lindqvist, C. W. O'Dell, S. Basu, H. Boesch, F. Chevallier, N. Deutscher, L. Feng, B. Fisher, F. Hase, M. Inoue, R. Kivi, I. Morino, P. I. Palmer, R. Parker, M. Schneider, R. Sussmann, and Y. Yoshida
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 13023–13040, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-13023-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-13023-2015, 2015
Short summary
Short summary
Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration varies seasonally mainly due to plant photosynthesis in the Northern Hemisphere. We found that the satellite GOSAT can capture this variability from space to within 1ppm. We also found that models can differ by more than 1ppm. This implies that the satellite measurements could be useful in evaluating models and their prior estimates of carbon dioxide sources and sinks.
R. J. Parker, H. Boesch, K. Byckling, A. J. Webb, P. I. Palmer, L. Feng, P. Bergamaschi, F. Chevallier, J. Notholt, N. Deutscher, T. Warneke, F. Hase, R. Sussmann, S. Kawakami, R. Kivi, D. W. T. Griffith, and V. Velazco
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 4785–4801, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-4785-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-4785-2015, 2015
Short summary
Short summary
Atmospheric CH4 is an important greenhouse gas. Long-term global observations are necessary to understand its behaviour, with satellite observations playing a key role. The "proxy" retrieval method is one of the most successful but relies on the contribution from atmospheric CO2 models. This work assesses the significance of the uncertainty from the model CO2 within the retrieval and determines that despite this uncertainty the data are still valuable for determining sources and sinks of CH4.
S. Osipov, G. Stenchikov, H. Brindley, and J. Banks
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 9537–9553, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-9537-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-9537-2015, 2015
Short summary
Short summary
The radiative effect of dust over the Arabian Peninsula for different surfaces and for a range of optical depths is calculated and tested using satellite and ground-based observations.
C. L. Ryder, J. B. McQuaid, C. Flamant, P. D. Rosenberg, R. Washington, H. E. Brindley, E. J. Highwood, J. H. Marsham, D. J. Parker, M. C. Todd, J. R. Banks, J. K. Brooke, S. Engelstaedter, V. Estelles, P. Formenti, L. Garcia-Carreras, C. Kocha, F. Marenco, H. Sodemann, C. J. T. Allen, A. Bourdon, M. Bart, C. Cavazos-Guerra, S. Chevaillier, J. Crosier, E. Darbyshire, A. R. Dean, J. R. Dorsey, J. Kent, D. O'Sullivan, K. Schepanski, K. Szpek, J. Trembath, and A. Woolley
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 8479–8520, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-8479-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-8479-2015, 2015
Short summary
Short summary
Measurements of the Saharan atmosphere and of atmospheric mineral dust are lacking but are vital to our understanding of the climate of this region and their impacts further afield. Novel observations were made by the Fennec climate programme during June 2011 and 2012 using ground-based, remote sensing and airborne platforms. Here we describe the airborne observations and the contributions they have made to furthering our understanding of the Saharan climate system.
S. Gonzi, P. I. Palmer, R. Paugam, M. Wooster, and M. N. Deeter
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 4339–4355, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-4339-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-4339-2015, 2015
M. D. Jolleys, H. Coe, G. McFiggans, J. W. Taylor, S. J. O'Shea, M. Le Breton, S. J.-B. Bauguitte, S. Moller, P. Di Carlo, E. Aruffo, P. I. Palmer, J. D. Lee, C. J. Percival, and M. W. Gallagher
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 3077–3095, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-3077-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-3077-2015, 2015
Short summary
Short summary
Particulate emissions in the form of organic aerosol from boreal forest fires in Canada have been measured during an aircraft measurement campaign. Ratios of the amount of aerosol emitted relative to gas species such as CO were calculated and show high levels of variability throughout the campaign. This variability is affected by both changes in fire conditions, as fires tended to die down later in the measurement period, and by changes to the aerosol due to chemical reactions in the atmosphere.
D. P. Finch, P. I. Palmer, and M. Parrington
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 13789–13800, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-13789-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-13789-2014, 2014
Short summary
Short summary
We use the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model to quantify the CO sources responsible for the observed CO during the BORTAS-B campaign over Canada in 2011. We found the largest source was biomass burning from Ontario, with smaller sources from fossil fuel emissions from Asia and NE US. We develop an age-of-emission metric and show values in BORTAS-B are consistent with a slowing of photochemistry in plumes. Indirect evidence suggests this slowing is due to aerosols within the plumes.
J. W. Taylor, J. D. Allan, G. Allen, H. Coe, P. I. Williams, M. J. Flynn, M. Le Breton, J. B. A. Muller, C. J. Percival, D. Oram, G. Forster, J. D. Lee, A. R. Rickard, M. Parrington, and P. I. Palmer
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 13755–13771, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-13755-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-13755-2014, 2014
Short summary
Short summary
We present a case study of BC wet removal by examining aerosol properties in three biomass burning plumes, one of which passed through a precipitating cloud. Nucleation scavenging preferentially removed the largest and most coated BC-containing particles. Calculated single-scattering albedo (SSA) showed little variation, as a large number of non-BC particles were also present in the precipitation-affected plume.
A. Fraser, P. I. Palmer, L. Feng, H. Bösch, R. Parker, E. J. Dlugokencky, P. B. Krummel, and R. L. Langenfelds
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 12883–12895, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-12883-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-12883-2014, 2014
Short summary
Short summary
Satellite measurements of CO2 and CH4 can be subject to regional systematic errors that can consequently compromise their ability to infer robust flux estimates of these two gases. We develop a method to use retrieved ratios of CH4 and CO2 that are less affected by systematic error. We show that additional in situ data are needed to anchor these observed ratios so they can simultaneously infer fluxes of CO2 and CH4. We argue the ratio data will provide a more faithful description of true fluxes.
J. E. Franklin, J. R. Drummond, D. Griffin, J. R. Pierce, D. L. Waugh, P. I. Palmer, M. Parrington, J. D. Lee, A. C. Lewis, A. R. Rickard, J. W. Taylor, J. D. Allan, H. Coe, K. A. Walker, L. Chisholm, T. J. Duck, J. T. Hopper, Y. Blanchard, M. D. Gibson, K. R. Curry, K. M. Sakamoto, G. Lesins, L. Dan, J. Kliever, and A. Saha
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 8449–8460, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-8449-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-8449-2014, 2014
S. J. O'Shea, G. Allen, M. W. Gallagher, S. J.-B. Bauguitte, S. M. Illingworth, M. Le Breton, J. B. A. Muller, C. J. Percival, A. T. Archibald, D. E. Oram, M. Parrington, P. I. Palmer, and A. C. Lewis
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 12451–12467, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-12451-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-12451-2013, 2013
D. Griffin, K. A. Walker, J. E. Franklin, M. Parrington, C. Whaley, J. Hopper, J. R. Drummond, P. I. Palmer, K. Strong, T. J. Duck, I. Abboud, P. F. Bernath, C. Clerbaux, P.-F. Coheur, K. R. Curry, L. Dan, E. Hyer, J. Kliever, G. Lesins, M. Maurice, A. Saha, K. Tereszchuk, and D. Weaver
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 10227–10241, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-10227-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-10227-2013, 2013
M. Parrington, P. I. Palmer, A. C. Lewis, J. D. Lee, A. R. Rickard, P. Di Carlo, J. W. Taylor, J. R. Hopkins, S. Punjabi, D. E. Oram, G. Forster, E. Aruffo, S. J. Moller, S. J.-B. Bauguitte, J. D. Allan, H. Coe, and R. J. Leigh
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 7321–7341, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-7321-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-7321-2013, 2013
M. D. Gibson, J. R. Pierce, D. Waugh, J. S. Kuchta, L. Chisholm, T. J. Duck, J. T. Hopper, S. Beauchamp, G. H. King, J. E. Franklin, W. R. Leaitch, A. J. Wheeler, Z. Li, G. A. Gagnon, and P. I. Palmer
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 7199–7213, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-7199-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-7199-2013, 2013
P. I. Palmer, M. Parrington, J. D. Lee, A. C. Lewis, A. R. Rickard, P. F. Bernath, T. J. Duck, D. L. Waugh, D. W. Tarasick, S. Andrews, E. Aruffo, L. J. Bailey, E. Barrett, S. J.-B. Bauguitte, K. R. Curry, P. Di Carlo, L. Chisholm, L. Dan, G. Forster, J. E. Franklin, M. D. Gibson, D. Griffin, D. Helmig, J. R. Hopkins, J. T. Hopper, M. E. Jenkin, D. Kindred, J. Kliever, M. Le Breton, S. Matthiesen, M. Maurice, S. Moller, D. P. Moore, D. E. Oram, S. J. O'Shea, R. C. Owen, C. M. L. S. Pagniello, S. Pawson, C. J. Percival, J. R. Pierce, S. Punjabi, R. M. Purvis, J. J. Remedios, K. M. Rotermund, K. M. Sakamoto, A. M. da Silva, K. B. Strawbridge, K. Strong, J. Taylor, R. Trigwell, K. A. Tereszchuk, K. A. Walker, D. Weaver, C. Whaley, and J. C. Young
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 6239–6261, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-6239-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-6239-2013, 2013
A. Fraser, P. I. Palmer, L. Feng, H. Boesch, A. Cogan, R. Parker, E. J. Dlugokencky, P. J. Fraser, P. B. Krummel, R. L. Langenfelds, S. O'Doherty, R. G. Prinn, L. P. Steele, M. van der Schoot, and R. F. Weiss
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 5697–5713, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-5697-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-5697-2013, 2013
C. J. Hardacre, P. I. Palmer, K. Baumanns, M. Rounsevell, and D. Murray-Rust
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 5451–5472, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-5451-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-5451-2013, 2013
D. A. Belikov, S. Maksyutov, M. Krol, A. Fraser, M. Rigby, H. Bian, A. Agusti-Panareda, D. Bergmann, P. Bousquet, P. Cameron-Smith, M. P. Chipperfield, A. Fortems-Cheiney, E. Gloor, K. Haynes, P. Hess, S. Houweling, S. R. Kawa, R. M. Law, Z. Loh, L. Meng, P. I. Palmer, P. K. Patra, R. G. Prinn, R. Saito, and C. Wilson
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 1093–1114, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-1093-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-1093-2013, 2013
A. C. Lewis, M. J. Evans, J. R. Hopkins, S. Punjabi, K. A. Read, R. M. Purvis, S. J. Andrews, S. J. Moller, L. J. Carpenter, J. D. Lee, A. R. Rickard, P. I. Palmer, and M. Parrington
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 851–867, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-851-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-851-2013, 2013
C. L. Ryder, E. J. Highwood, P. D. Rosenberg, J. Trembath, J. K. Brooke, M. Bart, A. Dean, J. Crosier, J. Dorsey, H. Brindley, J. Banks, J. H. Marsham, J. B. McQuaid, H. Sodemann, and R. Washington
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 303–325, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-303-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-303-2013, 2013
Related subject area
Subject: Radiation | Research Activity: Remote Sensing | Altitude Range: Troposphere | Science Focus: Physics (physical properties and processes)
Estimation of the radiation budget during MOSAiC based on ground-based and satellite remote sensing observations
Understanding the trends in reflected solar radiation: a latitude- and month-based perspective
Evaluating the representation of Arctic cirrus solar radiative effects in the Integrated Forecasting System with airborne measurements
Uncertainty in simulated brightness temperature due to sensitivity to atmospheric gas spectroscopic parameters from the centimeter- to submillimeter-wave range
Direct observational evidence from space of the effect of CO2 increase on longwave spectral radiances: the unique role of high-spectral-resolution measurements
LIME: Lunar Irradiance Model of ESA, a new tool for absolute radiometric calibration using the Moon
Influence of cloud retrieval errors due to three-dimensional radiative effects on calculations of broadband shortwave cloud radiative effect
Estimation of 1 km downwelling shortwave radiation over the Tibetan Plateau under all-sky conditions
Record-breaking statistics detect islands of cooling in a sea of warming
Radiative closure and cloud effects on the radiation budget based on satellite and shipborne observations during the Arctic summer research cruise, PS106
Impacts of active satellite sensors' low-level cloud detection limitations on cloud radiative forcing in the Arctic
Longwave radiative effect of the cloud–aerosol transition zone based on CERES observations
Ice and mixed-phase cloud statistics on the Antarctic Plateau
Photovoltaic power potential in West Africa using long-term satellite data
A semi-empirical potential energy surface and line list for H216O extending into the near-ultraviolet
Global distribution and 14-year changes in erythemal irradiance, UV atmospheric transmission, and total column ozone for2005–2018 estimated from OMI and EPIC observations
Biomass-burning-induced surface darkening and its impact on regional meteorology in eastern China
Air pollution slows down surface warming over the Tibetan Plateau
Estimation of hourly land surface heat fluxes over the Tibetan Plateau by the combined use of geostationary and polar-orbiting satellites
Estimations of global shortwave direct aerosol radiative effects above opaque water clouds using a combination of A-Train satellite sensors
Uncertainty of atmospheric microwave absorption model: impact on ground-based radiometer simulations and retrievals
Simulated and observed horizontal inhomogeneities of optical thickness of Arctic stratus
Net radiative effects of dust in the tropical North Atlantic based on integrated satellite observations and in situ measurements
Comparison of global observations and trends of total precipitable water derived from microwave radiometers and COSMIC radio occultation from 2006 to 2013
Scale dependence of cirrus horizontal heterogeneity effects on TOA measurements – Part I: MODIS brightness temperatures in the thermal infrared
Aerosol scattering effects on water vapor retrievals over the Los Angeles Basin
Directional, horizontal inhomogeneities of cloud optical thickness fields retrieved from ground-based and airbornespectral imaging
Airborne observations of far-infrared upwelling radiance in the Arctic
Retrieval of aerosol optical depth from surface solar radiation measurements using machine learning algorithms, non-linear regression and a radiative transfer-based look-up table
Microwave signatures of ice hydrometeors from ground-based observations above Summit, Greenland
Shortwave direct radiative effects of above-cloud aerosols over global oceans derived from 8 years of CALIOP and MODIS observations
Retrieving high-resolution surface solar radiation with cloud parameters derived by combining MODIS and MTSAT data
Instantaneous longwave radiative impact of ozone: an application on IASI/MetOp observations
A method to retrieve super-thin cloud optical depth over ocean background with polarized sunlight
Airborne observations and simulations of three-dimensional radiative interactions between Arctic boundary layer clouds and ice floes
Deriving polarization properties of desert-reflected solar spectra with PARASOL data
Using IASI to simulate the total spectrum of outgoing long-wave radiances
Investigation of the "elevated heat pump" hypothesis of the Asian monsoon using satellite observations
Improved retrieval of direct and diffuse downwelling surface shortwave flux in cloudless atmosphere using dynamic estimates of aerosol content and type: application to the LSA-SAF project
Surface-sensible and latent heat fluxes over the Tibetan Plateau from ground measurements, reanalysis, and satellite data
Influence of local surface albedo variability and ice crystal shape on passive remote sensing of thin cirrus
Combining MODIS, AVHRR and in situ data for evapotranspiration estimation over heterogeneous landscape of the Tibetan Plateau
Modeling polarized solar radiation from the ocean–atmosphere system for CLARREO inter-calibration applications
HIRS channel 12 brightness temperature dataset and its correlations with major climate indices
Performance of the Line-By-Line Radiative Transfer Model (LBLRTM) for temperature, water vapor, and trace gas retrievals: recent updates evaluated with IASI case studies
Multi-satellite aerosol observations in the vicinity of clouds
CLARA-SAL: a global 28 yr timeseries of Earth's black-sky surface albedo
Quantitative comparison of the variability in observed and simulated shortwave reflectance
Regional radiative impact of volcanic aerosol from the 2009 eruption of Mt. Redoubt
Airborne hyperspectral observations of surface and cloud directional reflectivity using a commercial digital camera
Carola Barrientos-Velasco, Christopher J. Cox, Hartwig Deneke, J. Brant Dodson, Anja Hünerbein, Matthew D. Shupe, Patrick C. Taylor, and Andreas Macke
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 3929–3960, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3929-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3929-2025, 2025
Short summary
Short summary
Understanding how clouds affect the climate, especially in the Arctic, is crucial. This study used data from the largest polar expedition in history, MOSAiC, and the CERES satellite to analyse the impact of clouds on radiation. Simulations showed accurate results, aligning with observations. Over the year, clouds caused the atmospheric surface system to lose 5.2 W m−² of radiative energy to space, while the surface gained 25 W m−² and the atmosphere cooled by 30.2 W m−².
Ruixue Li, Bida Jian, Jiming Li, Deyu Wen, Lijie Zhang, Yang Wang, and Yuan Wang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 9777–9803, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-9777-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-9777-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Hemispheric or interannual averages of reflected solar radiation (RSR) can mask signals from seasonally active or region-specific mechanisms. We examine RSR characteristics from latitude and month perspectives, revealing decreased trends observed by CERES in both hemispheres driven by clear-sky atmospheric and cloud components at 30–50° N and cloud components at 0–50° S. AVHRR achieves symmetry criteria within uncertainty and is suitable for the long-term analysis of hemispheric RSR symmetry.
Johannes Röttenbacher, André Ehrlich, Hanno Müller, Florian Ewald, Anna E. Luebke, Benjamin Kirbus, Robin J. Hogan, and Manfred Wendisch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 8085–8104, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8085-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8085-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Weather prediction models simplify the physical processes related to light scattering by clouds consisting of complex ice crystals. Whether these simplifications are the cause for uncertainties in their prediction can be evaluated by comparing them with measurement data. Here we do this for Arctic ice clouds over sea ice using airborne measurements from two case studies. The model performs well for thick ice clouds but not so well for thin ones. This work can be used to improve the model.
Donatello Gallucci, Domenico Cimini, Emma Turner, Stuart Fox, Philip W. Rosenkranz, Mikhail Y. Tretyakov, Vinia Mattioli, Salvatore Larosa, and Filomena Romano
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 7283–7308, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-7283-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-7283-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Nowadays, atmospheric radiative transfer models are widely used to simulate satellite and ground-based observations. A meaningful comparison between observations and simulations requires an estimate of the uncertainty associated with both. This work quantifies the uncertainty in atmospheric radiative transfer models in the microwave range, providing the uncertainty associated with simulations of new-generation satellite microwave sensors.
João Teixeira, R. Chris Wilson, and Heidar Th. Thrastarson
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 6375–6383, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-6375-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-6375-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
This paper presents direct evidence from space (solely based on observations) that CO2 increase leads to the theoretically expected effects on longwave spectral radiances. This is achieved by using a methodology that allows us to isolate the CO2 effects from the temperature and water vapor effects. By searching for ensembles of temperature and water vapor profiles that are similar to each other but have different values of CO2, it is possible to estimate the direct effects of CO2 on the spectra.
Carlos Toledano, Sarah Taylor, África Barreto, Stefan Adriaensen, Alberto Berjón, Agnieszka Bialek, Ramiro González, Emma Woolliams, and Marc Bouvet
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 3649–3671, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-3649-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-3649-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
The calibration of Earth observation sensors is key to ensuring the continuity of long-term and global climate records. Satellite sensors, calibrated prior to launch, are susceptible to degradation in space. The Moon provides a stable calibration reference; however, its illumination depends on the Sun–Earth–Moon geometry and must be modelled. A new lunar irradiance model is presented, built upon observations over 5 years at a high-altitude observatory and a rigorous calibration and validation.
Adeleke S. Ademakinwa, Zahid H. Tushar, Jianyu Zheng, Chenxi Wang, Sanjay Purushotham, Jianwu Wang, Kerry G. Meyer, Tamas Várnai, and Zhibo Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 3093–3114, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-3093-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-3093-2024, 2024
Short summary
Short summary
Clouds play a critical role in our climate system. At present and in the near future, satellite-based remote sensing is the only means to obtain regional and global observations of cloud properties. The current satellite remote sensing algorithms are mostly based on the so-called 1D radiative transfer. This deviation from the 3D world reality can lead to large errors. In this study we investigate how this error affects our estimation of cloud radiative effects.
Peizhen Li, Lei Zhong, Yaoming Ma, Yunfei Fu, Meilin Cheng, Xian Wang, Yuting Qi, and Zixin Wang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 9265–9285, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9265-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9265-2023, 2023
Short summary
Short summary
In this paper, all-sky downwelling shortwave radiation (DSR) over the entire Tibetan Plateau (TP) at a spatial resolution of 1 km was estimated using an improved parameterization scheme. The influence of topography and different radiative attenuations were comprehensively taken into account. The derived DSR showed good agreement with in situ measurements. The accuracy was better than six other DSR products. The derived DSR also provided more reasonable and detailed spatial patterns.
Elisa T. Sena, Ilan Koren, Orit Altaratz, and Alexander B. Kostinski
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 16111–16122, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-16111-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-16111-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
We used record-breaking statistics together with spatial information to create record-breaking SST maps. The maps reveal warming patterns in the overwhelming majority of the ocean and coherent islands of cooling, where low records occur more frequently than high ones. Some of these cooling spots are well known; however, a surprising elliptical area in the Southern Ocean is observed as well. Similar analyses can be performed on other key climatological variables to explore their trend patterns.
Carola Barrientos-Velasco, Hartwig Deneke, Anja Hünerbein, Hannes J. Griesche, Patric Seifert, and Andreas Macke
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 9313–9348, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-9313-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-9313-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
This article describes an intercomparison of radiative fluxes and cloud properties from satellite, shipborne observations, and 1D radiative transfer simulations. The analysis focuses on research for PS106 expedition aboard the German research vessel, Polarstern. The results are presented in detailed case studies, time series for the PS106 cruise and extended to the central Arctic region. The findings illustrate the main periods of agreement and discrepancies of both points of view.
Yinghui Liu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 8151–8173, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-8151-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-8151-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
Cloud detection from state-of-art satellite radar and lidar misses low-level clouds. Using in situ observations, this study confirms this cloud detection limitation over the Arctic Ocean. Impacts of this detection limitation from combined satellite radar and lidar on the monthly mean radiation flux estimations at the surface and at the top of the atmosphere in the Arctic are limited but larger from only satellite radar or satellite lidar in monthly mean and instantaneous values.
Babak Jahani, Hendrik Andersen, Josep Calbó, Josep-Abel González, and Jan Cermak
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 1483–1494, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-1483-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-1483-2022, 2022
Short summary
Short summary
The change in the state of sky from cloudy to cloudless (or vice versa) comprises an additional phase called
transition zonewith characteristics laying between those of aerosols and clouds. This study presents an approach for the quantification of the broadband longwave radiative effects of the cloud–aerosol transition zone at the top of the atmosphere during daytime over the ocean based on satellite observations and radiative transfer simulations.
William Cossich, Tiziano Maestri, Davide Magurno, Michele Martinazzo, Gianluca Di Natale, Luca Palchetti, Giovanni Bianchini, and Massimo Del Guasta
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 13811–13833, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13811-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13811-2021, 2021
Short summary
Short summary
The presence of clouds over Concordia, in the Antarctic Plateau, is investigated. Results are obtained by applying a machine learning algorithm to measurements of the infrared radiation emitted by the atmosphere toward the surface. The clear-sky, ice cloud, and mixed-phase cloud occurrence at different timescales is studied. A comparison with satellite measurements highlights the ability of the algorithm to identify multiple cloud conditions and study their variability at different timescales.
Ina Neher, Susanne Crewell, Stefanie Meilinger, Uwe Pfeifroth, and Jörg Trentmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 12871–12888, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12871-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-12871-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Photovoltaic power is one current option to meet the rising energy demand with low environmental impact. Global horizontal irradiance (GHI) is the fuel for photovoltaic power installations and needs to be evaluated to plan and dimension power plants. In this study, 35 years of satellite-based GHI data are analyzed over West Africa to determine their impact on photovoltaic power generation. The major challenges for the development of a solar-based power system in West Africa are then outlined.
Eamon K. Conway, Iouli E. Gordon, Jonathan Tennyson, Oleg L. Polyansky, Sergei N. Yurchenko, and Kelly Chance
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 10015–10027, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-10015-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-10015-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Water vapour has a complex spectrum and absorbs from the microwave to the near-UV where it dissociates. There is limited knowledge of the absorption features in the near-UV, and there is a large disagreement for the available models and experiments. We created a new ab initio model that is in good agreement with observation at 363 nm. At lower wavelengths, our calculations suggest that the latest experiments overestimate absorption. This has implications for trace gas retrievals in the near-UV.
Jay Herman, Alexander Cede, Liang Huang, Jerald Ziemke, Omar Torres, Nickolay Krotkov, Matthew Kowalewski, and Karin Blank
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 8351–8380, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-8351-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-8351-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
The amount of erythemal irradiance reaching the Earth's surface has been calculated from ozone, aerosol, and reflectivity data obtained from OMI and DSCOVR/EPIC satellite instruments showing areas with high levels of solar UV radiation. Changes in erythemal irradiance, cloud transmission, aerosol transmission, and ozone absorption have been estimated for 14 years 2005–2018 in units of percent per year for 191 locations, mostly large cities, and from EPIC for the entire illuminated Earth.
Rong Tang, Xin Huang, Derong Zhou, and Aijun Ding
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 6177–6191, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-6177-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-6177-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
Biomass-burning-induced large areas of dark char (i.e.
surface darkening) could influence the radiative energy balance. During the harvest season in eastern China, satellite retrieval shows that surface albedo was significantly decreased. Observational evidence of meteorological perturbations from the surface darkening is identified, which is further examined by model simulation. This work highlights the importance of burning-induced albedo change in weather forecast and regional climate.
Aolin Jia, Shunlin Liang, Dongdong Wang, Bo Jiang, and Xiaotong Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 881–899, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-881-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-881-2020, 2020
Short summary
Short summary
The Tibetan Plateau (TP) plays a vital role in regional and global climate change due to its location and orography. After generating a long-term surface radiation (SR) dataset, we characterized the SR spatiotemporal variation along with temperature. Evidence from multiple data sources indicated that the TP dimming was primarily driven by increased aerosols from human activities, and the cooling effect of aerosol loading offsets TP surface warming, revealing the human impact on regional warming.
Lei Zhong, Yaoming Ma, Zeyong Hu, Yunfei Fu, Yuanyuan Hu, Xian Wang, Meilin Cheng, and Nan Ge
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 5529–5541, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-5529-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-5529-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
Fine-temporal-resolution turbulent heat fluxes at the plateau scale have significant importance for studying diurnal variation characteristics of atmospheric boundary and weather systems in the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and its surroundings. Time series of land surface heat fluxes with high temporal resolution over the entire TP were derived. The derived surface heat fluxes proved to be in good agreement with in situ measurements and were superior to GLDAS flux products.
Meloë S. Kacenelenbogen, Mark A. Vaughan, Jens Redemann, Stuart A. Young, Zhaoyan Liu, Yongxiang Hu, Ali H. Omar, Samuel LeBlanc, Yohei Shinozuka, John Livingston, Qin Zhang, and Kathleen A. Powell
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 4933–4962, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-4933-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-4933-2019, 2019
Short summary
Short summary
Significant efforts are required to estimate the direct radiative effects of aerosols above clouds (DAREcloudy). We have used a combination of passive and active A-Train satellite sensors and derive mainly positive global and regional DAREcloudy values (e.g., global seasonal values between 0.13 and 0.26 W m-2). Despite differences in methods and sensors, the DAREcloudy values in this study are generally higher than previously reported. We discuss the primary reasons for these higher estimates.
Domenico Cimini, Philip W. Rosenkranz, Mikhail Y. Tretyakov, Maksim A. Koshelev, and Filomena Romano
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 15231–15259, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-15231-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-15231-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
The paper presents a general approach to quantify the uncertainty related to atmospheric absorption models. These models describe how the atmosphere interacts with radiation, and they have general implications for atmospheric sciences.
The presented approach contributes to a better understanding of the total uncertainty affecting atmospheric radiative properties, thus reducing the chances of systematic errors when observations are exploited for weather forecast or climate trend derivations.
Michael Schäfer, Katharina Loewe, André Ehrlich, Corinna Hoose, and Manfred Wendisch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 13115–13133, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-13115-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-13115-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
Airborne observed horizontal fields of cloud optical thickness are compared with semi-idealized large eddy simulations of Arctic stratus. The comparison focuses on horizontal cloud inhomogeneities and directional features of the small-scale cloud structures. Using inhomogeneity parameters and autocorrelation analysis it is investigated, if the observed small-scale cloud inhomogeneities can be represented by the model. Forcings for cloud inhomogeneities are investigated in a sensitivity study.
Qianqian Song, Zhibo Zhang, Hongbin Yu, Seiji Kato, Ping Yang, Peter Colarco, Lorraine A. Remer, and Claire L. Ryder
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 11303–11322, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-11303-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-11303-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
Mineral dust is the most abundant atmospheric aerosol component in terms of dry mass. In this study, we integrate recent aircraft measurements of dust microphysical and optical properties with satellite retrievals of aerosol and radiative fluxes to quantify the dust direct radiative effects on the shortwave and longwave radiation at both the top of the atmosphere and the surface in the tropical North Atlantic during summer months.
Shu-Peng Ho, Liang Peng, Carl Mears, and Richard A. Anthes
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 259–274, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-259-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-259-2018, 2018
Short summary
Short summary
In this study, we compare 7 years of atmospheric total precipitable water (TPW) derived from multiple microwave radiometers to collocated TPW estimates derived from COSMIC radio occultation under various atmospheric conditions over the oceans. Results show that these two TPW trends from independent observations are larger than previous estimates and are a strong indication of the positive water vapor–temperature feedback on a warming planet.
Thomas Fauchez, Steven Platnick, Kerry Meyer, Céline Cornet, Frédéric Szczap, and Tamás Várnai
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 8489–8508, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-8489-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-8489-2017, 2017
Short summary
Short summary
This study presents impact of cirrus cloud horizontal heterogeneity on simulated thermal infrared brightness temperatures at the top of the atmosphere for spatial resolutions ranging from 50 m to 10 km. The cirrus is generated by the 3DCLOUD code and the radiative transfer by the 3DMCPOL code. Brightness temperatures are mostly impacted by the horizontal transport effect and plane-parallel bias at high and coarse spatial resolutions, respectively, with a minimum around 100 m–250 m.
Zhao-Cheng Zeng, Qiong Zhang, Vijay Natraj, Jack S. Margolis, Run-Lie Shia, Sally Newman, Dejian Fu, Thomas J. Pongetti, Kam W. Wong, Stanley P. Sander, Paul O. Wennberg, and Yuk L. Yung
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 2495–2508, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-2495-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-2495-2017, 2017
Short summary
Short summary
We propose a novel approach to describing the scattering effects of atmospheric aerosols using H2O retrievals in the near infrared. We found that the aerosol scattering effect is the primary contributor to the variations in the wavelength dependence of the H2O SCD retrievals and the scattering effects can be derived using H2O retrievals from multiple bands. This proposed method could potentially contribute towards reducing biases in greenhouse gas retrievals from space.
Michael Schäfer, Eike Bierwirth, André Ehrlich, Evelyn Jäkel, Frank Werner, and Manfred Wendisch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 2359–2372, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-2359-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-2359-2017, 2017
Short summary
Short summary
Cloud optical thickness fields, retrieved from solar spectral radiance measurements, are used to investigate the directional structure of horizontal cloud inhomogeneities with scalar one-dimensional inhomogeneity parameters, two-dimensional auto-correlation functions, and two-dimensional Fourier analysis. The investigations reveal that it is not sufficient to quantify horizontal cloud inhomogeneities by one-dimensional inhomogeneity parameters; two-dimensional parameters are necessary.
Quentin Libois, Liviu Ivanescu, Jean-Pierre Blanchet, Hannes Schulz, Heiko Bozem, W. Richard Leaitch, Julia Burkart, Jonathan P. D. Abbatt, Andreas B. Herber, Amir A. Aliabadi, and Éric Girard
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 15689–15707, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-15689-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-15689-2016, 2016
Short summary
Short summary
The first airborne measurements performed with the FIRR are presented. Vertical profiles of upwelling spectral radiance in the far-infrared are measured in the Arctic atmosphere for the first time. They show the impact of the temperature inversion on the radiative budget of the atmosphere, especially in the far-infrared. The presence of ice clouds also significantly alters the far-infrared budget, highlighting the critical interplay between water vapour and clouds in this very dry region.
Jani Huttunen, Harri Kokkola, Tero Mielonen, Mika Esa Juhani Mononen, Antti Lipponen, Juha Reunanen, Anders Vilhelm Lindfors, Santtu Mikkonen, Kari Erkki Juhani Lehtinen, Natalia Kouremeti, Alkiviadis Bais, Harri Niska, and Antti Arola
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 8181–8191, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-8181-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-8181-2016, 2016
Short summary
Short summary
For a good estimate of the current forcing by anthropogenic aerosols, knowledge in past is needed. One option to lengthen time series is to retrieve aerosol optical depth from solar radiation measurements. We have evaluated several methods for this task. Most of the methods produce aerosol optical depth estimates with a good accuracy. However, machine learning methods seem to be the most applicable not to produce any systematic biases, since they do not need constrain the aerosol properties.
Claire Pettersen, Ralf Bennartz, Mark S. Kulie, Aronne J. Merrelli, Matthew D. Shupe, and David D. Turner
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 4743–4756, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-4743-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-4743-2016, 2016
Short summary
Short summary
We examined four summers of data from a ground-based atmospheric science instrument suite at Summit Station, Greenland, to isolate the signature of the ice precipitation. By using a combination of instruments with different specialities, we identified a passive microwave signature of the ice precipitation. This ice signature compares well to models using synthetic data characteristic of the site.
Zhibo Zhang, Kerry Meyer, Hongbin Yu, Steven Platnick, Peter Colarco, Zhaoyan Liu, and Lazaros Oreopoulos
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 2877–2900, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-2877-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-2877-2016, 2016
Short summary
Short summary
The frequency of occurrence and shortwave direct radiative effects (DRE) of above-cloud aerosols (ACAs) over global oceans are investigated using 8 years of collocated CALIOP and MODIS observations. We estimated that ACAs have a global ocean annual mean diurnally averaged cloudy-sky DRE of 0.015 W m−2 (range of −0.03 to 0.06 W m−2) at TOA. The DREs at surface and within atmosphere are −0.15 W m−2 (range of −0.09 to −0.21 W m−2), and 0.17 W m−2 (range of 0.11 to 0.24 W m−2), respectively.
Wenjun Tang, Jun Qin, Kun Yang, Shaomin Liu, Ning Lu, and Xiaolei Niu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 2543–2557, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-2543-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-2543-2016, 2016
Short summary
Short summary
In this paper, we develop a new method to quickly retrieve high-resolution surface solar radiation (SSR) over China by combining MODIS and MTSAT data. The RMSEs of the retrieved SSR at hourly, daily, and monthly scales are about 98.5, 34.2, and 22.1 W m−2. The accuracy is comparable to or even higher than other two satellite radiation products. Finally, we derive an 8-year high-resolution SSR data set (hourly, 5 km) from 2007 to 2014, which would contribute to studies of land surface processes.
S. Doniki, D. Hurtmans, L. Clarisse, C. Clerbaux, H. M. Worden, K. W. Bowman, and P.-F. Coheur
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 12971–12987, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-12971-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-12971-2015, 2015
W. Sun, R. R. Baize, G. Videen, Y. Hu, and Q. Fu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 11909–11918, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-11909-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-11909-2015, 2015
Short summary
Short summary
A method is reported for retrieving super-thin cloud optical depth with polarized light. It is found that near-backscatter p-polarized light is sensitive to clouds, but not to ocean conditions. Near-backscatter p-polarized intensity linearly relates to super-thin cloud optical depth. Based on these findings, super-thin cloud optical depth can be retrieved with little effect from surface reflection.
M. Schäfer, E. Bierwirth, A. Ehrlich, E. Jäkel, and M. Wendisch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 8147–8163, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-8147-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-8147-2015, 2015
W. Sun, R. R. Baize, C. Lukashin, and Y. Hu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 7725–7734, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-7725-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-7725-2015, 2015
E. C. Turner, H.-T. Lee, and S. F. B. Tett
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 6561–6575, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-6561-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-6561-2015, 2015
M. M. Wonsick, R. T. Pinker, and Y. Ma
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 8749–8761, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-8749-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-8749-2014, 2014
X. Ceamanos, D. Carrer, and J.-L. Roujean
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 8209–8232, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-8209-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-8209-2014, 2014
Q. Shi and S. Liang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 5659–5677, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-5659-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-5659-2014, 2014
C. Fricke, A. Ehrlich, E. Jäkel, B. Bohn, M. Wirth, and M. Wendisch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 1943–1958, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-1943-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-1943-2014, 2014
Y. Ma, Z. Zhu, L. Zhong, B. Wang, C. Han, Z. Wang, Y. Wang, L. Lu, P. M. Amatya, W. Ma, and Z. Hu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 1507–1515, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-1507-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-1507-2014, 2014
W. Sun and C. Lukashin
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 10303–10324, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-10303-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-10303-2013, 2013
L. Shi, C. J. Schreck III, and V. O. John
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 6907–6920, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-6907-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-6907-2013, 2013
M. J. Alvarado, V. H. Payne, E. J. Mlawer, G. Uymin, M. W. Shephard, K. E. Cady-Pereira, J. S. Delamere, and J.-L. Moncet
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 6687–6711, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-6687-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-6687-2013, 2013
T. Várnai, A. Marshak, and W. Yang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 3899–3908, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-3899-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-3899-2013, 2013
A. Riihelä, T. Manninen, V. Laine, K. Andersson, and F. Kaspar
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 3743–3762, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-3743-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-3743-2013, 2013
Y. L. Roberts, P. Pilewskie, B. C. Kindel, D. R. Feldman, and W. D. Collins
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 3133–3147, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-3133-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-3133-2013, 2013
C. L. Young, I. N. Sokolik, and J. Dufek
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 12, 3699–3715, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-12-3699-2012, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-12-3699-2012, 2012
A. Ehrlich, E. Bierwirth, M. Wendisch, A. Herber, and J.-F. Gayet
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 12, 3493–3510, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-12-3493-2012, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-12-3493-2012, 2012
Cited articles
Agustí-Panareda, A., Beljaars, A., Ahlgrimm, M., Balsamo, G., Bock, O., Forbes, R., Ghelli, A., Guichard, F., Köhler, M., Meynadier, R., and Morcrette, J. J.: The ECMWF re-analysis for the AMMA observational campaign, Q. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 136, 1457–1472, https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.662, 2010.
Ansell, C., Brindley, H. E., Pradhan, Y., and Saunders, R.: Mineral dust aerosol net direct radiative effect during GERBILS field campaign period derived from SEVIRI and GERB, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 119, 4070–4086, https://doi.org/10.1002/2013JD020681, 2014.
Bechtold, P., Semane, N., Lopez, P., Chaboureau, J.-P., Beljaars, A., and Bormann, N.: Representing Equilibrium and Nonequilibrium Convection in Large-Scale Models, J. Atmos. Sci., 71, 734–753, https://doi.org/10.1175/JAS-D-13-0163.1, 2014.
Berrisford, P., Dee, D., Poli, P., Brugge, R., Fielding, K., Fuentes, M., Kållberg, P., Kobayashi, S., Uppala, S., and Simmons, A.: The ERA-Interim archive Version 2.0, Shinfield Park, Reading, 2011.
Brindley, H. E.: Estimating the top-of-atmosphere longwave radiative forcing due to Saharan dust from satellite observations over a west African surface site, Atmos. Sci. Lett., 8, 74–79, https://doi.org/10.1002/asl.155, 2007.
Brindley, H. E. and Bantges, R. J.: The Spectral Signature of Recent Climate Change, Current Climate Change Reports, 2, 112–126, https://doi.org/10.1007/s40641-016-0039-5, 2016.
Dee, D. P., Uppala, S. M., Simmons, A. J., Berrisford, P., Poli, P., Kobayashi, S., Andrae, U., Balmaseda, M. A., Balsamo, G., Bauer, P., Bechtold, P., Beljaars, A. C. M., van de Berg, L., Bidlot, J., Bormann, N., Delsol, C., Dragani, R., Fuentes, M., Geer, A. J., Haimberger, L., Healy, S. B., Hersbach, H., Hólm, E. V., Isaksen, L., Kållberg, P., Köhler, M., Matricardi, M., Mcnally, A. P., Monge-Sanz, B. M., Morcrette, J. J., Park, B. K., Peubey, C., de Rosnay, P., Tavolato, C., Thépaut, J. N., and Vitart, F.: The ERA-Interim reanalysis: Configuration and performance of the data assimilation system, Q. J. Roy. Meteor. Soc., 137, 553–597, https://doi.org/10.1002/qj.828, 2011.
Dewitte, S., Gonzalez, L., Clerbaux, N., Ipe, A., Bertrand, C., and De Paepe, B.: The Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget Edition 1 data processing algorithms, Adv. Space Res., 41, 1906–1913, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2007.07.042, 2008.
Dolinar, E. K., Dong, X., Xi, B., Jiang, J. H., and Su, H.: Evaluation of CMIP5 simulated clouds and TOA radiation budgets using NASA satellite observations, Clim. Dynam., 44, 2229–2247, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-014-2158-9, 2015.
Finkensieper, S., Meirink, J-F., van Zadelhoff, G-J., Hanschmann, T., Benas, N., Stengel, M., Fuchs, P., Hollmann, R. and Werscheck, M.: CLAAS-2: CM SAF CLoud property dAtAset using SEVIRI - Edition 2, Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring, 2016.
Flato, G., Marotzke, J., Abiodun, B., Braconnot, P., Chou, S., Collins, W., Cox, P., Driouech, F., Emori, S., Eyring, V., Forest, C., Gleckler, P., Guilyardi, E., Jakob, C., Kattsov, V., Reason, C., and Rummukainen, M.: Evaluation of Climate Models, Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 741–866, https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107415324, 2013.
Harries, J. E., Russell, J. E., Hanafin, J. A., Brindley, H., Futyan, J., Rufus, J., Kellock, S., Matthews, G., Wrigley, R., Last, A., Mueller, J., Mossavati, R., Ashmall, J., Sawyer, E., Parker, D., Caldwell, M., Allan, P. M., Smith, A., Bates, M. J., Coan, B., Stewart, B. C., Lepine, D. R., Cornwall, L. A., Corney, D. R., Ricketts, M. J., Drummond, D., Smart, D., Cutler, R., Dewitte, S., Clerbaux, N., Gonzalez, L., Ipe, A., Bertrand, C., Joukoff, A., Crommelynck, D., Nelms, N., Llewellyn-Jones, D. T., Butcher, G., Smith, G. L., Szewczyk, Z. P., Mlynczak, P. E., Slingo, A., Allan, R. P., and Ringer, M. A.: The Geostationary Earth Radiation Budget Project, B. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 86, 945–960, https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-86-7-945, 2005.
Harrison, L., Michalsky, J., and Berndt, J.: Automated multifilter rotating shadow-band radiometer: an instrument for optical depth and radiation measurements, Appl. Optics, 33, 5118–5125, https://doi.org/10.1364/AO.33.005118, 1994.
Hartmann, D. J., Klein Tank, A. M. G., Rusticucci, M., Alexander, L. V., Brönnimann, S., Charabi, Y. A.-R., Dentener, F. J., Dlugokencky, E. J., Easterling, D. R., Kaplan, A., Soden, B. J., Thorne, P. W., Wild, M., and Zhai, P.: Observations: Atmosphere and Surface, Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 159–254, https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107415324.008, 2013.
Hasternath, S. and Lamb, P.: Some aspects of the circulation and climate over the eastern equatorial Atlantic, Mon. Weather Rev., 105, 1019–1023, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0493(1977)105<1019:SAOCAC>2.0.CO;2, 1977.
Hogan, R. J. and Bozzo, A.: Mitigating errors in surface temperature forecasts using approximate radiation updates, J. Adv. Model. Earth Sy., 7, 836–853, https://doi.org/10.1002/2015MS000455, 2015.
Johnson, B. T., Osborne, S. R., Haywood, J. M., and Harrison, M. A. J.: Aircraft measurements of biomass burning aerosol over West Africa during DABEX, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 113, 1–15, https://doi.org/10.1029/2007JD009451, 2008.
Lélé, M. and Lamb, P. J.: Variability of the Intertropical Front (ITF) and Rainfall over the West African Sudan–Sahel Zone, J. Climate, 23, 3984–4004, https://doi.org/10.1175/2010JCLI3277.1, 2010.
Loeb, N. G., Kato, S., Su, W., Wong, T., Rose, F. G., Doelling, D. R., Norris, J. R., and Huang, X.: Advances in Understanding Top-of-Atmosphere Radiation Variability from Satellite Observations, Surv. Geophys., 33, 359–385, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10712-012-9175-1, 2012.
Marsham, J. H., Parker, D. J., Todd, M. C., Banks, J. R., Brindley, H. E., Garcia-Carreras, L., Roberts, A. J., and Ryder, C. L.: The contrasting roles of water and dust in controlling daily variations in radiative heating of the summertime Saharan heat low, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 3563–3575, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-3563-2016, 2016.
McFarlane, S. A., Mather, J. H., and Ackerman, T. P.: Analysis of tropical radiative heating profiles: A comparison of models and observations, J. Geophys. Res., 112, 1–22, https://doi.org/10.1029/2006JD008290, 2007.
McFarlane, S. A., Kassianov, E. I., Barnard, J., Flynn, C., and Ackerman, T. P.: Surface shortwave aerosol radiative forcing during the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Mobile Facility deployment in Niamey, Niger, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 114, 1–17, https://doi.org/10.1029/2008JD010491, 2009.
Michalsky, J. J., Schlemmer, J. A., Berkheiser, W. E., Berndt, J. L., Harrison, L. C., Laulainen, N. S., Larson, N. R., and Barnard, J. C.: Multiyear measurements of aerosol optical depth in the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement and Quantitative Links programs, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 106, 12099–12107, https://doi.org/10.1029/2001JD900096, 2001.
Miller, M. A., Ghate, V. P., and Zahn, R. K.: The radiation budget of the West African Sahel and its controls: A perspective from observations and global climate models, J. Climate, 25, 5976–5996, https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-11-00072.1, 2012.
Miller, M. J. and Slingo, A.: The arm mobile facility and its first international deployment – Measuring radiative flux divergence in west Africa, B. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 88, 1229–1244, https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-88-8-1229, 2007.
Miller, R. L., Slingo, A., Barnard, J. C., and Kassianov, E.: Seasonal contrast in the surface energy balance of the Sahel, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 114, 1–19, https://doi.org/10.1029/2008JD010521, 2009.
Milton, S. F., Greed, G., Brooks, M. E., Haywood, J., Johnson, B., Allan, R. P., Slingo, A., and Grey, W. M. F.: Modeled and observed atmospheric radiation balance during the West African dry season: Role of mineral dust, biomass burning aerosol, and surface albedo, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 113, 1–24, https://doi.org/10.1029/2007JD009741, 2008.
Ohmura, A., Dutton, E. G., Forgan, B., Fröhlich, C., Gilgen, H., Hegner, H., Heimo, A., König-Langlo, G., McArthur, B., Müller, G., Philipona, R., Pinker, R., Whitlock, C. H., Dehne, K., and Wild, M.: Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN/WCRP): New Precision Radiometry for Climate Research, B. Am. Meteorol. Soc. 79, 2115–2136, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0477(1998)079<2115:BSRNBW>2.0.CO;2, 1998.
Schmetz, J., Pili, P., Tjemkes, S., Just, D., Kerkmann, J., Rota, S., and Ratier, A.: Supplement to An Introduction to Meteosat Second Generation (MSG), B. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 83, 991–991, https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-83-7-Schmetz-1, 2002.
Schulz, J., Albert, P., Behr, H.-D., Caprion, D., Deneke, H., Dewitte, S., Dürr, B., Fuchs, P., Gratzki, A., Hechler, P., Hollmann, R., Johnston, S., Karlsson, K.-G., Manninen, T., Müller, R., Reuter, M., Riihelä, A., Roebeling, R., Selbach, N., Tetzlaff, A., Thomas, W., Werscheck, M., Wolters, E., and Zelenka, A.: Operational climate monitoring from space: the EUMETSAT Satellite Application Facility on Climate Monitoring (CM-SAF), Atmos. Chem. Phys., 9, 1687–1709, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-9-1687-2009, 2009.
Settle, J. J., Bharmal, N. A., Robinson, G. J., and Slingo, A.: Sampling uncertainties in surface radiation budget calculations in RADAGAST, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 113, D00E02, https://doi.org/10.1029/2008JD010509, 2008.
Slingo, A., Ackerman, T. P., Allan, R. P., Kassianov, E. I., McFarlane, S. A., Robinson, G. J., Barnard, J. C., Miller, M. A., Harries, J. E., Russell, J. E., and Dewitte, S.: Observations of the impact of a major Saharan dust storm on the atmospheric radiation balance, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L24817, https://doi.org/10.1029/2006GL027869, 2006.
Slingo, A., Bharmal, N. A., Robinson, G. J., Settle, J. J., Allan, R. P., White, H. E., Lamb, P. J., Lélé, M. I., Turner, D. D., McFarlane, S., Kassianov, E., Barnard, J., Flynn, C., and Miller, M.: Overview of observations from the RADAGAST experiment in Niamey, Niger: Meteorology and thermodynamic variables, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 114, 1–19, https://doi.org/10.1029/2008JD009909, 2008.
Slingo, A., Bharmal, N. A., Robinson, G. J., Settle, J. J., Allan, R. P., White, H. E., Lamb, P. J., Lélé, M. I., Turner, D. D., McFarlane, S., Kassianov, E., Barnard, J., Flynn, C., and Miller, M.: Overview of observations from the RADAGAST experiment in Niamey, Niger: Meteorology and thermodynamic variables, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 114, 1–19, https://doi.org/10.1029/2008JD009909, 2009.
Tegen, I., Hollrig, P., Chin, M., Fung, I., Jacob, D., and Penner, J.: Contribution of different aerosol species to the global aerosol extinction optical thickness: Estimates from model results, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 102, 23895–23915, https://doi.org/10.1029/97JD01864, 1997.
Walsh, J. E., Chapman, W. L., and Portis, D. H.: Arctic Cloud Fraction and Radiative Fluxes in Atmospheric Reanalyses, J. Climate, 22, 2316–2334, https://doi.org/10.1175/2008JCLI2213.1, 2009.
Wielicki, B. A., Wong, T., Allan, R. P., Slingo, A., Kiehl, J. T., Soden, B. J., Gordon, C. T., Miller, A. J., Yang, S.-K., Randall, D. A., Robertson, F., Susskind, J., and Jacobowitz, H.: Evidence for large decadal variability in the tropical mean radiative energy budget, Science, 295, 841–844, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1065837, 2002.
Wild, M.: Global dimming and brightening: A review, J. Geophys. Res., 114, D00D16, https://doi.org/10.1029/2008JD011470, 2009.
Wilks, D. S.: Statistical Methods in the Atmospheric Sciences, Academic Press, Oxford, 3rd Edn., 2011.
Short summary
We compare the balance of solar and thermal radiation at the surface and the top of the atmosphere from a forecasting model to observations at a site in Niamey, Niger, in the Sahel. To interpret the energy budgets we examine other factors, such as cloud properties, water vapour and aerosols, which we use to understand the differences between the observation and model. We find that some differences are linked to lack of ice in clouds, underestimated aerosol loading and surface temperatures.
We compare the balance of solar and thermal radiation at the surface and the top of the...
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint