Water vapor increase in the lower stratosphere of the Northern Hemisphere due to the Asian monsoon anticyclone observed during the TACTS/ESMVal campaigns

Rolf, Christian; Vogel, Bärbel; Hoor, Peter; Afchine, Armin; Günther, Gebhard; Krämer, Martina; Müller, Rolf; Müller, Stefan; Spelten, Nicole; Riese, Martin

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-2973-2018

Articles | Volume 18, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-2973-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Special issue:

StratoClim stratospheric and upper tropospheric processes...

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-2973-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 18, issue 4

Research article

|

01 Mar 2018

Research article |

| 01 Mar 2018

Water vapor increase in the lower stratosphere of the Northern Hemisphere due to the Asian monsoon anticyclone observed during the TACTS/ESMVal campaigns

Christian Rolf, Bärbel Vogel, Peter Hoor, Armin Afchine, Gebhard Günther, Martina Krämer, Rolf Müller, Stefan Müller, Nicole Spelten, and Martin Riese

Download

Final revised paper (published on 01 Mar 2018)
Preprint (discussion started on 20 Oct 2017)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

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

- Printer-friendly version

- Supplement

RC1: 'Review of “Water Vapor Increase in the Northern Lower Stratosphere by the Asian Monsoon Anticyclone Observed during TACTS/ESMVal Campaigns” by Rolf C. et al. (2017)', Anonymous Referee #1, 13 Nov 2017
RC2: 'Review of “Water vapor increase in the northern lower stratosphere by the Asian monsoon anticyclone observed during TACTS/ESMVal campaigns" by C. Rolf et al.', Anonymous Referee #2, 15 Nov 2017
AC1: 'Answers to reviewer #1', Christian Rolf, 09 Jan 2018
AC2: 'Answers to reviewer #2', Christian Rolf, 09 Jan 2018

Peer-review completion

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

AR by Christian Rolf on behalf of the Authors (09 Jan 2018)

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (12 Jan 2018) by Farahnaz Khosrawi

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (23 Jan 2018)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

Review of "Water Vapor Increase in the Northern Lower Stratosphere by the Asian Monsoon Anticyclone Observed during TACTS/ESMVal Campaigns" by Rolf C. et al. (2017)

Comments

The authors seem to have put a significant amount of effort revising the manuscript. As a result, the clarity of the manuscript has increased and the conclusion is better supported. There are minor technical errors throughout the manuscript can further be addressed.

P1 and other - northern hemisphere -> Northern Hemisphere

P1, L5 - TACTS (Transport and Composition in the UT/LMS) 5 and ESMVal (Earth System Model Validation) -> Transport and Composition in the UT/LMS, 5 (TACTS5) and Earth System Model Validation (ESMVal)

P2, and other - e.g. -> e.g.,

P3, Fig. 1 - Blue rather looks like purple.

P3, L5 - mainly over Europe and the Atlantic Ocean. -> and over Europe and the Atlantic Ocean.

P3, L11 - The separation allows the temporal evolution of the trace gas composition of the Ex-LS between the two phases to be investigated. -> The separation allows the investigation of the temporal…

P4, L4 - FISH (Fast In situ Stratospheric Hygrometer) -> Fast In situ Stratospheric Hygrometer (FISH)

P4, L8 - TRIHOP (TRacer In situ QCL and HydrOgen Peroxide monitor) -> TRacer In situ QCL and HydrOgen Peroxide monitor (TRIHOP)

P4, L17 - and transported -> which are transported

P4, L25 - ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts) -> European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF)

P4, L31 - AURA-MLS -> Aura MLS

P5, L5 - masses (younger than 5 months) -> masses (lifetimes shorter than ~5 months)

P5, L15 - parameters such as -> parameters, such as

P6, L10 - e.g. Pan and Munchak (2011) -> Pan and Munchak (2011)
P7, L12 - to a doubling -> to a doubling of the concentration?

P7, L14 - reveals -> reveal

P7, L20 - Methane is sourced -> Methane has a source

P7, L22 - wetlands such as -> wetlands, such as

P10, Fig. 4 - Red and blue look more like pink and purple. Please double check.

P10, L1 and 4 - better correlation -> stronger correlation?

P11, L6 and other - i.e. -> i.e.,

P12, L14 - stratosphere. -> stratosphere during Northern summer.

Hide

RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (24 Jan 2018)

ED: Publish subject to technical corrections (25 Jan 2018) by Farahnaz Khosrawi

AR by Christian Rolf on behalf of the Authors (29 Jan 2018) Manuscript

Short summary

The Asian monsoon is a pronounced circulation system linked to rapid vertical transport of surface air from India and east Asia in the summer months. We found, based on aircraft measurements, higher concentration of water vapor in the lowermost stratosphere caused by the Asian monsoon. Enrichment of water vapor concentrations in the lowermost stratosphere impacts the radiation budget and thus climate. Understanding those variations in water vapor is important for climate projections.