Articles | Volume 19, issue 13
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-8491-2019
© Author(s) 2019. 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-19-8491-2019
© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
04 Jul 2019
Research article |
| 04 Jul 2019
| 04 Jul 2019
Variability of bulk water vapor content in the marine cloudy boundary layers from microwave and near-infrared imagery
Luis F. Millán
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA
Matthew D. Lebsock
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA
Joao Teixeira
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA
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Luis F. Millán, Matthew D. Lebsock, Ken B. Cooper, Jose V. Siles, Robert Dengler, Raquel Rodriguez Monje, Amin Nehrir, Rory A. Barton-Grimley, James E. Collins, Claire E. Robinson, Kenneth L. Thornhill, and Holger Vömel
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 539–559, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-539-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-539-2024, 2024
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Matthew D. Lebsock and Mikael Witte
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This paper evaluates measurements of cloud drop size distributions made from airplanes. We find that as the number of cloud drops increases the distribution of the cloud drop sizes narrows. The data are used to develop a simple equation that relates the drop number to the width of the drop sizes. We then use this equation to demonstrate that existing approaches to observe the drop number from satellites contain errors that can be corrected by including the new relationship.
Yunqian Zhu, Robert W. Portmann, Douglas Kinnison, Owen Brian Toon, Luis Millán, Jun Zhang, Holger Vömel, Simone Tilmes, Charles G. Bardeen, Xinyue Wang, Stephanie Evan, William J. Randel, and Karen H. Rosenlof
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 13355–13367, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13355-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13355-2023, 2023
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The 2022 Hunga Tonga eruption injected a large amount of water into the stratosphere. Ozone depletion was observed inside the volcanic plume. Chlorine and water vapor injected by this eruption exceeded the normal range, which made the ozone chemistry during this event occur at a higher temperature than polar ozone depletion. Unlike polar ozone chemistry where chlorine nitrate is more important, hypochlorous acid plays a large role in the in-plume chlorine balance and heterogeneous processes.
Richard M. Schulte, Matthew D. Lebsock, and John M. Haynes
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 3531–3546, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3531-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-3531-2023, 2023
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In order to constrain climate models and better understand how clouds might change in future climates, accurate satellite estimates of cloud liquid water content are important. The satellite currently best suited to this purpose, CloudSat, is not sensitive enough to detect some non-raining low clouds. In this study we show that information from two other satellite instruments, MODIS and CALIOP, can be combined to provide cloud water estimates for many of the clouds that are missed by CloudSat.
Luis F. Millán, Gloria L. Manney, Harald Boenisch, Michaela I. Hegglin, Peter Hoor, Daniel Kunkel, Thierry Leblanc, Irina Petropavlovskikh, Kaley Walker, Krzysztof Wargan, and Andreas Zahn
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Frank Werner, Nathaniel J. Livesey, Luis F. Millán, William G. Read, Michael J. Schwartz, Paul A. Wagner, William H. Daffer, Alyn Lambert, Sasha N. Tolstoff, and Michelle L. Santee
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The algorithm that produces the near-real-time data products of the Aura Microwave Limb Sounder has been updated. The new algorithm is based on machine learning techniques and yields data products with much improved accuracy. It is shown that the new algorithm outperforms the previous versions, even when it is trained on only a few years of satellite observations. This confirms the potential of applying machine learning to the near-real-time efforts of other current and future mission concepts.
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Low clouds are one of the largest sources of uncertainty in climate prediction. In this paper, we introduce the first version of the unified turbulence and shallow convection parameterization named SHOC+MF developed to improve the representation of shallow cumulus clouds in the Simple Cloud-Resolving E3SM Atmosphere Model (SCREAM). Here, we also show promising preliminary results in a single-column model framework for two benchmark cases of shallow cumulus convection.
Paul S. Jeffery, Kaley A. Walker, Chris E. Sioris, Chris D. Boone, Doug Degenstein, Gloria L. Manney, C. Thomas McElroy, Luis Millán, David A. Plummer, Niall J. Ryan, Patrick E. Sheese, and Jiansheng Zou
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Short summary
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The upper troposphere–lower stratosphere is one of the most variable regions in the atmosphere. To improve our understanding of water vapour and ozone concentrations in this region, climatologies have been developed from 14 years of measurements from three Canadian satellite instruments. Horizontal and vertical coordinates have been chosen to minimize the effects of variability. To aid in analysis, model simulations have been used to characterize differences between instrument climatologies.
Kevin M. Smalley, Matthew D. Lebsock, Ryan Eastman, Mark Smalley, and Mikael K. Witte
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We use geostationary satellite observations to track pockets of open-cell (POC) stratocumulus and analyze how precipitation, cloud microphysics, and the environment change. Precipitation becomes more intense, corresponding to increasing effective radius and decreasing number concentrations, while the environment remains relatively unchanged. This implies that changes in cloud microphysics are more important than the environment to POC development.
Lucien Froidevaux, Douglas E. Kinnison, Michelle L. Santee, Luis F. Millán, Nathaniel J. Livesey, William G. Read, Charles G. Bardeen, John J. Orlando, and Ryan A. Fuller
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 4779–4799, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-4779-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-4779-2022, 2022
Short summary
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We analyze satellite-derived distributions of chlorine monoxide (ClO) and hypochlorous acid (HOCl) in the upper atmosphere. For 2005–2020, from 50°S to 50°N and over ~30 to 45 km, ClO and HOCl decreased by −0.7 % and −0.4 % per year, respectively. A detailed model of chemistry and dynamics agrees with the results. These decreases confirm the effectiveness of the 1987 Montreal Protocol, which limited emissions of chlorine- and bromine-containing source gases, in order to protect the ozone layer.
Mark T. Richardson, David R. Thompson, Marcin J. Kurowski, and Matthew D. Lebsock
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 117–129, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-117-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-117-2022, 2022
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Sunlight can pass diagonally through the atmosphere, cutting through the 3-D water vapour field in a way that
smears2-D maps of imaging spectroscopy vapour retrievals. In simulations we show how this smearing is
towardsor
away fromthe Sun, so calculating
across the solar direction allows sub-kilometre information about water vapour's spatial scaling to be calculated. This could be tested by airborne campaigns and used to obtain new information from upcoming spaceborne data products.
Nathaniel J. Livesey, William G. Read, Lucien Froidevaux, Alyn Lambert, Michelle L. Santee, Michael J. Schwartz, Luis F. Millán, Robert F. Jarnot, Paul A. Wagner, Dale F. Hurst, Kaley A. Walker, Patrick E. Sheese, and Gerald E. Nedoluha
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 15409–15430, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15409-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15409-2021, 2021
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The Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS), an instrument on NASA's Aura mission launched in 2004, measures vertical profiles of the temperature and composition of Earth's "middle atmosphere" (the region from ~12 to ~100 km altitude). We describe how, among the 16 trace gases measured by MLS, the measurements of water vapor (H2O) and nitrous oxide (N2O) have started to drift since ~2010. The paper also discusses the origins of this drift and work to ameliorate it in a new version of the MLS dataset.
Richard J. Roy, Matthew Lebsock, and Marcin J. Kurowski
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 6443–6468, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-6443-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-6443-2021, 2021
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This study describes the potential capabilities of a hypothetical spaceborne radar to observe water vapor within clouds.
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Short summary
The synergy of the collocated Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR) and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) provides daily global estimates of marine boundary layer water vapor. AMSR provides the total column water vapor, while MODIS provides the water vapor above the cloud layers. The difference between the two gives the vapor between the surface and the cloud top, which may be interpreted as the boundary layer water vapor.
The synergy of the collocated Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR) and the Moderate...
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