Empirical evidence for deep convection being a major source of stratospheric ice clouds over North America

Zou, Ling; Hoffmann, Lars; Griessbach, Sabine; Spang, Reinhold; Wang, Lunche

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10457-2021

Articles | Volume 21, issue 13

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10457-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10457-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 21, issue 13

Research article

|

12 Jul 2021

Research article |

| 12 Jul 2021

Empirical evidence for deep convection being a major source of stratospheric ice clouds over North America

Ling Zou, Lars Hoffmann, Sabine Griessbach, Reinhold Spang, and Lunche Wang

Data sets

AIRS/Aqua Observations of Gravity Waves L. Hoffmann https://doi.org/10.17616/R34J42

Reanalysis Tropopause Data Repository L. Hoffmann https://doi.org/10.17616/R31NJMOH

Short summary

Ice clouds in the lowermost stratosphere (SICs) have important impacts on the radiation budget and climate change. We quantified the occurrence of SICs over North America and analysed its relations with convective systems and gravity waves to investigate potential formation mechanisms of SICs. Deep convection is proved to be the primary factor linked to the occurrence of SICs over North America.