Articles | Volume 22, issue 23
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-15559-2022
© Author(s) 2022. 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-22-15559-2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
12 Dec 2022
Research article |
| 12 Dec 2022
| 12 Dec 2022
Vertical structure of the lower-stratospheric moist bias in the ERA5 reanalysis and its connection to mixing processes
Konstantin Krüger
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Institut für
Physik der Atmosphäre, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
Andreas Schäfler
Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Institut für
Physik der Atmosphäre, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
Martin Wirth
Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Institut für
Physik der Atmosphäre, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
Martin Weissmann
Institut für Meteorologie und Geophysik, Universität Wien,
Vienna, Austria
George C. Craig
Meteorologisches Institut München,
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany
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EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-6092, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-6092, 2026
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Ocean evaporation transfers heat and moisture to the atmosphere, shaping our weather and climate. Yet humidity just above the ocean is difficult to measure from space. Here we show that lasers measuring low cloud base height can infer near-surface humidity. Measurements from ships, aircraft, and weather balloons are used to validate the method. Applied to satellites, this method could help fill gaps in humidity measurements over the ocean.
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In May 2024 the joint mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) EarthCARE was launched. A similar payload as deployed on the satellite was set up on the German research aircraft HALO, and deployed during an extensive measurement campaign out of three locations to validated the satellite. In this manuscript we present our instrumentation, the measurements, and its potential for the validation of EarthCARE. We also show first results.
Maurus Borne, Peter Knippertz, Michael Rennie, and Martin Weissmann
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5219, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-5219, 2025
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This study shows that Aeolus satellite wind lidar observations significantly improve wind forecasts and that these improvements lead to more accurate rainfall predictions, particularly at longer lead times and during winter seasons in the extratropics. The benefits are likely due to better representation of large-scale atmospheric features such as jet streams and Rossby waves, highlighting Aeolus's value for numerical weather prediction.
Sven Krautwurst, Christian Fruck, Sebastian Wolff, Jakob Borchardt, Oke Huhs, Konstantin Gerilowski, Michał Gałkowski, Christoph Kiemle, Mathieu Quatrevalet, Martin Wirth, Christian Mallaun, John P. Burrows, Christoph Gerbig, Andreas Fix, Hartmut Bösch, and Heinrich Bovensmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 14669–14702, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-14669-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-14669-2025, 2025
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Anomalously high CH4 emissions from landfills in Madrid, Spain, have been observed by satellite measurements in recent years. Our investigations of these waste facilities, using passive and active airborne remote sensing measurements, confirm these high emission rates with values of up to 13 th−1 during the overflight and show excellent agreement between the two techniques. A large fraction of the emissions is attributed to active landfill sites.
Anna Lea Albright, Bjorn Stevens, and Martin Wirth
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3551, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3551, 2025
Preprint archived
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Ocean evaporation transfers heat and moisture into the atmosphere, shaping our weather and climate, yet humidity just above the ocean is hard to measure from space. We show that lasers measuring low cloud height can accurately infer near-surface humidity. Tests on ships, aircraft, and with weather balloons are used to validate the method. Applied to satellites, this method could help fill gaps in humidity measurements over the ocean.
André Ehrlich, Susanne Crewell, Andreas Herber, Marcus Klingebiel, Christof Lüpkes, Mario Mech, Sebastian Becker, Stephan Borrmann, Heiko Bozem, Matthias Buschmann, Hans-Christian Clemen, Elena De La Torre Castro, Henning Dorff, Regis Dupuy, Oliver Eppers, Florian Ewald, Geet George, Andreas Giez, Sarah Grawe, Christophe Gourbeyre, Jörg Hartmann, Evelyn Jäkel, Philipp Joppe, Olivier Jourdan, Zsófia Jurányi, Benjamin Kirbus, Johannes Lucke, Anna E. Luebke, Maximilian Maahn, Nina Maherndl, Christian Mallaun, Johanna Mayer, Stephan Mertes, Guillaume Mioche, Manuel Moser, Hanno Müller, Veronika Pörtge, Nils Risse, Greg Roberts, Sophie Rosenburg, Johannes Röttenbacher, Michael Schäfer, Jonas Schaefer, Andreas Schäfler, Imke Schirmacher, Johannes Schneider, Sabrina Schnitt, Frank Stratmann, Christian Tatzelt, Christiane Voigt, Andreas Walbröl, Anna Weber, Bruno Wetzel, Martin Wirth, and Manfred Wendisch
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 1295–1328, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1295-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-1295-2025, 2025
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This paper provides an overview of the HALO–(AC)3 aircraft campaign data sets, the campaign-specific instrument operation, data processing, and data quality. The data set comprises in situ and remote sensing observations from three research aircraft: HALO, Polar 5, and Polar 6. All data are published in the PANGAEA database by instrument-separated data subsets. It is highlighted how the scientific analysis of the HALO–(AC)3 data benefits from the coordinated operation of three aircraft.
Oriol Tintó Prims, Robert Redl, Marc Rautenhaus, Tobias Selz, Takumi Matsunobu, Kameswar Rao Modali, and George Craig
Geosci. Model Dev., 17, 8909–8925, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-8909-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-17-8909-2024, 2024
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Advanced compression techniques can drastically reduce the size of meteorological datasets (by 5 to 150 times) without compromising the data's scientific value. We developed a user-friendly tool called
enstools-compressionthat makes this compression simple for Earth scientists. This tool works seamlessly with common weather and climate data formats. Our work shows that lossy compression can significantly improve how researchers store and analyze large meteorological datasets.
Christoph Kiemle, Andreas Fix, Christian Fruck, Gerhard Ehret, and Martin Wirth
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 6569–6578, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6569-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6569-2024, 2024
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Nitrous oxide is the third most important greenhouse gas modified by human activities after carbon dioxide and methane. This study examines the feasibility of airborne differential absorption lidar to quantify emissions from agriculture, fossil fuel combustion, industry, and biomass burning. Simulations show that a technically realizable and affordable mid-infrared lidar system will be able to measure the nitrous oxide column concentration enhancements with sufficient precision.
Manfred Wendisch, Susanne Crewell, André Ehrlich, Andreas Herber, Benjamin Kirbus, Christof Lüpkes, Mario Mech, Steven J. Abel, Elisa F. Akansu, Felix Ament, Clémantyne Aubry, Sebastian Becker, Stephan Borrmann, Heiko Bozem, Marlen Brückner, Hans-Christian Clemen, Sandro Dahlke, Georgios Dekoutsidis, Julien Delanoë, Elena De La Torre Castro, Henning Dorff, Regis Dupuy, Oliver Eppers, Florian Ewald, Geet George, Irina V. Gorodetskaya, Sarah Grawe, Silke Groß, Jörg Hartmann, Silvia Henning, Lutz Hirsch, Evelyn Jäkel, Philipp Joppe, Olivier Jourdan, Zsofia Jurányi, Michail Karalis, Mona Kellermann, Marcus Klingebiel, Michael Lonardi, Johannes Lucke, Anna E. Luebke, Maximilian Maahn, Nina Maherndl, Marion Maturilli, Bernhard Mayer, Johanna Mayer, Stephan Mertes, Janosch Michaelis, Michel Michalkov, Guillaume Mioche, Manuel Moser, Hanno Müller, Roel Neggers, Davide Ori, Daria Paul, Fiona M. Paulus, Christian Pilz, Felix Pithan, Mira Pöhlker, Veronika Pörtge, Maximilian Ringel, Nils Risse, Gregory C. Roberts, Sophie Rosenburg, Johannes Röttenbacher, Janna Rückert, Michael Schäfer, Jonas Schaefer, Vera Schemann, Imke Schirmacher, Jörg Schmidt, Sebastian Schmidt, Johannes Schneider, Sabrina Schnitt, Anja Schwarz, Holger Siebert, Harald Sodemann, Tim Sperzel, Gunnar Spreen, Bjorn Stevens, Frank Stratmann, Gunilla Svensson, Christian Tatzelt, Thomas Tuch, Timo Vihma, Christiane Voigt, Lea Volkmer, Andreas Walbröl, Anna Weber, Birgit Wehner, Bruno Wetzel, Martin Wirth, and Tobias Zinner
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 8865–8892, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8865-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8865-2024, 2024
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The Arctic is warming faster than the rest of the globe. Warm-air intrusions (WAIs) into the Arctic may play an important role in explaining this phenomenon. Cold-air outbreaks (CAOs) out of the Arctic may link the Arctic climate changes to mid-latitude weather. In our article, we describe how to observe air mass transformations during CAOs and WAIs using three research aircraft instrumented with state-of-the-art remote-sensing and in situ measurement devices.
Georgios Dekoutsidis, Martin Wirth, and Silke Groß
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 5971–5987, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-5971-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-5971-2024, 2024
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For decades the earth's temperature has been rising. The Arctic regions are warming faster. Cirrus clouds can contribute to this phenomenon. During warm-air intrusions, air masses are transported into the Arctic from the mid-latitudes. The HALO-(AC)3 campaign took place to measure cirrus during intrusion events and under normal conditions. We study the two cloud types based on these measurements and find differences in their geometry, relative humidity distribution and vertical structure.
Konstantin Krüger, Andreas Schäfler, Martin Weissmann, and George C. Craig
Weather Clim. Dynam., 5, 491–509, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-5-491-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-5-491-2024, 2024
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Short summary
Initial conditions of current numerical weather prediction models insufficiently represent the sharp vertical gradients across the midlatitude tropopause. Observation-space data assimilation output is used to study the influence of assimilated radiosondes on the tropopause. The radiosondes reduce systematic biases of the model background and sharpen temperature and wind gradients in the analysis. Tropopause sharpness is still underestimated in the analysis, which may impact weather forecasts.
Maurus Borne, Peter Knippertz, Martin Weissmann, Benjamin Witschas, Cyrille Flamant, Rosimar Rios-Berrios, and Peter Veals
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 561–581, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-561-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-561-2024, 2024
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This study assesses the quality of Aeolus wind measurements over the tropical Atlantic. The results identified the accuracy and precision of the Aeolus wind measurements and the potential source of errors. For instance, the study revealed atmospheric conditions that can deteriorate the measurement quality, such as weaker laser signal in cloudy or dusty conditions, and confirmed the presence of an orbital-dependant bias. These results can help to improve the Aeolus wind measurement algorithm.
Andreas A. Beckert, Lea Eisenstein, Annika Oertel, Tim Hewson, George C. Craig, and Marc Rautenhaus
Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 4427–4450, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-4427-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-4427-2023, 2023
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We investigate the benefit of objective 3-D front detection with modern interactive visual analysis techniques for case studies of extra-tropical cyclones and comparisons of frontal structures between different numerical weather prediction models. The 3-D frontal structures show agreement with 2-D fronts from surface analysis charts and augment them in the vertical dimension. We see great potential for more complex studies of atmospheric dynamics and for operational weather forecasting.
Silke Groß, Tina Jurkat-Witschas, Qiang Li, Martin Wirth, Benedikt Urbanek, Martina Krämer, Ralf Weigel, and Christiane Voigt
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 8369–8381, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8369-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8369-2023, 2023
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Aviation-emitted aerosol can have an impact on cirrus clouds. We present optical and microphysical properties of mid-latitude cirrus clouds which were formed under the influence of aviation-emitted aerosol or which were formed under rather pristine conditions. We find that cirrus clouds affected by aviation-emitted aerosol show larger values of the particle linear depolarization ratio, larger mean effective ice particle diameters and decreased ice particle number concentrations.
Anne Martin, Martin Weissmann, and Alexander Cress
Weather Clim. Dynam., 4, 249–264, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-4-249-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-4-249-2023, 2023
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Global wind profiles from the Aeolus satellite mission are an important recent substitute for the Global Observing System, showing an overall positive impact on numerical weather prediction forecasts. This study highlights atmospheric dynamic phenomena constituting pathways for significant improvement of Aeolus for future studies, including large-scale tropical circulation systems and the interaction of tropical cyclones undergoing an extratropical transition with the midlatitude waveguide.
Georgios Dekoutsidis, Silke Groß, Martin Wirth, Martina Krämer, and Christian Rolf
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 3103–3117, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-3103-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-3103-2023, 2023
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Cirrus clouds affect Earth's atmosphere, deeming our study important. Here we use water vapor measurements by lidar and study the relative humidity (RHi) within and around midlatitude cirrus clouds. We find high supersaturations in the cloud-free air and within the clouds, especially near the cloud top. We study two cloud types with different formation processes. Finally, we conclude that the shape of the distribution of RHi can be used as an indicator of different cloud evolutionary stages.
Ziming Wang, Luca Bugliaro, Tina Jurkat-Witschas, Romy Heller, Ulrike Burkhardt, Helmut Ziereis, Georgios Dekoutsidis, Martin Wirth, Silke Groß, Simon Kirschler, Stefan Kaufmann, and Christiane Voigt
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 1941–1961, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-1941-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-1941-2023, 2023
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Differences in the microphysical properties of contrail cirrus and natural cirrus in a contrail outbreak situation during the ML-CIRRUS campaign over the North Atlantic flight corridor can be observed from in situ measurements. The cirrus radiative effect in the area of the outbreak, derived from satellite observation-based radiative transfer modeling, is warming in the early morning and cooling during the day.
Andreas Schäfler, Michael Sprenger, Heini Wernli, Andreas Fix, and Martin Wirth
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 999–1018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-999-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-999-2023, 2023
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In this study, airborne lidar profile measurements of H2O and O3 across a midlatitude jet stream are combined with analyses in tracer–trace space and backward trajectories. We highlight that transport and mixing processes in the history of the observed air masses are governed by interacting tropospheric weather systems on synoptic timescales. We show that these weather systems play a key role in the high variability of the paired H2O and O3 distributions near the tropopause.
Tobias Necker, David Hinger, Philipp Johannes Griewank, Takemasa Miyoshi, and Martin Weissmann
Nonlin. Processes Geophys., 30, 13–29, https://doi.org/10.5194/npg-30-13-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/npg-30-13-2023, 2023
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This study investigates vertical localization based on a convection-permitting 1000-member ensemble simulation. We derive an empirical optimal localization (EOL) that minimizes sampling error in 40-member sub-sample correlations assuming 1000-member correlations as truth. The results will provide guidance for localization in convective-scale ensemble data assimilation systems.
Benjamin Witschas, Christian Lemmerz, Alexander Geiß, Oliver Lux, Uwe Marksteiner, Stephan Rahm, Oliver Reitebuch, Andreas Schäfler, and Fabian Weiler
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 7049–7070, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-7049-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-7049-2022, 2022
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In August 2018, the first wind lidar Aeolus was launched into space and has since then been providing data of the global wind field. The primary goal of Aeolus was the improvement of numerical weather prediction. To verify the quality of Aeolus wind data, DLR performed four airborne validation campaigns with two wind lidar systems. In this paper, we report on results from the two later campaigns, performed in Iceland and the tropics.
Oliver Lux, Benjamin Witschas, Alexander Geiß, Christian Lemmerz, Fabian Weiler, Uwe Marksteiner, Stephan Rahm, Andreas Schäfler, and Oliver Reitebuch
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 6467–6488, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6467-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6467-2022, 2022
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We discuss the influence of different quality control schemes on the results of Aeolus wind product validation and present statistical tools for ensuring consistency and comparability among diverse validation studies with regard to the specific error characteristics of the Rayleigh-clear and Mie-cloudy winds. The developed methods are applied for the validation of Aeolus winds against an ECMWF model background and airborne wind lidar data from the Joint Aeolus Tropical Atlantic Campaign.
Andreas Alexander Beckert, Lea Eisenstein, Annika Oertel, Timothy Hewson, George C. Craig, and Marc Rautenhaus
Weather Clim. Dynam. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-2022-36, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-2022-36, 2022
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This study revises and extends a previously presented 3-D objective front detection method and demonstrates its benefits to analyse weather dynamics in numerical simulation data. Based on two case studies of extratropical cyclones, we demonstrate the evaluation of conceptual models from dynamic meteorology, illustrate the benefits of our interactive analysis approach by comparing fronts in data with different model resolutions, and study the impact of convection on fronts.
Manuel Gutleben, Silke Groß, Christian Heske, and Martin Wirth
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 7319–7330, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-7319-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-7319-2022, 2022
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The main transportation route of Saharan mineral dust particles leads over the subtropical Atlantic Ocean and is subject to a seasonal variation. This study investigates the characteristics of wintertime transatlantic dust transport towards the Caribbean by means of airborne lidar measurements. It is found that dust particles are transported at low atmospheric altitudes (<3.5 km) embedded in a relatively moist mixture with two other particle types, namely marine and biomass-burning particles.
Theresa Mieslinger, Bjorn Stevens, Tobias Kölling, Manfred Brath, Martin Wirth, and Stefan A. Buehler
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 6879–6898, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-6879-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-6879-2022, 2022
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The trades are home to a plethora of small cumulus clouds that are often barely visible to the human eye and difficult to detect with active and passive remote sensing methods. With the help of a new method and by means of high-resolution data we can detect small and particularly thin clouds. We find that optically thin clouds are a common phenomenon in the trades, covering a large area and influencing the radiative effect of clouds if they are undetected and contaminate the cloud-free signal.
Raphael Kriegmair, Yvonne Ruckstuhl, Stephan Rasp, and George Craig
Nonlin. Processes Geophys., 29, 171–181, https://doi.org/10.5194/npg-29-171-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/npg-29-171-2022, 2022
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Our regional numerical weather prediction models run at kilometer-scale resolutions. Processes that occur at smaller scales not yet resolved contribute significantly to the atmospheric flow. We use a neural network (NN) to represent the unresolved part of physical process such as cumulus clouds. We test this approach on a simplified, yet representative, 1D model and find that the NN corrections vastly improve the model forecast up to a couple of days.
Oliver Lux, Christian Lemmerz, Fabian Weiler, Uwe Marksteiner, Benjamin Witschas, Stephan Rahm, Alexander Geiß, Andreas Schäfler, and Oliver Reitebuch
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 1303–1331, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1303-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1303-2022, 2022
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The article discusses modifications in the wind retrieval of the ALADIN Airborne Demonstrator (A2D) – one of the key instruments for the validation of Aeolus. Thanks to the retrieval refinements, which are demonstrated in the context of two airborne campaigns in 2019, the systematic and random wind errors of the A2D were significantly reduced, thereby enhancing its validation capabilities. Finally, wind comparisons between A2D and Aeolus for the validation of the satellite data are presented.
Heike Konow, Florian Ewald, Geet George, Marek Jacob, Marcus Klingebiel, Tobias Kölling, Anna E. Luebke, Theresa Mieslinger, Veronika Pörtge, Jule Radtke, Michael Schäfer, Hauke Schulz, Raphaela Vogel, Martin Wirth, Sandrine Bony, Susanne Crewell, André Ehrlich, Linda Forster, Andreas Giez, Felix Gödde, Silke Groß, Manuel Gutleben, Martin Hagen, Lutz Hirsch, Friedhelm Jansen, Theresa Lang, Bernhard Mayer, Mario Mech, Marc Prange, Sabrina Schnitt, Jessica Vial, Andreas Walbröl, Manfred Wendisch, Kevin Wolf, Tobias Zinner, Martin Zöger, Felix Ament, and Bjorn Stevens
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 5545–5563, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-5545-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-5545-2021, 2021
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The German research aircraft HALO took part in the research campaign EUREC4A in January and February 2020. The focus area was the tropical Atlantic east of the island of Barbados. We describe the characteristics of the 15 research flights, provide auxiliary information, derive combined cloud mask products from all instruments that observe clouds on board the aircraft, and provide code examples that help new users of the data to get started.
Bjorn Stevens, Sandrine Bony, David Farrell, Felix Ament, Alan Blyth, Christopher Fairall, Johannes Karstensen, Patricia K. Quinn, Sabrina Speich, Claudia Acquistapace, Franziska Aemisegger, Anna Lea Albright, Hugo Bellenger, Eberhard Bodenschatz, Kathy-Ann Caesar, Rebecca Chewitt-Lucas, Gijs de Boer, Julien Delanoë, Leif Denby, Florian Ewald, Benjamin Fildier, Marvin Forde, Geet George, Silke Gross, Martin Hagen, Andrea Hausold, Karen J. Heywood, Lutz Hirsch, Marek Jacob, Friedhelm Jansen, Stefan Kinne, Daniel Klocke, Tobias Kölling, Heike Konow, Marie Lothon, Wiebke Mohr, Ann Kristin Naumann, Louise Nuijens, Léa Olivier, Robert Pincus, Mira Pöhlker, Gilles Reverdin, Gregory Roberts, Sabrina Schnitt, Hauke Schulz, A. Pier Siebesma, Claudia Christine Stephan, Peter Sullivan, Ludovic Touzé-Peiffer, Jessica Vial, Raphaela Vogel, Paquita Zuidema, Nicola Alexander, Lyndon Alves, Sophian Arixi, Hamish Asmath, Gholamhossein Bagheri, Katharina Baier, Adriana Bailey, Dariusz Baranowski, Alexandre Baron, Sébastien Barrau, Paul A. Barrett, Frédéric Batier, Andreas Behrendt, Arne Bendinger, Florent Beucher, Sebastien Bigorre, Edmund Blades, Peter Blossey, Olivier Bock, Steven Böing, Pierre Bosser, Denis Bourras, Pascale Bouruet-Aubertot, Keith Bower, Pierre Branellec, Hubert Branger, Michal Brennek, Alan Brewer, Pierre-Etienne Brilouet, Björn Brügmann, Stefan A. Buehler, Elmo Burke, Ralph Burton, Radiance Calmer, Jean-Christophe Canonici, Xavier Carton, Gregory Cato Jr., Jude Andre Charles, Patrick Chazette, Yanxu Chen, Michal T. Chilinski, Thomas Choularton, Patrick Chuang, Shamal Clarke, Hugh Coe, Céline Cornet, Pierre Coutris, Fleur Couvreux, Susanne Crewell, Timothy Cronin, Zhiqiang Cui, Yannis Cuypers, Alton Daley, Gillian M. Damerell, Thibaut Dauhut, Hartwig Deneke, Jean-Philippe Desbios, Steffen Dörner, Sebastian Donner, Vincent Douet, Kyla Drushka, Marina Dütsch, André Ehrlich, Kerry Emanuel, Alexandros Emmanouilidis, Jean-Claude Etienne, Sheryl Etienne-Leblanc, Ghislain Faure, Graham Feingold, Luca Ferrero, Andreas Fix, Cyrille Flamant, Piotr Jacek Flatau, Gregory R. Foltz, Linda Forster, Iulian Furtuna, Alan Gadian, Joseph Galewsky, Martin Gallagher, Peter Gallimore, Cassandra Gaston, Chelle Gentemann, Nicolas Geyskens, Andreas Giez, John Gollop, Isabelle Gouirand, Christophe Gourbeyre, Dörte de Graaf, Geiske E. de Groot, Robert Grosz, Johannes Güttler, Manuel Gutleben, Kashawn Hall, George Harris, Kevin C. Helfer, Dean Henze, Calvert Herbert, Bruna Holanda, Antonio Ibanez-Landeta, Janet Intrieri, Suneil Iyer, Fabrice Julien, Heike Kalesse, Jan Kazil, Alexander Kellman, Abiel T. Kidane, Ulrike Kirchner, Marcus Klingebiel, Mareike Körner, Leslie Ann Kremper, Jan Kretzschmar, Ovid Krüger, Wojciech Kumala, Armin Kurz, Pierre L'Hégaret, Matthieu Labaste, Tom Lachlan-Cope, Arlene Laing, Peter Landschützer, Theresa Lang, Diego Lange, Ingo Lange, Clément Laplace, Gauke Lavik, Rémi Laxenaire, Caroline Le Bihan, Mason Leandro, Nathalie Lefevre, Marius Lena, Donald Lenschow, Qiang Li, Gary Lloyd, Sebastian Los, Niccolò Losi, Oscar Lovell, Christopher Luneau, Przemyslaw Makuch, Szymon Malinowski, Gaston Manta, Eleni Marinou, Nicholas Marsden, Sebastien Masson, Nicolas Maury, Bernhard Mayer, Margarette Mayers-Als, Christophe Mazel, Wayne McGeary, James C. McWilliams, Mario Mech, Melina Mehlmann, Agostino Niyonkuru Meroni, Theresa Mieslinger, Andreas Minikin, Peter Minnett, Gregor Möller, Yanmichel Morfa Avalos, Caroline Muller, Ionela Musat, Anna Napoli, Almuth Neuberger, Christophe Noisel, David Noone, Freja Nordsiek, Jakub L. Nowak, Lothar Oswald, Douglas J. Parker, Carolyn Peck, Renaud Person, Miriam Philippi, Albert Plueddemann, Christopher Pöhlker, Veronika Pörtge, Ulrich Pöschl, Lawrence Pologne, Michał Posyniak, Marc Prange, Estefanía Quiñones Meléndez, Jule Radtke, Karim Ramage, Jens Reimann, Lionel Renault, Klaus Reus, Ashford Reyes, Joachim Ribbe, Maximilian Ringel, Markus Ritschel, Cesar B. Rocha, Nicolas Rochetin, Johannes Röttenbacher, Callum Rollo, Haley Royer, Pauline Sadoulet, Leo Saffin, Sanola Sandiford, Irina Sandu, Michael Schäfer, Vera Schemann, Imke Schirmacher, Oliver Schlenczek, Jerome Schmidt, Marcel Schröder, Alfons Schwarzenboeck, Andrea Sealy, Christoph J. Senff, Ilya Serikov, Samkeyat Shohan, Elizabeth Siddle, Alexander Smirnov, Florian Späth, Branden Spooner, M. Katharina Stolla, Wojciech Szkółka, Simon P. de Szoeke, Stéphane Tarot, Eleni Tetoni, Elizabeth Thompson, Jim Thomson, Lorenzo Tomassini, Julien Totems, Alma Anna Ubele, Leonie Villiger, Jan von Arx, Thomas Wagner, Andi Walther, Ben Webber, Manfred Wendisch, Shanice Whitehall, Anton Wiltshire, Allison A. Wing, Martin Wirth, Jonathan Wiskandt, Kevin Wolf, Ludwig Worbes, Ethan Wright, Volker Wulfmeyer, Shanea Young, Chidong Zhang, Dongxiao Zhang, Florian Ziemen, Tobias Zinner, and Martin Zöger
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 4067–4119, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-4067-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-4067-2021, 2021
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The EUREC4A field campaign, designed to test hypothesized mechanisms by which clouds respond to warming and benchmark next-generation Earth-system models, is presented. EUREC4A comprised roughly 5 weeks of measurements in the downstream winter trades of the North Atlantic – eastward and southeastward of Barbados. It was the first campaign that attempted to characterize the full range of processes and scales influencing trade wind clouds.
Stefan Geiss, Leonhard Scheck, Alberto de Lozar, and Martin Weissmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 12273–12290, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12273-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12273-2021, 2021
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This study demonstrates the benefits of using both visible and infrared satellite channels to evaluate clouds in numerical weather prediction models. Combining these highly resolved observations provides significantly more and complementary information than using only infrared observations. The visible observations are particularly sensitive to subgrid water clouds, which are not well constrained by other observations.
Florian Ewald, Silke Groß, Martin Wirth, Julien Delanoë, Stuart Fox, and Bernhard Mayer
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 5029–5047, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-5029-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-5029-2021, 2021
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In this study, we show how solar radiance observations can be used to validate and further constrain ice cloud microphysics retrieved from the synergy of radar–lidar measurements. Since most radar–lidar retrievals rely on a global assumption about the ice particle shape, ice water content and particle size biases are to be expected in individual cloud regimes. In this work, we identify and correct these biases by reconciling simulated and measured solar radiation reflected from these clouds.
Sebastian Wolff, Gerhard Ehret, Christoph Kiemle, Axel Amediek, Mathieu Quatrevalet, Martin Wirth, and Andreas Fix
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 2717–2736, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2717-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2717-2021, 2021
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We report on CO2 emissions of a coal-fired power plant derived from flight measurements performed with the IPDA lidar CHARM-F during the CoMet campaign in spring 2018. Despite the results being in broad agreement with reported emissions, we observe strong variations between successive flyovers. Using a high-resolution large eddy simulation, we identify strong atmospheric turbulence as the cause for the variations and recommend more favorable measurement conditions for future campaign planning.
Maxi Boettcher, Andreas Schäfler, Michael Sprenger, Harald Sodemann, Stefan Kaufmann, Christiane Voigt, Hans Schlager, Donato Summa, Paolo Di Girolamo, Daniele Nerini, Urs Germann, and Heini Wernli
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 5477–5498, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-5477-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-5477-2021, 2021
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Warm conveyor belts (WCBs) are important airstreams in extratropical cyclones, often leading to the formation of intense precipitation. We present a case study that involves aircraft, lidar and radar observations of water and clouds in a WCB ascending from western Europe across the Alps towards the Baltic Sea during the field campaigns HyMeX and T-NAWDEX-Falcon in October 2012. A probabilistic trajectory measure and an airborne tracer experiment were used to confirm the long pathway of the WCB.
Andreas Schäfler, Andreas Fix, and Martin Wirth
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 5217–5234, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-5217-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-5217-2021, 2021
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First-ever, collocated ozone and water vapor lidar observations across the tropopause are applied to investigate the extratropical transition layer (ExTL). The combined view of a quasi-instantaneous cross section and its tracer–tracer depiction allows us to analyze the ExTL shape and composition and the formation of mixing lines in relation to the dynamic situation. Such lidar data are relevant for future upper-tropospheric and lower-stratospheric investigations and model validations.
Yong Wang, Guang J. Zhang, Shaocheng Xie, Wuyin Lin, George C. Craig, Qi Tang, and Hsi-Yen Ma
Geosci. Model Dev., 14, 1575–1593, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-1575-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-14-1575-2021, 2021
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A stochastic deep convection parameterization is implemented into the US Department of Energy Energy Exascale Earth System Model Atmosphere Model version 1 (EAMv1). Compared to the default model, the well-known problem of
too much light rain and too little heavy rainis largely alleviated over the tropics with the stochastic scheme. Results from this study provide important insights into the model performance of EAMv1 when stochasticity is included in the deep convective parameterization.
Anne Martin, Martin Weissmann, Oliver Reitebuch, Michael Rennie, Alexander Geiß, and Alexander Cress
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 2167–2183, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2167-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2167-2021, 2021
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This study provides an overview of validation activities to determine the Aeolus HLOS wind errors and to understand the biases by investigating possible dependencies and testing bias correction approaches. To ensure meaningful validation statistics, collocated radiosondes and two different global NWP models, the ECMWF IFS and the ICON model (DWD), are used as reference data. To achieve an estimate for the Aeolus instrumental error the representativeness errors for the comparisons are evaluated.
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Short summary
A comprehensive data set of airborne lidar water vapour profiles is compared with ERA5 reanalyses for a robust characterization of the vertical structure of the mid-latitude lower-stratospheric moist bias. We confirm a moist bias of up to 55 % at 1.3 km altitude above the tropopause and uncover a decreasing bias beyond. Collocated O3 and H2O observations reveal a particularly strong bias in the mixing layer, indicating insufficiently modelled transport processes fostering the bias.
A comprehensive data set of airborne lidar water vapour profiles is compared with ERA5...
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