Articles | Volume 22, issue 6
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-4019-2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-4019-2022
Research article
 | 
28 Mar 2022
Research article |  | 28 Mar 2022

An assessment of tropopause characteristics of the ERA5 and ERA-Interim meteorological reanalyses

Lars Hoffmann and Reinhold Spang

Related authors

WRF simulations of stratospheric gravity waves from Typhoon Soudelor (2015): sensitivity to microphysics, cumulus parameterization, and boundary layer schemes
Yen-Sen Lu, Lars Hoffmann, Xue Wu, Corwin J. Wright, and Neil P. Hindley
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-1469,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-1469, 2026
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
Short summary
Transport of volcanic aerosol from the Raikoke eruption in 2019 through the Northern Hemisphere
Zhen Yang, Bärbel Vogel, Felix Plöger, Zhixuan Bai, Dan Li, Sabine Griessbach, Lars Hoffmann, Frank G. Wienhold, Elizabeth Asher, Alexandre A. Baron, Katie R. Smith, Troy Thornberry, Jianchun Bian, and Michaela I. Hegglin
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26, 4749–4769, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-4749-2026,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-4749-2026, 2026
Short summary
A novel identification method for stratospheric gravity waves in nadir viewing satellite observations
Peter G. Berthelemy, Corwin J. Wright, Neil P. Hindley, Phoebe E. Noble, and Lars Hoffmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 17595–17611, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-17595-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-17595-2025, 2025
Short summary
Harmonisation of sixteen tropospheric ozone satellite data records
Arno Keppens, Daan Hubert, José Granville, Oindrila Nath, Jean-Christopher Lambert, Catherine Wespes, Pierre-François Coheur, Cathy Clerbaux, Anne Boynard, Richard Siddans, Barry Latter, Brian Kerridge, Serena Di Pede, Pepijn Veefkind, Juan Cuesta, Gaelle Dufour, Klaus-Peter Heue, Melanie Coldewey-Egbers, Diego Loyola, Andrea Orfanoz-Cheuquelaf, Swathi Maratt Satheesan, Kai-Uwe Eichmann, Alexei Rozanov, Viktoria F. Sofieva, Jerald R. Ziemke, Antje Inness, Roeland Van Malderen, and Lars Hoffmann
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 6893–6916, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-6893-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-6893-2025, 2025
Short summary
Stratospheric gravity waves in three high-resolution models and AIRS satellite observations
Phoebe Noble, Haruka Okui, Joan Alexander, Manfred Ern, Neil P. Hindley, Lars Hoffmann, Laura Holt, Annelize van Niekerk, Riwal Plougonven, Inna Polichtchouk, Claudia C. Stephan, Martina Bramberger, Milena Corcos, William Putnam, Christopher Kruse, and Corwin J. Wright
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-4878,https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-4878, 2025
Short summary

Cited articles

Alexander, S. P., Sato, K., Watanabe, S., Kawatani, Y., and Murphy, D. J.: Southern Hemisphere Extratropical Gravity Wave Sources and Intermittency Revealed by a Middle-Atmosphere General Circulation Model, J. Atmos. Sci., 73, 1335–1349, https://doi.org/10.1175/JAS-D-15-0149.1, 2016. a
Anderson, J. G., Wilmouth, D. M., Smith, J. B., and Sayres, D. S.: UV Dosage Levels in Summer: Increased Risk of Ozone Loss from Convectively Injected Water Vapor, Science, 337, 835–839, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1222978, 2012. a
Añel, J. A., Antuña, J. C., de la Torre, L., Castanheira, J. M., and Gimeno, L.: Climatological features of global multiple tropopause events, J. Geophys. Res., 113, D00B08, https://doi.org/10.1029/2007JD009697, 2008. a
Anthes, R. A., Bernhardt, P. A., Chen, Y., Cucurull, L., Dymond, K. F., Ector, D., Healy, S. B., Ho, S.-P., Hunt, D. C., Kuo, Y.-H., Liu, H., Manning, K., C. McCormick, T. K. M., Randel, W. J., Rocken, C., Schreiner, W. S., Sokolovskiy, S. V., Syndergaard, S., Thompson, D. C., Trenberth, K. E., Wee, T.-K., Yen, N. L., and Zeng, Z.: The COSMIC/FORMOSAT-3 Mission: Early Results, B. Am. Meteorol. Soc., 89, 313–334, https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-89-3-313, 2008. a
Aumann, H. H., Gregorich, D., and DeSouza-Machado, S. M.: AIRS Observations of Deep Convective Clouds, in: SPIE Photonics Conference, 1 September 2006, San Diego, USA, 6301-20, https://doi.org/10.1117/12.681201, 2006. a
Download
Short summary
We present an intercomparison of 2009–2018 lapse rate tropopause characteristics as derived from ECMWF's ERA5 and ERA-Interim reanalyses. Large-scale features are similar, but ERA5 shows notably larger variability, which we mainly attribute to UTLS temperature fluctuations due to gravity waves being better resolved by ECMWF's IFS forecast model. Following evaluation with radiosondes and GPS data, we conclude ERA5 will be a more suitable asset for tropopause-related studies in future work.
Share
Altmetrics
Final-revised paper
Preprint