call for nominations – deadline 1 Oct 2016

WCRP and WWRP have established an International Prize for Model Development, awarded annually for an outstanding contribution to weather and climate model development by an early- to mid-career researcher.

More details on eligibility, required nomination material and selection process can be found at www.wcrp-climate.org/wmac-activities/ipmd2016

Nominations of suitable candidates should be forwarded to the WCRP (mrixen (at) wmo.int) and WWRP (pruti (at) wmo.int), and must be received by 1 October 2016.

Call for nominations – deadline 1 Oct 2016

WCRP and GCOS have established an International Data Prize, awarded annually to honour achievements in (climate) data product generation, data management, data preservation, data monitoring, and other data relevant activities by an early- to mid-career researcher.

More details on eligibility, required nomination material and selection process can be found at www.wcrp-climate.org/wdac-activities/idp2016

Nominations of suitable candidates should be forwarded to the WCRP (mrixen (at) wmo.int) and GCOS (gcosjpo (at) wmo.int), and must be received by 1 October 2016.

A selection of new science articles from the past week of interest to the SPARC community (a SPARC Office choice).

Evidence of global warming impact on the evolution of the Hadley Circulation in ECMWF centennial reanalyses. By R. D’Agostino and P. Lionello in Climate Dynamics.

On the climatological probability of the vertical propagation of stationary planetary waves. By K. Karami et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Observations of PAN and its confinement in the Asian summer monsoon anticyclone in high spatial resolution. By J. Ungermann et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Chemical analysis of refractory stratospheric aerosol particles collected within the arctic vortex and inside polar stratospheric clouds. By M. Ebert et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

The Transient Response of the Southern Ocean to Stratospheric Ozone Depletion. By W.J.M. Seviour et al. in the Journal of Climate.

Tropical waves and the quasi-biennial oscillation in a 7-km global climate simulation. By L.A. Holt et al. in the Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences.

Effects of polar stratospheric clouds in the Nimbus 7 LIMS Version 6 data set. By E. Remsberg and V.L. Harvey in Atmospheric Measurement Techniques.

A comparative analysis of UV nadir-backscatter and infrared limb-emission ozone data assimilation. By R. Dragani in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

The Impact of SST Biases on Projections of Anthropogenic Climate Change: A Greater Role for Atmosphere-only Models? By J. He and B.J. Soden in Geophysical Research Letters.

Assessing risks of solar geoengineering starts with accurate aerosol radiative properties. By J.A. Dykema et al. in Geophysical Research Letters.

Discussion papers – open for comment

Observational evidence for aerosols increasing upper tropospheric humidity. By L. Riuttanen et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

A mid-latitude stratosphere dynamical index for attribution of stratospheric variability and improved ozone and temperature trend analysis. By W.T. Ball et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

Spectral analysis of atmospheric composition: application to surface ozone model–measurement comparisons. By D.R. Bowdalo et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

Two mechanisms of stratospheric ozone loss in the Northern hemisphere, studied using data assimilation of Odin/SMR atmospheric observations. By K. Sagi et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

The Mystery of Carbon Tetrachloride

The seventh SPARC science report on ‘The Mystery of Carbon Tetrachloride’ is now available! Find the full report here: www.sparc-climate.org/publications/sparc-reports/sparc-report-no7

The report helps answer policy-relevant questions related to the global budget of carbon tetrachloride, an important ozone-depleting substance; closing the gap between emissions reported to UNEP’s ozone secretariat and those estimated from atmospheric observations.

Report editors: Qing Liang, Paul A. Newman, and Stefan Reimann.

SPARC leadership is composed of experts from around the world who dedicate their time to SPARC’s international activities. These include the SPARC Scientific Steering Group (SSG), who serve to guide SPARC’s scientific focus. SPARC is now accepting nominations (or self-nominations) for SSG membership to serve from January 2018 – December 2020 (initial three-year term can be extended by two additional years). If you are interested please complete the online form available here. The deadline for nominations is 30 September 2016.

A selection of new science articles from the past week of interest to the SPARC community (a SPARC Office choice).

Direct injection of water vapor into the stratosphere by volcanic eruptions. By C.E. Sioris et al. in Geophysical Research Letters.

Gravity-wave effects on tracer gases and stratospheric aerosol concentrations during the 2013 ChArMEx campaign. By F. Chane Ming et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

UV and infrared absorption spectra, atmospheric lifetimes, and ozone depletion and global warming potentials for CCl₂FCCl₂F (CFC-112), CCl₃CClF₂ (CFC-112a), CCl₃CF₃ (CFC-113a), and CCl₂FCF₃ (CFC-114a). By M.E. Davis et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Regional and Seasonal Stratospheric Temperature Trends in the Last Decade (2002-2014) from AMSU observations. By B.M. Funatsu et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

The STRatospheric Estimation Algorithm from Mainz (STREAM): estimating stratospheric NO2from nadir-viewing satellites by weighted convolution. By S. Beirie et al. in Atmospheric Measurement Techniques.

North Atlantic summer storm tracks over Europe dominated by internal variability over the past millennium. By M.H. Gagen et al. in Nature Geoscience.

The millennium water vapour drop in chemistry–climate model simulations. By S. Brinkop et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Quantifying Eddy Feedbacks and Forcings in the Tropospheric Response to Stratospheric Sudden Warmings. By P. Hitchcock and I.R. Simpson in the Journal of Atmospheric Sciences.

Impact of Aerosols on Precipitation from Deep Convective Clouds in Eastern China. By M. Jiang et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

Hybrid ensemble 4DVar assimilation of stratospheric ozone using a global shallow water model. By D.R. Allen et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Discussion papers – open for comment

Time varying changes in the simulated structure of the Brewer Dobson Circulation. By C.I. Garfinkel et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

Derivation of Antarctic stratospheric sulfuric acid profiles and nucleation modeling of the polar stratospheric CN layer. By S. Münch and J. Curtius in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

The role of methane in projections of 21st century stratospheric water vapour. By L. Revell et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

A workshop on "The Future of Cumulus Parametrisation" will be held from 10-14 July 2017 in Delft, the Netherlands. Please save the date!

Registration will close on 15 May 2017.

Find website.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is seeking responses to a questionnaire that will inform a special report on the impacts of a 1.5°C increase in global temperature. The Steering Committee for the Special Report on 1.5ºC has prepared this questionnaire ahead of the Scoping Meeting to be held in August 2016, with the intent to help form the structure and contents of the report.

The questionnaire is available here: https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sr15/pdf/sr15_prescoping_questionnaire.pdf

If you wish to contribute, please return the questionnaire to: tsu@ipcc-wg1.universite-paris-saclay.fr by 15 July 2016.

For further information you can visit the IPCC webpage: https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sr15/ or consult the Future Earth website: http://futureearth.org/news/complete-questionnaire-upcoming-ipcc-report-15degc-climate-target

A selection of new science articles from the past week of interest to the SPARC community (a SPARC Office choice).

Impact of geographic variations of the convective and dehydration center on stratospheric water vapor over the Asian monsoon region. By K. Zhang et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Reconciling the Observed and Modeled Southern Hemisphere Circulation Response to Volcanic Eruptions. By M.C. McGraw et al. in Geophysical Research Letters.

The response of high-impact blocking weather systems to climate change. By D. Kennedy et al. in Geophysical Research Letters.

Emergence of healing in the Antarctic ozone layer. By S. Solomon et al. in Science.

Persistence of upper stratospheric wintertime tracer variability into the Arctic spring and summer. By D.E. Siskind et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Discussion papers – open for comment

Multi-model dynamic climate emulator for solar geoengineering. By D.G. MacMartin and B. Kravitz in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

Multidecadal Variations of the Effects of the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation on the Climate System. By S. Brönnimann et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

Decadal changes in global surface NO_x emissions from multi-constituent satellite data assimilation. By K. Miyazaki et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

The Nonequilbrium Thermodynamics of Atmospheric Blocking. By A. Jensen in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

A long term study of polar ozone loss derived from data assimilation of Odin/SMR observations. By K. Sagi and D. Murtagh in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

A side meeting on "Ozone Profile Trend Uncertainty" is planned following the Quadrennial ozone symposium. The meeting aims to address the fundamental question of whether the positive trend of ozone in the post-2000 period is statistically significant or not. Among topics for discussion are uncertainties of ozone trend estimates, statistical tools, comparison between observation and model trend estimates, and next steps for the upcoming WMO ozone assessment of 2018. This meeting is a follow up of the 2011-2014 SPARC/IO3C/IGACO initiative (SI2N).

9 September 2016, 16:00-18:00 and 10 September 2016, 9:00 – 12:00

The University of Edinburgh Outreach Centre, Holyrood Road, Edinburgh, EH8 8AQ

Organisers: Irina Petropavlovskikh, Sophie Godin- Beekmann, Elizabeth Weatherhead, Richard Stolarski, Paul Newman, and Neil Harris.

Proposed presentations:

1. Serge Gullias (UCL) – Presentation of results published by Ah Yeon (ACP) and Kai-Lan (AMT), with emphasis on uncertainties in statistical analysis of data for trends (a functional principal component analysis and stochastic partial differential equation (SPDE) approach with the covariance-based kriging).
2. Jos Laat de (KNMI) – Presentation from the perspective of ozone depletion in the Antarctic Ozone Hole.
3. René Stübi (MeteoSwiss) – Report on the updated trend from Payerne soundings and comparison with those evaluated from the ESA CCI-Ozone satellites records. The problem of “too” short time series to accurately determine the proxies could be also discussed as well as the fact that some proxies have themselves an underlying trend.
4. Roeland Van Malderen (Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium (RMI), Belgium) – Correction strategies of ozonesonde data and their impact on (simple linear) trends (with 2-sigma uncertainties), and how sampling frequency (once a week vs 3 times a week) affects these trends (by comparing Uccle and De Bilt datasets).
5. Johanna Tamminen (Finnish Meteorological Institute) – Statistical significance of estimated trends in stratospheric ozone profiles.
6. Herman Smit (Research Centre Jülich, Germany) – Uncertainty of ozonesondes, particularly from the most recent ozonesonde-homogenization efforts.
7. Thomas von Clarmann (IMK, KIT) – Desiderata for a community analysis tool, summary of is available from IMK, problems encountered, ongoing activities on uncertainty assessment (particularly of satellite data), etc.
8. Victoria Sofieva (FMI) – ESA Ozone_CCI experience of satellite limb ozone profiles merging and uncertainty characterization.
9. Robert Domadeo (LARC, NASA) – Limitations of the multiple linear regression tool commonly used for trend analysis and how things like diurnal variability, drifts, and sampling patterns fundamentally limit what datasets can be used for these analyses.
10. Daan Hubert (Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy, Belgium) – The Monte Carlo approach to estimating ozone trend uncertainties.

If you are interested in participating, please contact Irina Petropavlovskikh: