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

Warming Trends in Summer HeatWaves. By S.C. Chapman, N.W. Watkins, and D.A. Stainforth in the Geophysical Research Letters.

El Niño–Southern Oscillation variability, teleconnection changes and responses to large volcanic eruptions since AD 1000. By C. Dätwyler et al. in the International Journal of Climatology.

Nonlinearity in the North Pacific atmospheric response to a linear ENSO forcing. By B. Jiménez‐Esteve and D. I.V. Domeisen I the Geophysical Research Letters.

Characterization of inertia gravity waves and associated dynamics in the lower stratosphere over the Indian Antarctic station, Bharati (69.4°S, 76.2°E) during austral summers. By N. Koushik et al. in Climate Dynamics.

Updates of HITRAN spectroscopic database from 2008 to 2016 and implications for near‐infrared radiative transfer calculations. By K.P. Menang in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society.

Retrieving the age of air spectrum from tracers: principle and method. By A. Podglajen and F. Ploeger in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Indian summer monsoon onset signatures on the tropical tropopause layer. By S. RavindraBabu et al. in the Atmospheric Science Letters.

The St.Petersburg State University will hold the International Symposium on Atmospheric Radiation and Dynamics (ISARD-2019) in St.-Petersburg-Peterhof, June 25-27, 2019.

Find workshop webpage

Working languages of the Symposium are English and Russian.

Important dates:

Deadline for abstract submission: April 25, 2019
Deadline for payment of early bird registration fee: May 15, 2019

Contacts: Evgenia Shulgina

Chairman of the ISARD-2019 Program Committee: Prof. Yury Timofeyev Chairman of the Russian Radiation Commission

Sections available:

1. Satellite sounding of atmosphere and surface.

2. Remote sensing of atmosphere and underlying surface in different spectral ranges.

3. Radiative transfer theory.

4. Radiation-cloud and radiation-aerosol interactions.

5. Radiative climatology and algorithms in models for weather and climate forecasting.

6. Field studies of radiative characteristics of atmosphere and surface.

7. Wave characteristics, macrocirculation and dynamics interactions in atmospheres of the Earth and other planets.

8. Structure of middle and upper atmosphere of the Earth and other planets.

9. Photochemistry and kinetics of excited states of atoms and molecules and non-LTE radiation in the atmosphere of the Earth and other planets.

10. Radiation and dynamics of polar atmosphere.

IGAC welcomes nominations and self-nominations to its Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) from the international community. Serving on the IGAC SSC is ideal for well-established mid to senior career scientists. IGAC is currently accepting nominations for the 2020 SSC. For 2020, nominations for scientists working in Africa, Latin America, North America, and Southeast Asia are strongly encouraged. Nominations will be accepted until 15 March 2019. For information on serving on the IGAC SSC, please see The Expectations and Role of IGAC SSC Members.

IGAC accepts both nominations and self-nominations.  Please see below the requirements for each type of nomination.

Requirements to nominate someone to the IGAC SSC:

• Fill out the IGAC SSC Nomination Form.
• Upload the nominees CV and publication list (if not part of the CV).
• Upload a statement from the nominee on “Why do you want to serve on the IGAC SSC and what will you bring to IGAC?” The statement should be ~300 words or less.
• Provide in the form a reason for the nomination.

Requirements for self-nomination to the IGAC SSC:

• Fill out the IGAC SSC Self-Nomination Form.
• Upload you CV and publication list (if not part of the CV).
• Upload a letter of support from someone in the international scientific community.
• Provide a statement on “Why do you want to serve on the IGAC SSC and what will you bring to IGAC?”. The statement should be ~300 words or less.

Please keep in mind that IGAC strives to have a SSC with diversity in geographical representation, gender, and expertise. To view current SSC members and their expertise, visit igacproject.org/people.  For more information on the role and expectations of SSC members, please feel free to contact the IGAC Executive Officer, Megan L. Melamed (). Thank you. About IGAC The atmosphere is the integrator of the Earth system. Human emissions of pollutants and long-lived greenhouse gases into the atmosphere have caused dramatic transformations of the planet, altering air quality, climate and nutrient flows in every ecosystem. Understanding the global atmosphere requires an international network of scientists providing intellectual leadership in areas of atmospheric chemistry that need to be addressed, promoted, and accomplished through research across disciplines and geographical boundaries.  Acknowledgement of this need led to the formation of the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry (IGAC) Project in 1990. IGAC’s mission is to facilitate atmospheric chemistry research towards a sustainable world. This is achieved through IGAC’s three focal activities: fostering community, building capacity, and providing leadership.   IGAC’s priorities and activities are determined and guided by an international volunteer Scientific Steering Committee (SSC). Serving on the IGAC SSC is a unique and enjoyable opportunity to contribute to the international atmospheric chemistry community.

Nanjing, China, 21 October – 1 November 2019

Scope:

The joint workshop will focus on new results from the multi-model experiments to quantify changes in composition, the resulting effective radiative forcing and the consequent climate responses. Data from idealised experiments are already available from PDRMIP. Data generated under the RFMIP and AerChemMIP protocols is being made available at https://esgf-node.llnl.gov/search/cmip6/.

Workshop goals:

To discuss scientific results emerging from the analysis of AerChemMIP, RFMIP and PDRMIP simulations in support of IPCC-AR6. This workshop will be of interest to all those analyzing chemistry-climate interactions, air quality-climate connections, model forcing and response. We encourage attendance from modeling centers contributing to AerChemMIP or RFMIP experiments.

Workshop Format:

The workshop will run from 9:00am on Tuesday 11th June and end at 1:00pm on Friday 14th June. The format will include science presentations (oral and poster) and discussion sessions.

More information including details on how to register and submit abstract will be sent out in the coming weeks.

Deadlines: Abstract submission and registration by April 12th 2019

Scientific Organizing Committee: Bill Collins (U Reading), Stephanie Fiedler (MPI), Piers Forster (U Leeds), Jean-François Lamarque (NCAR), Gunnar Myhre (CICERO), Vaishali Naik (GFDL), David Paynter (GFDL), Robert Pincus (U Colorado), V. Ramaswamy (GFDL), Michael Schulz (Met Norway), and Bjorn Stevens (MPI)

Local Organizing Committee: David Paynter, Vaishali Naik, and V. Ramaswamy

Download first announcement

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

New insights on the impact of ozone depleting substances on the Brewer‐Dobson circulation. By M. Abalos et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

Observed and Simulated Teleconnections Between the Stratospheric Quasi‐Biennial Oscillation and Northern Hemisphere Winter Atmospheric Circulation. By M.B. Andrews et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

The upper stratospheric solar cycle ozone response. By W:T: Ball et al. in the Geophysical Research Letters.

Subseasonal to Decadal Predictions: Successes and Challenges. By G. Danabasoglu, F. Vitart, and W. J. Merryfield. Conference report in Earth & Space Science News (EOS).

Systematic Decomposition of the MJO and its Northern Hemispheric Extra‐Tropical Response into Rossby and Inertio‐Gravity Components. By L.E. Franzke et al. in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society.

A new MesosphEO data set of temperature profiles from 35 to 85 km using Rayleigh scattering at limb from GOMOS/ENVISAT daytime observations. By A. Hauchecorne et al. in Atmospheric Measurement Techniques.

Uncertainty component estimates in transient climate projections. By B. Hingray et al. in Climate Dynamics.

Global mean surface temperature response to large‐scale patterns of variability in observations and CMIP5. By J.B. Kajtar et al. in the Geophysical Research Letters.

The early development of the 2015/2016 Quasi-Biennial Oscillation disruption. By P. Lin, I. Held, and Y. Ming in the Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences.

High-resolution temperature profiles retrieved from bichromatic stellar scintillation measurements by GOMOS/Envisat. By V.F. Sofieva et al. in AtmosphericMmeasurement Techniques.

Evaluating Simulations of Interhemispheric Transport: Interhemispheric Exchange Time Versus SF6 Age. By H. Yang et al. in the Geophysical Research Letters.

The Corresponding Tropospheric Environments during Downward-extending and Non-downward-extending Events of Stratospheric Northern Annular Mode Anomalies. By R. Zhang et al. in the Journal of the Climate.

Clarifying the Relative Role of Forcing Uncertainties and Initial‐Condition Unknowns in Spreading the Climate Response to Volcanic Eruptions. By D. Zanchettin et al. in the Geophysical Research Letters.

Discussion papers – open for comment:

EDGAR v4.3.2 Global Atlas of the three major Greenhouse Gas Emissions for the period 1970–2012. By G. Janssens-Maenhout et al. in Earth System Science Data.

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

From reliable weather forecasts to skilful climate response: a dynamical systems approach. By H.M. Christensen and J. Berner in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society.

The influence of mixing on the stratospheric age of air changes in the 21st century. By R. Eichinger et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Simulation of the ENSO influence on the extra-tropical middle atmosphere. By T.S. Ermakova et al. in Earth, Planets and Space.

Vortex dynamics of stratospheric sudden warmings: a reanalysis data study using PV contour integral diagnostics. By F. Kwasniok, R. Beaumant, and J. Thuburn in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society.

Beware of Inertial Instability masquerading as gravity waves in stratospheric temperature perturbations. By V. lynn Harvey and J.A. Knox in the Geophysical Research Letters.

Comparison of Antarctic polar stratospheric cloud observations by ground-based and space-borne lidar and relevance for chemistry–climate models. By M. Snels et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Discussion papers – open for comment:

Data rescue of daily climate station-based observations across Europe. By J.R. Coll et al. in Earth System Science Data.

The January 2019 edition of the newsletter is now available online:

We are pleased to announce that the 2019 science workshop of the joint SPARC-IGAC project the Chemistry Climate Model Initiative (CCMI) will take place August 7 – 9, 2019 on the campus of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) in Hong Kong. The meeting is very generously being hosted by Prof. Amos Tai and his research group, the Institute of Environment, Energy and Sustainability and the Earth System Science Program of the Faculty of Science at CUHK. In addition to invited and contributed presentations covering recent developments in chemistry-climate interactions, discussions will be held on the science questions and policy needs, simulations and outputs for a CCMI Phase Two.

Before the workshop, August 4 – 6, CCMI will be holding a summer school titled Earth system modelling and observations to study Earth in a changing climate. Lectures will focus on developing a critical understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of Earth-system observations and chemistry-climate models. The summer school will include a significant practical component to provide participants with an introduction to the tools and methods used to analyse model output fields (netCDF) that are publicly available within the CCMI-1 archive, including examples of how to use Earth observations to assess these models with the goal of improving our understanding of chemistry-climate processes. The summer school places a strong emphasis on capacity building and early career scientists from developing countries are strongly encouraged to apply. Some limited funds to support travel is available and the summer school will be limited to approximately 20 participants.

Please check the CCMI website (http://blogs.reading.ac.uk/ccmi/) for further details on both the science workshop and the summer school and for information on how you can participate in the discussions on the next phase of CCMI in the lead-up to the workshop.

The CCMI Co-chairs

David Plummer ()
Tatsuya Nagashima ()
Michaela Hegglin ()

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

Highlight articles (office choice):

Towards operational predictions of the near-term climate. By Y. Kushnir et al. in Nature: Climate Change.

Airborne in the era of climate change. By K. Jean and  C. Wymant in Science.
(article on the 2^nd  page of the PDF file)

Indian Summer Monsoon as simulated by the regional earth system model RegCM-ES: the role of local air–sea interaction. By F. Di Sante, et al. in Climate Dynamics.

ENSO teleconnections to the Indian Summer Monsoon under changing climate. By I. Roy, R.G. Tedeschi, and M. Collins in the International Journal of Climatology.

Lagrangian simulation of ice particles and resulting dehydration in the polar winter stratosphere. By I. Tritscher et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

What is the Predictability Limit of Midlatitude Weather? By F. Zhang et al. in the Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences.

Discussion papers – open for comment:

Tropopause altitude determination from temperature profiles of reduced altitude resolution. By N. König, P. Braesicke, and T. von Clarmann inAtmospheric Measurement Techniques.