Today, SPARC has published its 6th Scientific Assessment Report.
The new report entitled "Lifetimes of Stratospheric Ozone-Depleting Substances, their Replacements, and Related Species" is edited by M.K.W. Ko, P.A. Newman, S. Reimann, and S.E. Strahan.
Find full report; printed copies will be produced in 2014.
In an interview and article published by International Innovation in December 2013, the SPARC Office director Johannes Staehelin explains the SPARC project’s role within the wider atmospheric science community and the process by which the team organises the focus of vital research activities.
As a core project of the World Climate Research Programme, SPARC seeks to ensure that their General Assemblies are as environmentally responsible as possible. While we have implemented a carbon offsetting programme for the GA, uptake of this initiative can best be described as weak. If you have not already done so, we would encourage you to consider making use of the programme we have established to offset your CO2 emissions resulting from your travel to Queenstown. The easiest way to do that is to go to:
http://www.sparc2014.org/sustainability
and go to the "Make a Donation" section at the bottom.
Please register for the IGAC/SPARC Chemistry-Climate Model Initiative Workshop 2014 to be held on 20-22 May 2014, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK.
Find 1st announcement, find website.
CosMos, the 4th COSPAR Scientific Assembly will be held on 2-10 August 2014, in Moscow, Russia. The event is supported by the SPARC Office.
Abstract submission closes on 14 February 2014; early Registration opens on 17 May 2014.
Find website.
Future Earth has just published the final report of the Transition Team, the group of experts that led the initial design of the research initiative on global sustainability.
The report sets out the initial design of Future Earth, comprising a research framework and governance structure, preliminary reflections on communication and engagement, capacity-building and education strategies, and implementation guidelines.
It was developed by the Future Earth Transition Team, a group of more than 30 researchers and experts from many countries and representative of the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities, as well as from international organisations, research funders and business.
The recommendations of this report are now being taken forward by the Future Earth interim secretariat, and the full initiative is expected to be up and running by the end of 2014.
Find report.
In a new GRL article, W. Wang and co-authors investigate recent variability of the tropopause temperature and the tropopause inversion layer (TIL) using GPS-RO observations and the WACCM chemistry-climate model. They find that the tropopause temperature increased by 0.8K from 2001-2011, while the TIL decreased in strength by 0.4K over the same period. This indicates that the vertical temperature gradient in the tropopause region has declined, and therefore the stability above the tropopause weakened. Model simulations show that the increased tropopause temperature and weaker TIL are related to weakened tropical upwelling. Such changes in the thermal structure of the UTLS may have important consequences, including, for example, a possible increase in water vapour entering the lower stratosphere. The full abstract can be found here.
The SPARC Data Center website has moved and is now available at >http://www.aparc-climate.org/data-center/. Most of the content from the ‘old’ site hosted by the Stony Brook University has been transferred. Recent additions to the website include SPARC Data Initiative Trace Gas and Aerosol Climatologies; and High Vertical Resolution Radiosonde Data.
M. C. Reader and co-authors present a modeling study of zone changes from pre-industrial times in a recent GRL article. The influence of changes in climate, ozone-depleting substances, N2O, and tropospheric ozone precursors was estimated using equilibrium simulations. From the pre-industrial to the present, it was found that a significant contributor to total column ozone can be attributed to the increase in lower-stratospheric ozone resulting from the increase in tropospheric ozone precursors. The full abstract can be found here.
S.-W. Son and co-authors show that the ozone hole has not only affected long-term climate change, but also interannual variability of the southern hemisphere (SH) surface climate. In their new GRL article, they show that a significant negative correlation is observed between September ozone concentration and the October Southern Annular Mode index, resulting in systematic variations in precipitation and surface air temperature throughout the SH. This time-lagged relationship is independent of those associated with ENSO and the Indian Ocean Dipole Mode, suggesting that SH seasonal forecasts could be improved through including Antarctic stratospheric variability. The full abstract can be found here.