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

Northern Hemisphere Stratospheric Pathway of different El Niño flavors in stratosphere-resolving CMIP5 models. By N. Calvo et al. in Climate Dynamics.

Natural Variations of Tropical Width and Recent Trends. By D.F. Mantsis et al. in Geophysical Research Letters.

Causes of interannual variability over the southern hemispheric tropospheric ozone maximum. By J. Liu et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Modulating Effects of Planetary Wave 3 on a Stratospheric Sudden Warming Event in 2005. By C. Shi et al. in the Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences.

Discussion papers – open for comment

Satellite Measurements of Stratospheric GravityWaves over the Andes/Drake Passage Region Using a 3D S-Transform Technique. By C.J. Wright et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

Brominated VSLS and their influence on ozone under a changing climate. By S. Falk et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

A quantitative analysis of the reactions involved in stratospheric polar ozone depletion. By I. Wohltmann et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

Impact of uncertainties in inorganic chemical rate constants on tropospheric composition and ozone radiative forcing. By B. Newsome and M. Evans in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

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

Role of Internal Atmospheric Variability in the 2015 Extreme Winter Climate Over the North America Continent. By J. Xie and M. Zhang in Geophysical Research Letters.

Seasonal variation of gravity wave parameters using different filter methods with daylight lidar measurements at mid-latitudes. By K. Baumgartner et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

A decadal satellite record of gravity wave activity in the lower stratosphere to study polar stratospheric cloud formation. By L. Hoffmann et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Small-scale orographic gravity wave drag in stable boundary layers and its impact on synoptic systems and near surface meteorology. By A. Tsiringakis et al. in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society.

30-year lidar observations of the stratospheric aerosol layer state over Tomsk (Western Siberia, Russia). By V.V. Zuev et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Revisiting Southern Hemisphere Polar Stratospheric Temperature Trends in WACCM: The Role of Dynamical Forcing. By N. Calvo et al. in Geophysical Research Letters.

Might stratospheric variability lead to improved predictability of ENSO events? By C.I. Garfinkel in Environmental Research Letters.

The effects of the Indo-Pacific warm pool on the stratosphere. By X. Zhou et al. in Climate Dynamics.

Discussion papers – open for comment

Chemical processes related to net ozone tendencies in the free troposphere. By H. Bozem et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

Uncertainty information in climate data records from Earth observation. By C.J. Merchant et al. in Earth System Science Data Discussions.

CCl₄ distribution derived from MIPAS ESA V7 data: validation, trend and lifetime estimation. By M. Valeri in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

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

Limits on the ability of global Eulerian models to resolve intercontinental transport of chemical plumes. By S.D. Eastham and D.J. Jacobs in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Respective roles of direct GHG radiative forcing and induced Arctic sea ice loss on the Northern Hemisphere atmospheric circulation. By T. Oudar et al. in Climate Dynamics.

Global carbonyl sulfide (OCS) measured by MIPAS/Envisat during 2002–2012. By N. Glatthor et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

The influence of the Calbuco eruption on the 2015 Antarctic ozone hole in a fully coupled chemistry-climate model. By D.J. Ivy et al. in Geophysical Research Letters.

Impact of mountains on tropical circulation in two Earth System Models. By Z. Naiman et al. in the Journal of Climate.

Global emissions of fluorinated greenhouse gases 2005–2050 with abatement potentials and costs. By P. Purohit and L. Höglund-Isaksson in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

An assessment of the climatological representativeness of IAGOS-CARIBIC trace gas measurements using EMAC model simulations. By J. Eckstein et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

The influence of dynamical variability on the observed Brewer–Dobson Circulation trend. By S.C. Hardiman in Geophysical Research Letters.

Discussion papers – open for comment

Stratospheric Aerosol Climatology over Ethiopia and Retrieval of its Size Distribution. By M.G. Homa et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

Quantifying pollution transport from the Asian monsoon anticyclone into the lower stratosphere. By F. Ploeger et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

SPARC’s Stratospheric Sulfur and its Role in Climate (SSiRC) activity is sponsoring a workshop focused on facilitating communications and collaborations among scientists responsible for observations of stratospheric aerosol by in situ, ground-based and space-based instruments.

Key goals are to develop strategies for understanding and closing differences among instruments, and for characterizing the continuity of the measurement record as instruments and measurement paradigms change, while keeping in mind the end goal of providing data users, particularly the climate modeling community, more robust and better-characterized data sets than normally obtained from single instruments.

As such, it will consist of a few invited talks and substantial time set aside for group discussions. We hope that participants will develop ideas for collaborative projects and, perhaps, proposal ideas. We will summarize meeting outcomes in the SPARC Newsletter.

Given the nature of the workshop, attendance will be limited to about 25, with some allowance for students and early career scientists.

If you are interested in attending, please contact the conveners.
If you wish to make a presentation, please include a synopsis in your email.
We will distribute the synopses to attendees prior to the workshop.

The workshop is scheduled for September 6 to 8^th at Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) in Boulder, Colorado.
A modest registration fee is expected (<$100).
More details about the meeting location and schedule will be forthcoming.

Conveners:

Larry Thomason l.w.thomason@nasa.gov

Lars Kalnajs kalnajs@colorado.edu

Terry Deshler deshler@uwyo.edu

The 24^th SPARC Scientific Steering Group (SSG) meeting was held in Berlin, Germany, from 1-4 November 2016. The meeting followed a one-day science workshop focused on SPARC’s contribution to the WCRP Grand Challenges on 31 October 2016. The resulting report gives an overview of current and new SPARC activities, the current state of partner projects and an update on the looming gap in limb-sounding observations of atmospheric composition. Key discussion points from the WCRP/SPARC Workshop: “Grand Challenges for Climate Science – Synergies between SPARC and the WCRP Grand Challenges” are also listed.

Find the report.

Related publication: SPARC Newsletter No. 48, January 2017.

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

How does downward planetary wave coupling affect polar stratospheric ozone in the Arctic winter stratosphere? By S.W. Lubis et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Strato-mesospheric carbon monoxide profiles above Kiruna, Sweden (67.8 ° N, 20.4 ° E), since 2008. By N.J. Ryan et al. in Earth System Science Data.

Trend and recovery of the total ozone column in South America and Antarctica. By R. Toro et al. in Climate Dynamics.

Impact of a moderate volcanic eruption on chemistry in the lower stratosphere: balloon-borne observations and model calculations. By G. Berthet et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Decadal predictability without ocean dynamics. By A. Srivastava and T. DelSole in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

Long-lived contrails and convective cirrus above the tropical tropopause. By U. Schumann et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Evaluation of the Ozone Fields in NASA’s MERRA-2 Reanalysis. By K. Wargan et al. in the Journal of Climate.

Development of a self-consistent lightning NOx simulation in large-scale 3-D models. By C. Luo et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

Robustness of the simulated tropospheric response to ozone depletion. By W.J.M Seviour et al. in the Journal of Climate.

Discussion papers – open for comment

Response of Trace Gases to the Disrupted 2015–2016 Quasi-Biennial Oscillation. By O.V. Tweedy et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

Validation of 10-year SAO OMI Ozone Profile (PROFOZ) Product Using Ozonesonde Observations. By G. Huang et al. in Atmospheric Measurement Techniques Discussions.

Validation of meteorological analyses and trajectories in the Antarctic lower stratosphere using Concordiasi superpressure balloon observations. By L. Hoffmann et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

The fifth Chemistry-Climate Model Initiative (CCMI) Science Workshop will be held in Toulouse at the Centre International de Conférences of Météo-France, 13-15 June 2017.

The Chemistry-Climate Model Initiative (CCMI) is a joint activity between Future Earth’s International Global Atmospheric Chemistry (IGAC) Project and the World Climate Research Programme’s (WCRP’s) Stratosphere-troposphere Processes and their Role in Climate project (SPARC).

The scope of this international activity is to study the chemistry and dynamics of the global troposphere and stratosphere in a one-atmosphere approach to understand the complex interactions and feedbacks between them and their impact on climate, air pollution, and the ozone layer. Particular goals are to challenge the performance of global models with observations and process analyses, and to disentangle the different natural and anthropogenic drivers of observed changes.

Find more information on the workshop website: www.meteo.fr/cic/meetings/2017/CCMI

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

Influence of the spatial distribution of gravity wave activity on the middle atmospheric dynamics. By P. Šácha et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Decadal prediction skill using a high-resolution climate model. By P.A. Monerie et al. in Climate Dynamics.

Evolution of the eastward shift in the quasi-stationary minimum of the Antarctic total ozone column. By A. Grytsai et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Impact of biogenic very short-lived bromine on the Antarctic ozone hole during the 21st century. By R.P. Fernandez et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/JCLI-D-16-0650.1?af=R

Changes in Northern Hemisphere Winter Storm Tracks under the Background of Arctic Amplification. By J. Wang et al. in the Journal of Climate.

Is There a Stratospheric Pacemaker Controlling the Daily Cycle of Tropical Rainfall? By T. Sakazaki et al. in Geophysical Research Letters.

Variability and evolution of the midlatitude stratospheric aerosol budget from 22 years of ground-based lidar and satellite observations. By S.M. Khaykin et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

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.

Marginal Stability and Predator–prey Behaviour within Storm Tracks. By L. Novak et al. in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society.

Predictability of downward propagation of major sudden stratospheric warmings. By A.Y. Karpechko et al. in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society.

A sudden stratospheric warming compendium. By A.H. Butler et al. in Earth System Science Data.

The CAMS interim Reanalysis of Carbon Monoxide, Ozone and Aerosol for 2003–2015. By J. Fleming et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Discussion papers – open for comment

Radiative and climate effects of stratospheric sulfur geoengineering using seasonally varying injection areas. By A. Laakso et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

Mean age of stratospheric air derived from AirCore observations. By A. Engel et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

Meet the three new Scientific Steering Group (SSG) members who joined the SPARC leadership from January 2017: Hassan Bencherif (France), Harry Hendon (Australia), and Donald Wuebbles (USA). Welcome!

SPARC would also like to take this opportunity to thank the outgoing SSG members Julie Arblaster (Australia), Mark Baldwin (UK), Thando Ndarana (South Africa), and Saolo Freitas (Brazil) for their dedication and commitment to SPARC. Thank you!