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User Survey conducted by the Radio Occultation Meteorology Satellite Application Facility (ROM SAF)

Participation deadline: 20 May 2015 – extended to 3 June 2015

The ROM SAF is a decentralized facility under EUMETSAT which runs an operational radio occultation (RO) system. We are conducting this survey in order to gather information and recommendations from users related to possible future RO products and activities to be pursued by the ROM SAF in coordination with EUMETSAT.

The ROM SAF is responsible for delivering bending angle, refractivity, temperature, pressure, humidity profiles, and other radio occultation data in near-real time and offline for NWP and climate users. The offline profiles are further processed into climate products consisting of
e.g. gridded monthly means of bending angle, refractivity, temperature, humidity, and geopotential heights. The ROM SAF also maintains the ROPP (Radio Occultation Processing Package) software package for users wishing to process, quality-control, and assimilate radio occultation data from any radio occultation mission into NWP and other models.

For more information please consult our website: http://www.romsaf.org.

The results of the User Survey will be compiled into a report which will be made available from our website.

If you wish to participate, please follow this link:
http://www.romsaf.org/usersurveys/us4/

The User Survey will close on May 20, 2015.

Contact person:
Johannes K. Nielsen

Science Update: 1-8 May

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

Temperature Variation over East Asia during the lifecycle of weak stratospheric polar vortex. By S.-H. Woo et al. in the Journal of Climate.

Modulation of Antarctic vortex composition by the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation. By S.E. Strahan et al. in Geophysical Research Letters.

Observations of planetary waves in the mesosphere-lower thermosphere during stratospheric warming events. By N.H. Stray et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Air-Mass Origin in the Tropical Lower Stratosphere: The Influence of Asian Boundary Layer Air. By C. Orbe et al. in Geophysical Research Letters.

Using self-organising maps to explore ozone profile validation results – SCIAMACHY limb compared to ground-based lidar observations. By J.A.E. van Gijsel et al. in Atmospheric Measurement Techniques.

Signatures of the 2-day wave and sudden stratospheric warmings in Arctic water vapour observed by ground-based microwave radiometry. By B. Tschanz and N. Kämpfer in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

An adaptive covariance relaxation method for ensemble data assimilation. By Y. Ying and F. Zhang in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society.

Influence of isoprene chemical mechanism on modelled changes in tropospheric ozone due to climate and land use over the 21st century. By O.J. Squire et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Discussion Papers – open for comment

Effect of tropical cyclones on the tropical tropopause parameters observed using COSMIC GPS RO data. By S. Ravindra Babu et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

Global temperature response to the major volcanic eruptions in multiple reanalysis datasets. By M. Fujiwara et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

SPARC Data Center informs on availability of radiosonde data

High resolution radiosonde data from US Radiosonde Replacement System (RRS) stations are now available directly from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information at ftp://ftp.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/rrs-data/. Data are available in BUFR format at 1-second resolution for all US stations from the time at which each station was upgraded to the RRS up to the present (earliest data available from 2005).

Radiosonde data at 6-second resolution from US stations prior to RRS upgrade are still available from the SPARC Data Center at http://www.aparc-climate.org/data-center/data-access/us-radiosonde/.

8th Atmospheric Limb Workshop in Gothenburg, Sweden, 15-17 September 2015

Deadline for registration and abstract submission: 17 June 2015

The 8th International Atmospheric Limb Workshop will be hosted by The Department of Earth and Space Sciences at Chalmers University of Technology.

Scientific Focus:

  • Limb measurements: Emission (UV, visible, IR, microwave), occultation (solar, stellar, lunar), scattering
  • Past, current and future spaceborne instruments: SMR, OSIRIS, ACE, GOMOS, MIPAS, SCIAMACHY, SMILES, SAGE, SABER, MLS, SOFIE, HIRDLS, OMPS, ALTIUS, MATS, STEAM
  • Observations and modelling: Mesosphere and above, stratosphere, UTLS and troposphere
  • Retrieval algorithms and data assimilation
  • Radiative transfer and spectroscopy

Contact:

Find website.

Science Update: 25-30 April

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

Evolving obs4MIPs to Support the Sixth Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6). By R. Ferraro et al. in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

Mountain waves and wakes generated by South Georgia: implications for drag parametrization. By S.B. Vosper in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society.

Reconciling reported and unreported HFC emissions with atmospheric observations. By M.F. Lunt et al. in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

Possible impacts of a future Grand Solar Minimum on climate: Stratospheric and global circulation changes. By A.C. Maycock et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

Tropopause Folds in ERA-Interim: Global Climatology and Relation to Extreme Weather Events. By B. Škerlak et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

Discussion Papers – open for comment

A solar signal in lower stratospheric water vapour? By T. Schieferdecker et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

Trajectory mapping of middle atmospheric water vapor by a mini network of NDACC instruments. By M. Lainer et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

Call for funding pre-proposals – climate predictability and inter-regional linkages

Pre-proposals deadline: 1 June 2015

2015 International Opportunities Fund: climate predictability and inter-regional linkages

The Belmont Forum and JPI Climate have launched a call for funding pre-proposals on climate predictability and inter-regional linkages (drivers and mechanisms linking poles & monsoons for societal usefulness of climate services).

This call aims to support medium-size research projects of 3-4 years duration, and recommends a budget of between 1 and 3 M Euros.

Pre-proposals are due by June 1st 2015, and interested researchers are strongly advised to use the online research matching tool.

Find out more here:

http://www.futureearth.org/news/call-proposals-climate-predictability-and-inter-regional-linkages

Website now open for the “Composition and Transport in the Tropical Troposphere and Lower Stratosphere Meeting” in Boulder, CO, USA, 20-23 July 2015

Deadline for applications for support: 15 May 2015
Deadline for abstract submission: 22 May 2015

The website for registration and abstract submission is now open for the open meeting titled "Composition and Transport in the Tropical Troposphere and Lower Stratosphere" to be held in Boulder, CO on 20-23 July, 2015:

http://esrl.noaa.gov/csd/events/CT3LS/

The meeting will cover the role of the TTL in the climate system and the response of the TTL to future climate change. Susan Solomon and Graeme Stephens have kindly agreed to give invited talks. One aim is to identify open science questions and the future measurement strategies needed to address them, and all participants will be encouraged to come prepared.

The meeting will cover the science topics listed below and include oral and poster presentations. Analyses that combine ground-based, airborne, and satellite measurements, as well as the use of these observations for evaluation of large-scale models, are particularly welcome.

Science topics:

  1. Chemistry and transport processes controlling tropical tropospheric and stratospheric composition
  2. Measurement and model comparisons
  3. Clouds and water vapor

The deadline for abstract submission is May 22, 2015.

Limited support will be available for international participants and for students.
The deadline for applications for support is May 15, 2015
.
See the website for more details.

This meeting is held under the auspices of SPARC and IGAC.

Organising committee:

Joan Alexander, Elliot Atlas, Neil Harris, Fumio Hasebe, Eric Jensen, Nathaniel Livesey, Rolf Müller, Laura Pan, Leonhard Pfister, Ross Salawitch, and Troy Thornberry.

Please contact Neil Harris (), Troy Thornberry (), or Eric Jensen () with any questions.

Science Update: 18-24 April

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

Lidar observations of gravity wave activity in the middle atmosphere over Davis (69°S, 78°E), Antarctica. By B. Kaifler et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

The impact of current CH4 and N2O atmospheric loss process uncertainties on calculated ozone abundances and trends. By E.L. Fleming et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

Climate intercomparison of GPS radio occultation, RS90/92 radiosondes and GRUAN from 2002 to 2013. By F. Ladstädter et al. in Atmospheric Measurement Techniques.

The decrease in mid-stratospheric tropical ozone since 1991. By G.E. Nedoluha et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Distributions of ice supersaturation and ice crystals from airborne observations in relation to upper tropospheric dynamical boundaries. By M. Diao et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

Discussion Papers – open for comment

Solar geoengineering using solid aerosol in the stratosphere. By D.K. Weisenstein and D.W. Keith in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

Impact of ozone observations on the structure of a tropical cyclone using coupled atmosphere–chemistry data assimilation. By S. Lim et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

First training school on “Convective and volcanic clouds detecting, monitoring and modeling” in Castiglione del Lago, Italy, 4-9 October 2015

Grant evaluation deadline: 15 May 2015
Applications deadline: 15 July 2015

This training school is supported by the European Geosciences Union (EGU), organized by the Wegener Center for Climate anf Global Change (WegC) in collaboration with the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), the Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU) and local organization provided by island of meetings (iom).

Attending the school you will get an overview of the state of the art techniques and methods for detecting and monitoring the volcanic and convective clouds, you will know the different instruments and platforms allowing us to get the best performance in detecting such kind of clouds, you will be projected to the future learning about new missions planned for solving the main issues on these fields, you will be involved in real applications as early warming systems and modeling, you will directly analize the data.

The school topics will range from satellite instruments such as IR sensors or GPS radio occultations to aircraft measuremtents like lidar and radar, from study of ash and SO2 clouds to tropical cyclones, Mediterranean hurricanes, land and maritime convection.

The purpose of the School is to train students with outstanding research interest in the techniques allowing to detect, monitor, and model convective and volcanic clouds, to gain knowledge of the instruments and satellite missions (present and future) and to be able to support such kind of studies.

The extreme atmospheric event cloud detection is a high multidisciplinary and challenging topic since the same techniques and instruments can be used for meteorology, volcanic monitoring, atmospheric physics and climate purposes. Within all these fields there are still many unsolved issues making this school fundamental for creating a new generation of scientists able to use the synergy of several different instruments and techniques.

Each topic includes keynote plenary lectures with in-depth discussion. The school will consist of lectures combined with the practical application of the material covered in the lectures through introductory lab sessions and a set of research problems that will form the core of the School.

Through the introductory keynotes invited lectures, the students will be introduced to all the issues and challenges of the convective and volcanic cloud detection, monitoring and modeling, gaining an overview of the state of the art and the future development.

All the participants are expected to give a short talk or to present a poster about their own research; the selection of the talks will be done through evaluation process as in a regular conference.

The students will leave the school with an increased understanding of the cutting-edge research questions and with the perspective of creating some future projects in this field also thanks to the network created during the school with the lecturers and other students.

IDL and ENVI licences will be offered to all the participants for the period of the course.
15 EGU Grants covering the registration fee, will be awarded to participants coming from developing countries.

Applications:

The School is open to graduate students, PhD students and early career researchers.
More info available at the website.
Registration.

Dates:

Pre-registration is appreciated since there will be a limited space available.
The priority will be given in chronological registration order.
Applications deadline: July 15, 2015

Contacts:

Riccardo Biondi

School fees:

  • The school registration fee is 330 € including coffee breaks and teaching material.
  • Hotel accommodation available form 140 € for the whole period.
  • 15 grants offered by European Geosciences Union are available, covering the registration fee.
  • Full board registration fee 660-720 €, thanks to the agreement with the local hotels and restaurants we can offer a full board discounted arrangement depending on the accommodation (sharing room or single room), including accommodation in 3* hotel, breakfasts, lunches (buffet), dinners (first course, second course, side dish, fruit or dessert and drinks), coffee breaks, teaching material and excursion.

Excursions and fun-night:

  • Guided visit to the medieval Palazzo della Corgna and the castle of Castiglione del Lago (about 2h)
  • Ice cream night
  • Fun-run on the lungolago
  • Possible tour on saturday (10 October) on the Lake visiting the islands and having lunch on the boat or in a typical resaturant. This tour requires an additional fee and will be organized just if we reach a critical number of participants.

School Location:

Castiglione del Lago (Italy), medieval town located on a peninsula on the coast of Trasimeno Lake, mid-way between Rome and Florence and easily reachable by train and by car from both cities.

Science Update: 11-17 April

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

Comparisons of polar processing diagnostics from 34 years of the ERA-Interim and MERRA reanalyses. By Z.D. Lawrence et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

The weakening summer circulation in the Northern Hemisphere mid-latitudes. By D. Coumou et al. in Science.

5-day waves in polar stratosphere and mesosphere temperature and mesospheric ice water measured by SOFIE/AIM. By X. Liu et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

Discussion Papers – open for comment

A PV-based determination of the transport barrier in the Asian summer monsoon anticyclone. By F. Ploeger et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

Sensitivity analysis of the potential impact of discrepancies in stratosphere–troposphere exchange on inferred sources and sinks of CO2. By F. Deng et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

What is the limit of stratospheric sulfur climate engineering? By U. Niemeier and C. Timmreck in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

Comparison of the CMAM30 data set with ACE-FTS and OSIRIS: polar regions. By D. Pendlebury et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

Use of North American and European air quality networks to evaluate global chemistry-climate modeling of surface ozone. By J.L. Schnell et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.