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

The Arctic polar vortex response to volcanic forcing of different strengths. By A. Azoulay, H. Schmidt, and C. Timmreck in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

The advective Brewer–Dobson circulation in the ERA5 reanalysis: climatology, variability, and trends. By M. Diallo, M. Ern, and F. Ploeger in Atmospheric Chemistrey and Physics.

Stratospheric gravity waves over the mountainous island of South Georgia: testing a high-resolution dynamical model with 3-D satellite observations and radiosondes. By N.P. Hindley et al., in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

How frequent are Antarctic sudden stratospheric warmings in present and future climate? By M. Jucker, T. Reichler, and D.W. Waugh in the Geophysical Research Letters.

The observed influence of the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation in the lower equatorial stratosphere on the East Asian winter monsoon during early boreal winter. By T. Ma et al., in the International Journal of Climatology.

Is our dynamical understanding of the circulation changes associated with the Antarctic ozone hole sensitive to the choice of reanalysis dataset? By A. Orr et al., in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Stratospheric contraction caused by increasing greenhouse gases. By P. Pisoft et al., in the Environmental Research Letters.

The impact of increasing stratospheric radiative damping on the quasi-biennial oscillation period. By T. Zhou et al., in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Discussion papers – open for comment:

Heterogeneity and Chemical Reactivity of the Remote Troposphere defined by Aircraft Measurements. By H. Guo et al., in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

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

Interpol-IAGOS: a new method for assessing long-term chemistry–climate simulations in the UTLS based on IAGOS data, and its application to the MOCAGE CCMI REF-C1SD simulation. By Y. Cohen et al., in Geoscientific Model Development.

Disrupted Stratospheric QBO signatures in the Diurnal Tides over the low‐latitude MLT region. By M. Pramitha et al., in the Geophysical Research Letters.

Eastward‐Propagating Planetary Waves Prior to the January 2009 Sudden Stratospheric Warming. By C.T. Rhodes et al., in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

How does a Pinatubo‐size Volcanic Cloud Reach the Middle Stratosphere? By G. Stenchikov et al., in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

Downloadable Information Flyer (pdf)

The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) leads the way in addressing frontier scientific questions about the coupled climate system — questions that are too large and too complex to be tackled by a single nation, agency, or scientific discipline. For almost 40 years WCRP has coordinated international climate research to advance our understanding of the climate system and how it is affected by human activities. The decades ahead will bring challenges that can only be addressed through a worldwide coordinated effort, involving co-design and stakeholder engagement conducted by a prepared scientific workforce, to support mitigation strategies and adaptation planning. This is one in a series of regional forums, where we will exchange ideas, discuss new activities and opportunities being developed by WCRP, and explore ways that our community of scientists, partner programs, funders, and end-users of our climate science can engage to meet these challenges.

This Forum will begin with an overview of WCRP from the Vice Chair of the WCRP Joint Scientific Committee (the scientific steering body of WCRP) Helen Cleugh, followed by talks highlighting climate science priorities and opportunities for collaboration in the Southeast Asian Region:

• CORDEX-SEA: Providing regional climate change information for enabling adaptations in Southeast Asia, Fredolin Tangang, Professor and Chairperson, Department of Earth Sciences and Environment, the National University of Malaysia and CORDEX-SEA Coordinator.
• Climate science and information priorities and needs – researcher and end user perspectives, Ardhasena Sopaheluwakan, Director, Center for Applied Climate Services, Meteorological, Climatological and Geophysical Agency, Indonesia.
• Climate science as decision-support for resilience: transdisciplinary approaches from local to global, Jessica Dator-Bercilla, University of the Philippines in the Visayas and Asia Climate Change Consortium.
• From science to action: bridging researchers and practitioners, Rodel Lasco, Oscar M. Lopez Center and Philippines Country Coordinator for World Agroforestry (ICRAF).

This will be followed by a moderated question and answer session, with time for discussion. The Forum is without charge and is open to all, but we do ask that you register your interest.

Register here!

We thank the following WCRP Regional Focal Points for organizing this Forum: Fredolin Tangang (National University of Malaysia), Kendra Gotangco Gonzales (Ateneo de Manila University), and Anastasia RTD Kuswardani (Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, Indonesia). We also thank the WCRP Coordination Office for Regional Activities (CORA) for their support.

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

Teleconnections of the quasi‐biennial oscillation in a multi‐model ensemble of QBO‐resolving models. By J.A. Anstey et al., in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society.

Analysis of recent lower-stratospheric ozone trends in chemistry climate models. By S. Dietmüller et al., in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Overview and update of the SPARC Data Initiative: comparison of stratospheric composition measurements from satellite limb sounders. By M.I. Hegglin et al., in Earth System Science Data.

Vertical structure of the Arctic spring transition in the middle atmosphere. By V. Matthias et al., in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

Measurement report: regional trends of stratospheric ozone evaluated using the MErged GRIdded Dataset of Ozone Profiles (MEGRIDOP). By V. Sofieva et al., in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.  

Asymmetry and pathways of inter-hemispheric transport in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. By X. Yan et al., in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

It is our pleasure to announce and invite you to the Fourth ACAM Training School on Atmospheric Chemistry and Aerosols in the Asian Monsoon region using Satellite and Model data. 

Application form and school site is available here: https://training.eumetsat.int/enrol/index.php?id=413

Application Deadline: 16th May 2021

Note: you need to register (enrole) to the page

The school is fully on-line and has the goal to enhance the capacity of early career scientists in the areas of atmospheric composition data analysis using satellite remote sensing, model and analysis products. The training school will provide lectures and tutorials on using the latest and comprehensive global datasets on atmospheric composition. Confirmed lecturers include top level scientists and experts from Asia, Europe and US – Sachin Ghude, Laura Pan, Ritesh Gautam, Bhupesh Adhikary, Mark Parrington, Hans Schlager, Ilse Aben.​

The school will have 3 sessions of 2h30 for the weeks from 21 June to  2 July 2021 and is limited to 30 participants to allow a hands-on approach. Priority goes to PhD and master-level students from Asian countries.

Participants will also develop small-scale science projects to apply these datasets in their area of research interests. Junior and advanced researchers working in academy and public/private services as well as candidates from other continents are invited to apply but will be considered based on availability.

A basic knowledge in programming and understanding in structure and formats of geospatial data / Earth Observation data would be advantageous but is NOT mandatory.

We look forward to meet you virtually in June …

Bhupesh Adhikary, Federico Fierli, Ritesh Gautam​ – ACAM Capacity Building Group 

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

Atmospheric Gravity Waves in Aeolus Wind Lidar Observations. By T.P. Banyard et al., in the Geophysical Research Letters.

Dynamical differences between short and long blocks in the Northern Hemisphere. By M. Drouard et al., in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

The impact of volcanic eruptions of different magnitude on stratospheric water vapor in the tropics. By C.A. Kroll et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

SOUTHTRAC-GW: An Airborne Field Campaign to Explore Gravity Wave Dynamics at the World’s Strongest Hotspot. By M. Rapp et al., in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

Impacts of teleconnection patterns on South America climate. By M. Simões Reboita et al., in the Annals of the News York Academy of Sciences.

SNAP is coordinating a new set of controlled numerical experiments, designed to isolate and quantify the contribution of the stratosphere to forecast skill on subseasonal time scales. These experiments target three recent stratospheric events: two major Northern Hemisphere sudden stratospheric warmings in February 2018 and January 2019, and the unusual near-major sudden warming in the Southern Hemisphere that occurred in September 2019. Each of these events was followed by a surface extreme thought to be connected to the stratospheric anomalies, though the timescale and intensity of the downward propagation differed among the events. 

The basic experimental protocol consists of a set of forecast ensembles: (1) a standard, free running forecast ensemble, (2) a ‘perfect stratosphere’ forecast in which the stratosphere is relaxed towards the observed evolution, and (3) a ‘control’ forecast in which the stratosphere is relaxed towards climatology. Further details of the experimental protocol will be described in an article soon to be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal. To date, twelve modeling groups at eleven centers are planning to contribute integrations following this protocol. This will allow for an unprecedented, multi-model comparison of the dynamics underlying the surface responses to sudden stratospheric warmings. Moreover, by including ‘counterfactual’ forecasts in which the stratospheric circulation remains in a climatological state, the experimental protocol will allow for formal attribution statements to be made regarding the surface extremes that followed the stratospheric anomalies.

The goal is to have the experiments completed by summer of 2021, and the initial analysis will be carried out by a set of community working groups.

Anyone interested in participating in the community analysis of these experiments is encouraged to contact Peter Hitchchock (), Amy Butler (), and Chaim Garfinkel () for  further information. We expect initial results to be reported towards the end of 2021 through the first half of 2022.   After an initial embargo period, the dataset will be made available to the broader community in the fall of 2022.

WCRP Climate Research Forum for North and Central America, the Caribbean and Greenland on “Climate research priorities for the next decade”
11 May 2021, 15:00 – 17:30 Eastern Daylight Time (19:00 – 21:30 UTC) – Online   

Download flyer

The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) local organizing committee for the North and Central America, Caribbean, and Greenland region warmly invite you to the upcoming WCRP Climate Research Forum on “Climate research priorities for the next decade.”

This Forum will begin with an overview of WCRP from the Chair and Vice Chair of the WCRP Joint Scientific Committee (the scientific steering body of WCRP), Detlef Stammer and Helen Cleugh, followed by three invited talks on:

1. Perspectives on the role, benefits and science imperatives of the WCRP
   • Climate information needs from a user/policy maker perspective. Roberto Sánchez-Rodríguez, El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, Mexico.
   • Earth system observations for assessing climate-related risks. Susann Tegtmeier, University of Saskatchewan, Canada.
   • Advances and challenges in global and regional climate modeling. Andreas Prein, National Center for Atmospheric Research, United States.

This will be followed by a moderated discussion session that will include short presentations on:

2. Collaboration activities in the region
   • The Precipitation Prediction Grand Challenge. Louis W. Uccellini, National Weather Service, United States.
   • Understanding and Predicting Water Futures in an Era of Global Change. John Pomeroy, University of Saskatchewan, Canada.
   • IAI’s strategic priorities in global change research, with a focus on climate and water. Anna Stewart, Executive Director, Inter American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI).
   • The changing cryosphere in a warming climate. Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and the Centre for Earth Observation Science, University of Manitoba, Canada.

The Forum is open to all, please register here.
To learn more about the Forum, click here

The deadline for abstract submission for the 16^th IGAC Conference, Atmospheric Chemistry at a Distance: Real Progress through Virtual Interaction, has been extended until May 15^th, 2021.

Please submit abstracts here.  For more information on the conference, please visit the IGAC Conferences webpage.

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

Importance of Gravity Wave Forcing for Springtime Southern Polar Vortex Breakdown as Revealed by ERA5. By A. Gupta et al. in the Geophysical Research Letters.

Effects of prescribed CMIP6 ozone on simulating the Southern Hemisphere atmospheric circulation response to ozone depletion. By I. Ivanciu et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Using a network of temperature lidars to identify temperature biases in the upper stratosphere in ECMWF reanalyses. By G. Marlton et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Earth Observation for Sustainable Infrastructure: A Review. By Y. Song and P. Wu in remote sensing.

Discussion papers – open for comment:

The impact of SF6 sinks on age of air climatologies and trends. By S. Loeffel et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.