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Scientists observed a minor warming of the Arctic Polar stratosphere in the first half of February but temperatures have since decreased back to levels that permit the existence of polar stratospheric clouds (PSC). The Polar vortex also extended far southward, moving above large parts of Europe again, giving lots of stations the opportunity to measure vortex air where considerable ozone losses occurred. The below figure shows temperature forecasts at the 450K level, indicating a tendency for temperature increases but thereafter a further decrease.

The 2015/2016-Northern Hemisphere winter continues to be scientifically fascinating!

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

Influence of the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation and Sea Surface Temperature Variability on Downward Wave Coupling in the Northern Hemisphere. By S.W. Lubis et al. in the Journal of Atmospheric Sciences.

Multi-year climate prediction with initialization based on 4D-Var data assimilation. By T. Mochizuki et al. in Geophysical Research Letters.

Global normal mode planetary wave activity: a study using TIMED/SABER observations from the stratosphere to the mesosphere-lower thermosphere. By S.R. John and K.K. Kumar in Climate Dynamics.

Strengthening of the Tropopause Inversion Layer During the 2009 Sudden Stratospheric Warming: A MERRA-2 Study. By K. Wargan and L. Coy in the Journal of Atmospheric Sciences.

Dynamical consistency of reanalysis data sets in the extratropical stratosphere. By P. Martineau et al. in the Journal of Climate.

Troposphere–stratosphere response to large-scale North Atlantic Ocean variability in an atmosphere/ocean coupled model. By N.E. Omrani et al. in Climate Dynamics.

Drift dynamics in a coupled model initialized for decadal forecasts. By E. Sanchez-Gomez et al. in Climate Dynamics.

Preferred response of the East Asian summer monsoon to local and non-local anthropogenic sulphur dioxide emissions. By B. Dong et al. in Climate Dynamics.

The Combined Influences of Autumnal Snow and Sea Ice on Northern Hemisphere Winters. By J.C. Furtado et al. in Geophysical Research Letters.

Evolution of stratospheric sulfate aerosol from the 1991 Pinatubo eruption: Roles of aerosol microphysical processes. By T. Sekiya et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

Water vapour variability in the high-latitude upper troposphere – Part 2: Impact of volcanic eruptions. By C.E. Sioris et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Unexpected high ³⁵S concentration reveals strong downward transport of stratospheric air during the monsoon transitional period in East Asia. By M. Lin et al. in Geophysical Research Letters.

Discussion papers – open for comment

Characteristics of lower stratospheric transport as inferred from the age of air spectrum. By F. Ploeger and T. Birner in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

How can we understand the solar cycle signal on the Earth’s surface? By K. Kodera et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

Return glider radiosonde for in-situ upper-air research measurements. By A. Kräuchi and R. Philipona et al. in Atmospheric Measurement Techniques Discussions.

The 2016 IGAC (International Global Atmospheric Chemistry) Conference is being held from 26-30 September in Breckenridge, Colorado, USA.

The 6 scientific sessions are focused on:

1. Atmospheric Chemistry and Urbanisation
2. Atmospheric Chemistry, Ecosystems and Agriculture
3. Atmospheric Chemistry and Energy
4. Atmospheric Chemistry and Fundamental Studies
5. Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate Change
6. Atmospheric Chemistry – Observing Composition and Variability

Important dates:

02 April 2016: Abstract Submission Deadline

16 May 2016: Abstract Acceptance Notification

15 June 2016: Early Bird Registration Deadline

1 September 2016: Hotel Reservation Deadline at Conference Rate

See the conference website for more details: www.igac2016.org

WMO is kindly asking for 15-20 minutes of your time to respond to the Satellite User Survey 2016. This Survey is designed to collect up-to-date information on the capabilities and needs of the satellite user community and WMO Members in using satellite data in meteorological, climate, water, and related environmental applications:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/wmosatsurvey2016 (in English) https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/wmosatsurvey2016_es (in Spanish) https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/wmosatsurvey2016_fr (in French) https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/wmosatsurvey2016_ru (in Russian)

Please provide your response by 15 March 2016.

Particular emphasis in this survey is on:

• Readiness of users to exploit data from the new generation of meteorological and environmental satellites which is being put in service over the next five years
• User needs for satellite-derived information on soil moisture, lightning, ocean colour, greenhouse gases, and inland water bodies (identified as emerging priorities by many users in a 2012 WMO survey)
• Challenges that users face in the reception, processing, visualization, and application of satellite data, and related training needs

Your responses will help WMO set priorities and take remedial action to address challenges identified by users, where possible.

50^th CMOS Congress & joint CGU Annual Meeting

May 29 – June 2, 2016, Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada

Coupled modelling and the Year of Polar Prediction

As numerical weather prediction systems become further refined the interactions across the Air-Ice-Ocean interface are becoming increasingly important. This is giving rise to the development of a new generation of fully-integrated environmental prediction systems composed of atmosphere, ice, ocean, and wave modeling and analysis systems. Such systems are in increasing demand as the utility of marine information products (e.g. for emergency response) becomes more widely recognized. This is particularly relevant for the upcoming Year of Polar Prediction (YOPP), a period of intensive observing, modelling, verification, user-engagement and education activities planned for mid-2017 to mid-2019, to enable a significant improvement in environmental prediction capabilities for the polar regions and beyond, including ice-ocean forecasting. YOPP is a major initiative of WMO’s World Weather Research Polar Prediction Project (WWRP-PPP). This session welcomes contributions on coupled environmental prediction on timescales from hours to seasons, covering the range of coupled processes and interactions at play on regional and global spatial scales, and their application in analysis and forecasting systems. Contributions on observations, modelling and verification related to YOPP are especially invited. This session is co-sponsored by the Global Ocean Data Assimilation Experiment (GODAE) Ocean View (GOV) Coupled Prediction Task Team (CP-TT) and WWRP-PPP.

Please submit abstracts electronically to:

http://congress.cmos.ca/site/abstracts_submission choosing the “interdisciplinary and other” theme and “Coupled modelling and the Year of Polar Prediction” session. The submission deadline is February 29, 2016.

More information about the Congress can be found at http://congress.cmos.ca

Solicitation for input from the community

Copernicus is a user driven programme, which means that the users are at the centre of the programme’s design and implementation, and that Copernicus must evolve continuously to make sure that it addresses its users’ needs.

If you are, or are interested in becoming a user of Copernicus data or service information, we sincerely would appreciate your time and effort in completing this "call for interest" survey. The results will be used to identify existing users and potential users who are willing to participate in one way or another to the collection and analysis of Copernicus user needs.

This call for interest survey and the gathering of user needs will be the first building block of a process aimed at defining the high level requirements for the next generation of the Copernicus Space Component. It is thus a unique opportunity to contribute to the creation of a "fil rouge" between this Space Component and the users.

The survey is available at: www.copernicus.eu/copernicus-call-for-interest

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

Evaluating CMIP5 models using GPS radio occultation COSMIC temperature in UTLS region during 2006–2013: twenty-first century projection and trends. By P. Kishore et al. in Climate Dynamics.

Does ocean-coupling matter for the northern extra-tropical response to projected Arctic sea ice loss? By C. Deser et al. in Geophysical Research Letters.

Large scale atmospheric warming in winter and the Arctic sea ice retreat. By S. Dobricic et al. in the Journal of Climate.

Stratospheric gravity wave momentum flux from radio occultations. By T. Schmidt et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

The Upward Branch of the Brewer-Dobson Circulation Quantified by Tropical Stratospheric Water Vapor and Carbon Monoxide Measurements from the Aura Microwave Limb Sounder. By K. Minschwaner et al. in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres.

Discussion papers – open for comment

A multi-wavelength classification method for polar stratospheric cloud types using infrared limb spectra. By R. Spang et al. in Atmospheric Measurement Techniques Discussions.

Evaluation of UTLS carbon monoxide simulations in GMI and GEOS-Chem chemical transport models using Aura MLS observations. By L. Huang et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

The impact of lightning on tropospheric ozone chemistry using a new global parametrisation. By D.L. Finney et al. 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).

Is the Brewer-Dobson circulation increasing, or moving upward? By s. Oberländer-Hayn et al. in Geophysical Research Letters.

Impact of rising greenhouse gas concentrations on future tropical ozone and UV exposure. By S. Meul et al. in Geophysical Research Letters.

Analysis of the seasonal ozone budget and the impact of the summer monsoon on the northeastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. By B. Zhu et al. in the Journal of Geophysical research: Atmospheres.

How to most effectively expand the global surface ozone observing network. By E.D. Sofen et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Stratospheric sulfate geoengineering could enhance the terrestrial photosynthesis rate. By L. Xia et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

Fostering a collaborative atmospheric chemistry research community in the Latin America and Caribbean Region. By M. Andrade-Flores et al. in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

The SPARC Data Initiative: comparisons of CFC-11, CFC-12, HF and SF6 climatologies from international satellite limb sounders. By S. Tegtmeier et al. in Earth System Science Data.

Gridded global surface ozone metrics for atmospheric chemistry model evaluation. By E.D. Sofen et al. in Earth System Science Data.

Discussion papers – open for comment

AerGOM, an improved algorithm for stratospheric aerosol extinction retrieval from GOMOS observations. Part 1: Algorithm development. By F. Vanhellemont et al. in Atmospheric Measurement Techniques Discussions.

Influence of the sudden stratosphere warming on quasi-2 day waves. By S.Y. Gu et al. in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

The Swiss Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss is looking for a Postdoc to study climate change and heat stress.

Find link to vacancy.