START08 & HIRDLS

Laura PanNovember 6, 2007

START08 Information

• Science questions & objectives

• Payload & campaign dates

• Modeling effort

• Opportunities of collaboration

from HIRDLS group

Project History• START was planned by the UTLS initiative at NCAR, in collaboration

with a group of university colleagues, for the HIAPER progressive science mission (2005) for test flights

• NSF declined the funding for University co-Is and suggested a full scale campaign proposal in a later date

• A limited payload START was conducted by NCAR scientists (Dec 05) (with support from NOAA colleagues)

• A proposal for START08 with a moderate payload developed over the last two years, lead by a joint PI group (Pan, Atlas, Bowman, Zhang…)

• NSF LA program suggested a joint payload/operation with Pre-HIPPO (Wofsy). The PI groups considered the payload overlap and flight pattern consistency and agreed to the joint operation

Motivations and general questions

• STE - and chemistry climate interaction (Ozone, Water vapor, particles…) - How well is the new generation of CCMs representing this region and predicting the coupling of dynamics and chemistry in a changing climate?

• Process-oriented validation for the CCMs - the need for diagnostics that are observables - flux is not an observable, tracer-tracer correlations are, so is the age spectrum - need for a climatology in the UTLS region, also a theoretical framework

• Chemical and microphysical behavior of the tropopause - what/where are the discoutnuities in the ExUTLS

• HIAPER infrastructure - platform/instrumentation development - we need exercise to put chemistry instruments on the plane

• Also need for experience of challenging flight patterns - can we probe convective anvils?

Primary Science Objective: Investigate transport processes that impact the chemical-microphysical

distribution of the Ex-UTLS

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Primary Science Objective: Investigate transport processes that impact the chemical-microphysical

distribution of the Ex-UTLS• Understanding chemical transition and mixing near the

Ex-Tropopause – Is the extratropical tropopause better characterized as a

surface or a layer? ExTL?

– If a layer, how do we identify/define it? What controls its existence/depth?

• The behavior of the secondary tropopause– What dynamical processes contribute to the occurrence of

2ndry tropopause?

– Are there chemical transport processes associated with multiple tropopauses?

– What are the microphysical behavior of the region of multiple tropopauses?

• Key transport pathways

– Where are the preferred locations of STE and mixing?– How do we identify the convective impact to UTLS air mass?– What are the key tracer relationships that identifies these

pathways?

START05

The concept of START08 was tested in a limited scope during START05

Three publications up to date, highlights what we can learn with this new aircraft, in the Ex-UTLS region

HIAPER Progressive Science Mission

Daybreak before take off 2005-12-21

(November 21 - December 22, 2005)

New NSF/NCAR GV

Investigators: Laura Pan (PI), Mel Shapiro, Bill Randel , Ken Bowman, Rushan Gao, Teresa Campos

Stratosphere-Troposphere Analyses of Stratosphere-Troposphere Analyses of Regional Transport (START) ExperimentRegional Transport (START) Experiment

Chemical Behavior of the Extratropical Tropopause

Laura L. PanNational Center for Atmospheric Research

Boulder, Colorado, USA

K-H cloud, Flt 2005-12-14

Contributors and Collaborators:

Mel Shapiro and Al Cooper (NCAR)Kenneth Bowman (Texas A&M)

Brian Ridley, Teresa Campos, Bill Randel, Sue Schauffler, Chris Davis (NCAR)Rushan Gao (NOAA)

Jennifer Wei and Chris Barnet (NOAA/NESDIS)

Historical Models of the Tropopause

Palmen & Newton, 1969 Shapiro & Keyser, 1990

“The Thermal Tropopause” “The Dynamical Tropopause”

(WMO, 1957) (Reed, 1955, Shapiro, 1980; Danielsen etal., 1987; WMO, 1986; Holton et al., 1995;…)

Adapted from Chapter 2 WMO (2002), Law, Cox & Haynes

Contemporary Concept of Extratropical Transition Layer

START Flight 1, 2005-12-01

Pan et al., 2007

Sampling the Tropopause Fold First research flight of NSF/NCAR GV, 2005-12-01

GFS based PV=2 surface, 18Z

Stratosphere

Troposphere

Cyclonic side of the jet

Chemical behavior of the extratropical tropopause

Pan et al., 2007

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Bowman et al., 2007

Fine scale structure near a hyperbolic point

New Particle formation in the tropopause fold

Young et al., 2007

Frontal Cloud - flt 2005-12-14

• 120 flight hours, 15 x 8 hr flights (3 Pre-Hippo flights)

• April 21-May 16, June 16-June 28• Based at JeffCo airport

Stratosphere-Troposphere Analyses of Stratosphere-Troposphere Analyses of Regional Transport (START) Experiment Regional Transport (START) Experiment (2008)(2008)

Co-Investigators:

External:Linnea Avallone

(CU) James Elkins

(NOAA)Fred Moore (CU)Dale Hurst (CU)Steve Wofsy

(Harvard University)

Fuqing Zhang (Texas A&M)

Stratosphere-Troposphere Analyses of Regional Transport Experiment(START08)

Co-Principal Investigators:Elliot Atlas (Univ. of Miami), Kenneth P. Bowman (Texas A&M), Laura Pan (NCAR)

Science Objective: Investigate transport processes that impact the chemical-microphysical distribution of the Ex-UTLS

Mixing on top of the STJ

Convective transport Long range transport

NCAR: Teresa Campos Andy HeymsfieldAndy WeinheimerFrank FlockeBill RandelSue SchaufflerBrian RidleyBritt StephensSimone Tilmes

• April-June, 2008• Flight operation from Jeffco• Joint with HIPPO (global carbon)

GW

START08: MeasurementsInstrument/Model Data product Mission Objective

HAIS Twin QCL High resolution CO, CO2, CH4, N2O Tracer studies

HAIS AWAS Grab sampling: NMHC, HCFC, RONO2, etc., etc.

Tracer studies

PANTHER GC/MS Medium resolution: selected trace gases Tracer studies

UCATS* GC analysis:CO/CH4; continuous O3 – H2O

Tracer studies

NCAR/HAIS Fast O3 >1 Hz ozone measurement Strat-trop mixing

NCAR NO/NOy High resolution NO, NOy Strat-trop mixing, convective NO sources

RAF TDL H2O High resolution H2O Microphysics, strat-trop processes

HAIS SID-2 Small ice particle detector Cirrus microphysics

HAIS MTP Atmospheric temperature structure Strat-trop processes; tropopause location

CU-CLH Total water measurement; thin cloud detection

Microphysics, strat-trop processes

NCAR O2:N2 Measure of O2:N2 ratio Strat-trop exchange; carbon cycle objectiveNCAR CO

What more do we expect from START08:

• Stratospheric influence of tropospheric ozone in Spring (the season of highest LS ozone loading)

• Characterizing major transport pathways using tracers of a range of lifetime

• Chemical transport and microphysical processes associated with the secondary tropopause

• Probing convectively influenced air mass

• Gravity wave source and breaking in the jet stream

• The broader picture using satellite data

• Transport and mixing using multi-scale models

Extensive/frequent occurrence of the multiple tropopause

Randel et al., 2007

Tropospheric intrusion into stratosphere associated with the secondary tropopause observed by HIRDLS

courtesy John Gille

Chemical transport associated with secondary tropopause?

Investigating the influence of the secondary tropopause:

Influence of the secondary tropopause:Ozonesonde profiles

BRATTS LAKE, CAN (50.2N,104.7W)

The stations time series cross section

Ozone structure in the subtropics near 15 km in ozonesondes

Microphysical implications of the secondary tropopause?

Noel and Haeffelin, 2007

CALIPSO 532 Total Attenuated backscatter

Age spectrum derived using NMHC, Ehhalt et al., 2007

Information from tracers of different lifetimes

• Sharp decrease of the Tropopause at the Sup-tropical Jet

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• Ozone/CO and Ozone/H20: equatorward and poleward of the STJ

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Ozone CO H2O

O3 (ppbv)

O3 (p

pbv)

O3 (p

pbv)

Tracer-Tracer correlations from MOZART-3 Model

Tracers of different lifetime from MOZART3 model

Objectives (con.)• Role of gravity waves in the structure and composition of ExUTLS

– How well does the current generation of mesoscale models predict the excitation of GW by jet/fronts?

– How often do GW break in the ExUTLS and what is the evidence in tracer measurements for the contribution of GW breaking to mixing?

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HIRDLS contributions

NRT data for flight planning?

HIRDLS 2007-11-01, Courtesy Eric Ray

HIRDLS descending/ascending, Kinnison et al., 2007

125 hPa static stability and PV, FNL, 060123 18Z

Signature in the met field for the poleward intrusion

HIRDLS data and structure of the Extratropical UTLS

Ozone, HNO3, cirrus? H2O?

A few actions planned…

We plan to have workshop at NCAR Jan 8-9, 2008, come to talk about your science interest..

A mailing list has been created for all who are interested. Email to subscribe:start_all-subscribe@mailman.acd.ucar.edu

A website is created to update the information, in the progress:http://www.acd.ucar.edu/start/

Thank You !

Shadows of Monument Valley - Flight 051209