newsletter n° 41 SPARC July 2013 Stratosphere-troposphere Processes And their Role in Climate Core project of the World Climate Research Programme www.sparc-climate.org The NASA Global Hawk being towed into the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center hanger, Edwards, California. See results from the recent ATTREX campaigns using the aircraft this issue. Photo courtesy: Tom Tschida, NASA Dryden Flight Research Center. Contents WCRP Special Workshop on Report on the 1st SPARC Report on the 20th Session of Climatic Effects of Ozone De- Stratospheric Network for the the SPARC Scientific Steering pletion in the Southern Hemi- Assessment of Predictability Group .....................................2 sphere: Assessing the evidence (SNAP) ................................44 and identifying gaps in the cur- Report on the Regional WCRP/ rent knowledge ......................29 SPARC Reanalysis Intercom- SPARC Workshop with focus parison Project (S-RIP) Plan- on the Southern Hemisphere Report on the WCRP Regional ning Meeting .........................52 and South America................11 Workshop on Stratosphere- Troposphere Processes And their The NASA Airborne Tropical Role in Climate ....................35 Available online TRopopause EXperiment (AT- TREX) ..................................15 Report on the 3rd SPARC Report on the IGAC/SPARC DynVar Workshop on Modelling Chemistry-Climate Model Ini- Combined SPARC Data Require- the Dynamics and Variability tiative (CCMI) 2013 Science ments/SPIN Mid-Term Review of the Stratosphere-Troposphere Workshop - http://www.sparc-cli- Workshop .............................25 System ......................................40 mate.org/publications/newsletter/ Report on the 20th Session of the SPARC Scientific Steering Group 27-30 November 2012, Buenos Aires, Argentina Johannes Staehelin1, Ted Shepherd2 , Greg Bodeker3, Joan Alexander4 1SPARC Office, Zurich, Switzerland, [email protected], 2University of Reading, UK, 3Bodeker Scientific, New Zealand, 4 NorthWest Research Associates/CoRA, USA The 20th Session of the SPARC SSG WCRP’s Joint Scientific Commit- Ted Shepherd (SPARC co-chair) (Scientific Steering Group) was tee (JSC)) provided an update of began his presentation by summa- held at SIGEN (Sindicatura Gen- WCRP activities on behalf of An- rizing SPARC’s goals and organisa- eral de la Nación) in Buenos Aires, tonio Busalacchi (JSC Chair), who tion, and then continued by mention- Argentina, from 27-30 November was unable to attend the meeting. ing SPARC’s name change (again, 2012, hosted by the ‘Centro de In- She mentioned the very successful see below for further details). He vestigaciones del Mar y la Atmós- WCRP Open Science Conference further discussed SPARC’s role in fera’, of the University of Buenos (OSC), which took place from 24- the new WCRP GCs. SPARC will Aires. 29 October 2011, in Denver, USA contribute to several GCs, includ- (http://conference2011.wcrp-cli- ing ‘Regional Climate Information’ Opening session and WCRP/ mate.org). The new WCRP struc- (led by the Working Group on Re- SPARC update ture was discussed in a short JSC gional Climate), through research meeting following the OSC, and in focusing on atmospheric circulation Greg Bodeker (SPARC co-chair) further detail at the next JSC meet- changes, and to the GC ‘Cryosphere opened the Scientific Steering ing, which took place from 17-20 in a Changing Climate’ (co-led by Group (SSG) meeting by welcom- July 2012 in Beijing, China (for CliC, the Climate and Cryosphere ing all participants, particularly more details see the meeting report project), through the Polar Climate those from South America who in SPARC Newsletter no. 401). Un- Predictability Initiative (PCPI, see joined the first session, and thanked der the new structure, six Grand below). SPARC will also contribute the local organisers. A new format Challenges (GCs) will play a criti- to the GC ‘Science Underpinning for the meeting was introduced, re- cal role, enabling the development the Prediction and Attribution of quiring the activity leaders to pro- of targeted research efforts that will Extreme Events’ (led by GEWEX), vide a short report detailing their provide successful results on 5-10 as well as to the GC ‘Clouds, Circu- main scientific achievements, an year timescales. Two new coun- lation and Climate Sensitivity’ (led outlook for the future, and any fi- cils have also been established, the by WGCM, see below), through nancial requests for the coming WCRP Modelling Advisory Coun- research focused on circulation year. These reports were distrib- cil (WMAC) and the WCRP Data analyses, upper tropospheric wa- uted to all participants prior to the Advisory Council (WDAC) (see be- ter vapour, and sulphate aerosol mi- meeting, while during the meeting low for further details). A telecon- crophysics. Together with GEWEX, brief scientific presentations were ference later during the meeting IGAC (the International Global At- then made in plenary and logisti- with Antonio Busalacchi confirmed mospheric Chemistry project), and cal aspects were discussed sepa- SPARC’s vital role in the WCRP’s other research partners, SPARC is rately in small groups with the SSG GCs. Carolina closed by discussing expected to take a lead on aerosol-re- members. This allowed more focus the emerging Future Earth initia- on coordination and logistical is- tive, to which the WCRP will con- sues. The reports have now been tribute significantly. Later, she also compiled to produce the very first presented a summary of the one and 1http://www.sparc-climate.org/fileadmin/ SPARC Annual Report 2012. a half-day local workshop, which customer/6_Publications/Newsletter_ took place prior to the SSG meeting PDF/40_SPARCnewsletter_Jan2013_ Carolina Vera (a member of the (see article later in this issue). web.pdf 2 SPARC newsletter n° 41 - July 2013 lated research in support of the GCs. in the mesosphere. NDMC is fo- troposphere, as well as a coupled cused on coordinating the study of ocean, such models are expected Monica Rabolli made a presen- mesospheric variability on all time- to become more common; (2) to tation on behalf of CONAE (Co- scales, as well as the coordinated compare tropospheric, stratospher- mision Nacional de Activitas Es- development of improved obser- ic and coupled chemistry-climate paciales, the Argentinian Space vation and analysis techniques models with observations, as well Agency), providing an overview and modelling of the mesosphere. as with each other; and (3) to better of the AQUARIUS satellite mis- NDMC science is currently focused coordinate stratospheric and tropo- sion, a common project between on the following topics: (1) plan- spheric modelling activities and to CONAE and NASA. The main etary waves, (2) gravity waves, (3) address specific scientific questions scientific goal of this mission is to vertical coupling, (4) inter-hemi- in the context of comprehensive improve understanding of the inter- spheric coupling, (5) infrasound, stratosphere-troposphere resolv- actions between ocean circulation, (6) climate change signal detection, ing models including atmospheric the water cycle and climate. The and (7) network intercomparison. chemistry. A CCMI website has satellite was launched on 10 June Jürgen presented some results from been created (http://www.pa.op. 2011 and provides global informa- various NDMC studies and then dlr.de/CCMI) and a 2nd workshop tion on sea surface salinity and soil finished by making proposals for was held in Boulder, USA, from 14- moisture. AQUARIUS instruments collaborations between SPARC and 16 May 2013. Veronika Eyring and also measure sea-ice concentration, the NDMC. Jean-François Lamarque act as co- rainfall rate, wind speed, water va- chairs of the activity, and a CCMI pour, cloud liquid water content SPARC activity reports scientific steering committee has and fires can be detected. These ob- been formed. servations have provided detailed Ted Shepherd presented the new information on tropical instability Chemistry Climate Modelling Initi- Claire Granier, a member of the waves, the Amazon outflow plume ative (CCMI) on behalf of Veronika IGAC Scientific Steering Commit- and hurricanes. Examples from re- Eyring. The initiative, jointly sup- tee and SPARC liaison, presented cent studies showed that it was pos- ported by IGAC and SPARC, was a short overview of IGAC’s main sible to identify hurricane Gordon discussed with the community and projects, including CCMI, to which using AQUARIUS rain rate obser- plans were approved at a work- IGAC is strongly committed. IGAC vations, while hurricane Sandy was shop that took place from 21-24 proposed that Veronika Eyring and observed using water vapour col- May 2012, in Davos, Switzerland. Jean-François Lamarque are for- umn data. Argentinian research us- The specific goals of the Davos mally recognized as co-chairs of ing AQUARIUS data will focus on workshop were to: (1) assess im- CCMI and intends to comment on the Rio de la Plata outflow plume. provements in process-oriented the CCMI leadership plan to ensure evaluation and understanding of the widest possible IGAC engage- Jürgen Scheer presented an over- Chemistry Climate Models (CCMs; ment. Allen Goldstein (incoming view of the Network for Detection extending the CCMVal approach to IGAC co-chair) was also involved of Mesospheric Change (NDMC: the troposphere), (2) identify obser- in supporting the 2nd CCMI work- http://wdc.dlr.de/ndmc/), which vations for model evaluation and shop. CCMI science will be vital to provides a framework