Identification

Title

Dry layers in the tropical troposphere observed during CONTRAST and global behavior from GFS analyses

Abstract

The Convective Transport of Active Species in the Tropics (CONTRAST) experiment was an aircraft-based field campaign conducted from Guam (14°N, 145°E) during January–February 2014. Aircraft measurements included over 80 vertical profiles from the boundary layer to the upper troposphere (~15 km). A large fraction of these profiles revealed layered structures with very low water vapor (relative humidity <20%) and enhanced ozone, primarily in the lower-middle troposphere (~3–9 km). Comparing CONTRAST water vapor measurements with co-located profiles from National Centers for Environmental Prediction Global Forecast System (GFS) analyses, we find good agreement for dry layers, including profile-by-profile comparisons and statistical behavior. We then utilize GFS data to evaluate the frequency of occurrence and 3-D structure of dry layers for the CONTRAST period to provide perspective to the campaign measurements and evaluate the global climatological behavior based on a longer record. GFS data show that dry layers occur ~50-80% of the time in the subtropical troposphere, maximizing on the equatorward side of the subtropical jets in the winter hemisphere. Subtropical dry layers occur most frequently over isentropic levels ~320-340 K, which extend into the extratropical upper troposphere-lower stratosphere (UTLS). Similar statistical behavior of dry, ozone-rich layers is found in long-term balloon measurements from Reunion Island (21°S, 56°E). The climatologically frequent occurrence of dry, ozone-rich layers, plus their vertical and spatial structures linked to the subtropical jets, all suggest that dry layers are linked to quasi-isentropic transport from the extratropical UTLS and suggest a ubiquitous UTLS influence on the subtropical middle troposphere.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7dv1mnt

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

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South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-12-16T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

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version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact