			Home About us Contact

Stratospheric Air (stratospheric + air)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Earth and Environmental Science	100%

Selected Abstracts

The influence of an upper-level frontal zone on the Mack Lake Wildfire environment

METEOROLOGICAL APPLICATIONS, Issue 2 2007
Tarisa Zimet
Abstract Meteorological assessment of wildland fire danger has traditionally involved the identification of several synoptic weather types empirically determined to influence wildfire spread. Specifically, in the Great Lakes Region, high wildfire danger is often witnessed in association with northwesterly synoptic-scale flow aloft. Such synoptic-scale flow is regularly associated with the development of upper-level frontal zones also known as upper-level jet/front systems, which are often characterised by intrusions of stratospheric air into the troposphere. The notion that upper-frontal development can play an important role in promoting wildfire spread is advanced through interrogation of the output from a fine-scale numerical simulation of a documented explosive wildfire case; the Mack Lake Fire of May 1980. The Mack Lake case was characterised by a developing upper-level front embedded within a shortwave trough in the vicinity of the fire location. The upper-level front originated in northwesterly flow in central Canada as an upper-tropospheric ridge amplified over western North America. A thermally indirect circulation at the jet exit region both contributed to the intensification of the front and was associated with a maximum in quasi-geostrophic descent at mid-levels upstream of the fire region. The subsidence ushered dry air from the middle and upper-troposphere downward along sloping isentropes adiabatically warming and drying it along the way. A well-developed dry air intrusion associated with the operation of these processes extended to nearly the 750 hPa level far downstream from the actual upper-frontal zone supplying the fire environment with dry air that originated in the upper-troposphere/lower stratosphere. The organised subsidence was also responsible for downward advection of high momentum air from within the frontal zone into the fire environment, further influencing the wildfire spread. We conclude that upper-frontal processes, characteristic of northwesterly synoptic-scale flow, are likely a contributing factor to the prevalence of wildfire spread under such synoptic-scale conditions. Copyright © 2007 Royal Meteorological Society [source]

Convective mixing in a tropopause fold

THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY, Issue 599 2004
H. J. Reid
Abstract We present a case study of the passage of a tropopause fold over the UK behind a cold front, with emphasis on the mixing caused by convection extending into the fold. The event took place on 15,16 January 1999, and was the subject of intensive observations using the Met Office C130 aircraft and the mesosphere,stratosphere,troposphere (MST) radar at Aberystwyth. Here we concentrate on radar and satellite observations during the afternoon of 16 January, when the surface cold front had passed over the UK. A tongue of moist air moved north-eastwards over Wales at 700 hPa at this time, which, because of the very dry air in the fold above, resulted in potential instability. The resulting convection was clearly observed in NOAA satellite images. The MST radar depicted the passage of the cold front and tropopause fold as a layer of high-echo power and vertical wind shear ascending with time. Spectral widths showed the fold to be free of turbulence until 1200 UTC on 16 January, when convection was observed reaching into the frontal zone and generating turbulence. Eddy dissipation and diffusivity rates of 8.6 mW kg,1 and 8.5 m2s,1, respectively, were derived for this event. To place these figures in context, they are compared with corresponding rates derived for sixteen other passages of tropopause folds over the radar, each resulting from shear rather than convective instability. The convective event is found to be comparable to the strongest shear events, and to correspond to moderate turbulence as experienced by an aircraft. This process is of potential importance for atmospheric chemistry because it mixes boundary layer air directly with stratospheric air over a timescale of 1,2 hours. Copyright © 2004 Royal Meteorological Society [source]

Decay of a cut-off low and contribution to stratosphere-troposphere exchange

THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY, Issue 564 2000
H. Gouget
Abstract We present a case study of the decay of a cut-off low over north-west Europe in June 1996, to establish how the stratospheric air initially contained within it was transferred to the troposphere. Two mechanisms for stratosphere-troposphere exchange are examined: direct convective erosion of the base of the low, and filamentation of the outer layers of the low along the flank of the polar jet stream. The approach taken relies on a combination of in-situ ozone and humidity measurements by MOZAIC (Measurement of Ozone and water vapour by Airbus In-service aircraft) aircraft and ozonesondes, and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts analyses. MOZAIC ozone is used to choose two analyses eight days apart at the genesis (14 June 1996) and decay (22 June 1996) of the low which have a consistent ozone/potential-vorticity relationship. Trajectories (both isentropic and three dimensional (3D)) between these two analyses reveal a consistent pattern; at the base of the low (310 K, 450 mb) all the trajectories attain tropospheric PV values whereas, at 320 K, those trajectories that leave the low experience a decrease in PV and those that do not leave the low retain their initial PV. We propose that air parcels leaving the low were stretched into thin filaments along the flank of the jet stream, which made them vulnerable to 3D mixing. A MOZAIC flight on 21 June 1996 provides direct evidence for this process. Up to 22 June 1996 (by which time the low had lost its closed circulation) the satellite images showed very little convection beneath the corresponding PV anomaly. Mixing was only effective at the very base of the stratospheric air at 310 K. On 22 June the remaining remnant of high PV was advected into a region of deep convection over central and eastern Europe, mixing the remaining stratospheric air into the troposphere. Of the initial mass of 1015 kg of stratospheric air contained in the low, 6 × 1014 kg was stripped into filaments along the jet and 4 × 1014 kg remained to be mixed by convection during the period 22,23 June 1996. [source]