Estimation of snow water equivalent using microwave radiometry over Arctic first‐year sea ice

The magnitude and spatial distribution of snow on sea ice are both integral components of the ocean–sea‐ice–atmosphere system. Although there exists a number of algorithms to estimate the snow water equivalent (SWE) on terrestrial surfaces, to date there is no precise method to estimate SWE on sea ice. Physical snow properties and in situ microwave radiometry at 19, 37 and 85 GHz, V and H polarization were collected for a 10‐day period over 20 first‐year sea ice sites. We present and compare the in situ physical, electrical and microwave emission properties of snow over smooth Arctic first‐year sea ice for 19 of the 20 sites sampled. Physical processes creating the observed vertical patterns in the physical and electrical properties are discussed. An algorithm is then developed from the relationship between the SWE and the brightness temperature measured at 37 GHz (55°) H polarization and the air temperature. The multiple regression between these variables is able to account for over 90% of the variability in the measured SWE. This algorithm is validated with a small in situ data set collected during the 1999 field experiment. We then compare our data against the NASA snow thickness algorithm, designed as part of the NASA Earth Enterprise Program. The results indicated a lack of agreement between the NASA algorithm and the algorithm developed here. This lack of agreement is attributed to differences in scale between the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager and surface radiometers and to differences in the Antarctic versus Arctic snow physical and electrical properties. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

VARIABILITY OF AEROSOL OPTICAL PROPERTIES OVER HEFEI DURING SEPTEMBER 1993 TO SEPTEMBER 1994

An 8-wavelength sun-photometer has been operated at Hefei (31.31°N, 117.17°E) to monitoroptical properties of atmospheric aerosols. Altogether 133 solar spectral extinction data were ob-tained on clear days during the period from September 1993 through September 1994, In this pa-per, the feature of the sun-photometer is briefly described. A relative aureole method is intro-duced. which can be used to monitor temporal evolution of aerosol loading during the sun-pho-tometer calibration period. Temporal variabilities of spectral aerosol optical depths and Angstromturbidity parameters are presented. Relation of these variabilities with synoptic and local meteoro-logical conditions are analyzed and discussed, From measured spectral aerosol optical depths undersome representative atmospheric conditions, columnar aerosol size distributions have been retrievedby a linearly constrained inversion method. These typical columnar aerosol size distributions are al-so presented and discussed.     

Thermal analysis in the laser-heated diamond anvil cell

A new technique actively controls thermal radiation and monitors sample properties during laser-heating in a diamond anvil cell. The technique can be described as a qualitative application of thermal analysis. Discontinuities in temperature, laser power, visible thermal radiation, or in their derivatives as functions of time can be associated with the enthalpy of phase transitions (such as melting) or with changes in maternal properties (such as emissivity).The technique is illustrated with melting experiments on iron-magnesium-silicate perovskite. Temperature corrections associated with these experiments are discussed and the results are briefly reviewed.     

探测大气温湿廓线的35通道微波辐射计设计原理与特点

总结了自主研制的MWP967KV型地基35通道微波辐射计系统设计原理和主要特点。系统将K、V双频段宽带天线及接收机、宽带调谐本振、温湿压计以及电源模块紧凑集成为一台整机设备。对各传感器的测量输出实时进行一体化综合处理,采用BP神经网络实时反演大气温度、湿度廓线和汽、水总量。廓线的垂直覆盖范围为地表至顶空10km,共划分为58层。辐射计样机于2012年秋冬季节在北京地区开展了为期2个月的观测试验,利用这段时期内的69个探空资料样本对辐射计2个层次的实时观测输出都进行了对比检验,计算了水汽、氧气通道亮温和反演所得大气温湿廓线的平均偏差、均方差以及相关性。结果表明该系统能够满足实时气象监测的需求,达到国际先进水平。     

Seasonality of oceanic primary production and its interannual variability from 1998 to 2007

The seasonality of primary productivity plays an important role in nutrient and carbon cycling. We quantify the seasonality of satellite-derived, oceanic net primary production (NPP) and its interannual variability during the first decade of the SeaWiFS mission (1998 to 2007) using a normalized seasonality index (NSI). The NSI, which is based upon production half-time, t(1/2), generally becomes progressively more episodic with increasing latitude in open ocean waters, spanning from a relatively constant rate of primary productivity throughout the year (mean t(1/2) ~5 months) in subtropical waters to more pulsed events (mean t(1/2) ~3 months) in subpolar waters. This relatively gradual, poleward pattern in NSI differs from recent estimates of phytoplankton bloom duration, another measure of seasonality, at lower latitudes (~40°S–40°N). These differences likely reflect the temporal component of production assessed by each metric, with NSI able to more fully capture the irregular nature of production characteristic of waters in this zonal band. The interannual variability in NSI was generally low, with higher variability observed primarily in frontal and seasonal upwelling zones. The influence of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation on this variability was clearly evident, particularly in the equatorial Pacific, where primary productivity was anomalously episodic from the date line east to the coast of South America in 1998. Yearly seasonality and the magnitude of annual production were generally positively correlated at mid-latitudes and negatively correlated at tropical latitudes, particularly in a region bordering the Pacific equatorial divergence. This implies that increases of annual production in the former region are attained over the course of a year by shorter duration but higher magnitude NPP events, while in the latter areas it results from an increased frequency or duration of similar magnitude events. Statistically significant trends in the seasonality, both positive and negative, were detected in various patches. We suggest that NSI be used together with other phenomenological characteristics of phytoplankton biomass and productivity, such as the timing of bloom initiation and duration, as a means to remotely quantify phytoplankton seasonality and monitor the response of the oceanic ecosystem to environmental variability and climate change.     

Static Stability of the Troposphere Over the Southeastern Beaufort Sea–Amundsen Gulf Region of the Western Maritime Arctic

The characterization of the static stability of the troposphere over the western maritime Arctic remains limited in spite of its significance to both atmospheric thermodynamics and dynamics. Field observations of microwave radiometric temperature profiles from the International Polar Year, Circumpolar Flaw Lead System Study (late November 2007 to mid-July 2008) and the ArcticNet field campaign (mid-July to early November 2009) provided a unique opportunity to characterize the static stability of the troposphere over the southeastern Beaufort Sea–Amundsen Gulf region. Notably, the monthly median atmospheric boundary layer (<2000?m) static stability profile for April and the profile for May clearly revealed an inversion elevated above a thermal internal boundary layer, whereas the median summer static stability profiles had very strong surface-based inversions. These profiles have been linked to the seasonal evolution of sea-ice cover in Amundsen Gulf. The monthly static stability profiles for the free atmosphere (2000–10,000?m) revealed an annual cycle. The average static stability of the lower troposphere (2000–5000?m) had a minimum of 3.3?±?0.5?K?km^?1 in July and a maximum of 4.5?±?0.5?K?km^?1 in January and February. In the upper troposphere (>5000–8000?m), the average static stability had a minimum of 2.9?±?0.6?K?km^?1 in June and August and a maximum of 5.3?±?0.8?K?km^?1 in January. The monthly median heights of the tropopause also had an annual cycle. The maximum of 9750?m occurred in June, July, and August. The minimum tropopause height of 8000?m occurred in December, January, and March. The seasonal cycles of static stability in the free atmosphere and the seasonal cycle in the height of the tropopause can be attributed to regional as well as synoptic-scale forcing. This analysis will contribute to the understanding of the thermodynamics and dynamics of a data-sparse region of the Arctic by providing a “snapshot” of the state of the atmosphere through a composite annual cycle.     

Global SMOS Soil Moisture Retrievals from The Land Parameter Retrieval Model

A recent study by Van der Schalie et al. (2015) showed good results for applying the Land Parameter Retrieval Model (LPRM) on SMOS observations over southeast Australia and optimizing and evaluating the retrieved soil moisture (θ in m³ m⁻³) against ground measurements from the OzNet sites. In this study, the LPRM parameterization is globally updated for SMOS against modelled θ from MERRA-Land (MERRA) and ERA-Interim/Land (ERA) over the period of July 2010–December 2010, mainly focusing on two parameters: the single scattering albedo (ω) and the roughness (h). The Pearson's coefficient of correlation (r) increased rapidly when increasing the ω up to 0.12 and reached a steady state from thereon, no significant spatial pattern was found in the estimation of the single scattering albedo, which could be an artifact of the used parameter estimation procedure, and a single value of 0.12 was therefore used globally. The h was defined as a function of θ and varied slightly for the different angle bins, with maximum values of 1.1–1.3 as the angle changes from 42.5° to 57.5°.This resulted in an average r of 0.51 and 0.47, with a bias (m³ m⁻³) of −0.02 and −0.01 and an unbiased root mean square error (ubrmse in m³ m⁻³) of 0.054 and 0.056 against MERRA (ascending and descending). For ERA this resulted in an r of 0.61 and 0.53, with a bias of −0.03 and an ubrmse 0.055 and 0.059. The resulting parameterization was then used to run LPRM on SMOS observations over the period of July 2010–December 2013 and evaluated against SMOS Level 3 (L3) θ and available in situ measurements from the International Soil Moisture Network (ISMN). The comparison with L3 shows that the LPRM θ retrievals are very similar, with for the ascending set very high r of over 0.9 in large parts of the globe, with an overall average of 0.85 and the descending set performing less with an average of 0.74, mainly due to the negative r over the Sahara. The mean bias is 0.03, with an ubrmse of 0.038 and 0.044. In this study there are three major areas where the LPRM retrievals do not perform well: very dry sandy areas, densely forested areas and over high latitudes, which are all known limitations of LPRM. The comparison against in situ measurement from the ISMN give very similar results, with average r for LPRM of 0.65 and 0.61 (0.64 and 0.59 for L3) for the ascending and descending sets, while having a comparable bias and ubrmse over the different networks. This shows that LPRM used on SMOS observations produce θ retrievals with a similar quality as the SMOS L3 product.     

Striping Noise Analysis and Mitigation for Microwave Temperature Sounder-2 Observations

The Microwave Temperature Sounder(MWTS)-2 has a total of 13 temperature-sounding channels with the capability of observing radiance emissions from near the surface to the stratosphere. Similar to the Advanced Technology Microwave Sounder(ATMS), striping pattern noise, primarily in the cross-track direction, exists in MWTS-2 radiance observations. In this study, an algorithm based on principal component analysis(PCA) combined with ensemble empirical mode decomposition(EEMD) is described and applied to MWTS-2 brightness temperature observations. It is arguably necessary to smooth the first three principal component(PC) coefficients by removing the first four intrinsic mode functions(IMFs) using the EEMD method(denoted as PC3/IMF4). After the PC3/IMF4 noise mitigation, the striping pattern noise is effectively removed from the brightness temperature observations. The noise level in MWTS-2 observations is significantly higher than that detected in ATMS observations. In May 2014, the scanning profile of MWTS-2 was adjusted from varying-speed scanning to constantspeed scanning. The impact on striping noise levels brought on by this scan profile change is also analyzed here. The striping noise in brightness temperature observations worsened after the profile change. Regardless of the scan profile change, the striping noise mitigation method reported in this study can more or less suppress the noise levels in MWTS-2 observations.     

Meteorological inventory of rain-on-snow events in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago and satellite detection assessment using passive microwave data

The spatial and temporal distributions of rain-on-snow (ROS) events across the Canadian Arctic Archipelago (CAA) remain poorly understood owing to their sporadic nature in time and space. This situation motivated the development of remote sensing detection algorithms. This paper uses a large meteorological dataset across the CAA to adapt an existing ROS-detection algorithm developed in a previous study by our group. Results highlight the spatial distribution and evolution of ROS occurrences reported since 1985 at 14 weather stations across the CAA. Results show that >600 ROS events were inventoried since 1985, for which >70% were classified as pure rain (liquid form) and 30% as mixed precipitation (solid/liquid). Of the pure rain events, 75% occurred during spring, 14% during fall, 8% during summer and <1% during winter. Such events can have significant impacts on ungulate grazing conditions through the creation of ice layers, causing serious problems for caribou calf survival, especially during the migration period. This paper introduces an adaptation for larger scale Arctic application of a detection algorithm (sensitivity analysis on the detection threshold) with an error of ~5%. The validation, however, remains limited due to a short study period and limited number of sites.     

Inertial waves in the ‘gulf of St Lawrence: A study of geostrophic adjustment

Abstract

It is shown that inertial oscillations of significant magnitude can be generated by geostrophic adjustment in a shallow sea. Evidence of them in current‐meter data from the Gulf of St Lawrence is presented. The geostrophically unbalanced state required for the adjustment process is identified in the data by the occurrence of high accelerations of the currents. The difference between the inertial oscillations generated by different mechanisms, the intermittence and the frequency shift of the inertial waves are discussed.