Appearance of evening-shining clouds has elevated

First spotted in 1885, silvery blue clouds sometimes hover within the evening sky close to the rods, showing up to produce their very own glowing light. Referred to as noctilucent clouds, this phenomenon started to become sighted at less and less latitudes -- between your 40th and 50th parallel -- throughout the twentieth century, leading to researchers to question when the region these clouds inhabit had indeed transformed -- information that will match with comprehending the climate and weather of Earth.

A NASA mission known as Aeronomy of Ice within the Mesosphere, or Goal, was released in 2007 to see noctilucent clouds, however it presently has only a look at the clouds close to the rods. Now researchers have collected information from the 3 other missions, past and offer, and combined it with computer simulations to methodically reveal that the existence of these vibrant shining clouds have indeed elevated in areas between 40 and 50 levels north latitude, an area which provides coverage for the northern third from the U . s . Sates and also the cheapest areas of Canada. The study was released online within the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres on March 18, 2014.

"Noctilucent clouds occur at altitudes of fifty miles over the surface -- excessive that they'll reflect sunlight down again to Earth," stated James Russell, an atmospheric and planetary researcher at Hampton College in Hampton, Veterans administration., and first author around the paper. "Goal along with other studies have proven that to ensure that the clouds to create, three situations are needed: cold temps, water vapor and meteoric dust. The meteoric dust provides sites the water vapor can hang on to before the cold temps cause water ice to create.Inch

To review lengthy-term alterations in noctilucent clouds, Russell and the co-workers used historic temperature and water vapor records along with a validated model to translate this data into info on the existence of the clouds. They used temperature data from 2002 to 2011 from NASA's Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics, or TIMED, mission and water vapor data from NASA's Aura mission from 2005 to 2011. They used one formerly produced by Mark Hervig, a co-author around the paper at GATS, Corporation., in Driggs, Idaho.

They examined the model by evaluating its output to findings in the Osiris instrument around the Swedish Odin satellite, which released in 2001, and also the SHIMMER instrument around the U.S. Dod STPSat-1 mission, each of which observed low-level noctilucent clouds over various periods of time throughout their plane tickets. The output correlated very well towards the actual findings, giving they confidence within their model.

The model demonstrated that the appearance of noctilucent clouds had indeed elevated from 2002 to 2011. These changes correlate to home loan business temperature in the peak height where noctilucent clouds appear in the climate. Temps only at that height don't match temps at 'abnormal' amounts -- indeed, the very coldest devote the climate reaches this height throughout summer season within the rods -- but a big change there certainly does raise questions regarding alternation in the general climate system.

Russell and the team will research further to find out when the noctilucent cloud frequency increase and associated temperature decrease within the ten years might be because of a decrease in solar energy and warmth, which naturally happened because the photo voltaic output went from photo voltaic maximum in 2002 to photo voltaic minimum in '09.

"Because the sun would go to photo voltaic minimum, the photo voltaic heating from the atmosphere decreases, along with a cooling trend could be expected," stated Russell.

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. handles the TIMED mission for that agency's Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. The spacecraft was built through the Johns Hopkins College Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md.

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First measurement flight: Research aircraft HALO explores trade wind clouds

Which climate effects do clouds have? Under what conditions will they warm or awesome the climate? Today, after greater than 5 years of preparation, the specifically outfitted research aircraft HALO (Thin Air and Lengthy Range Research Aircraft) will take off because of its first measurement flight in atmospheric research. Prof. Bjorn Stevens and Dr. Lutz Hirsch in the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M) leave Oberpfaffenhofen in Germany for any ten-hour flight to Barbados.

They'll operate numerous calculating instruments aboard HALO with respect to the German atmospheric research: "Each day we've eagerly looked forward to," states Stevens. "It's the initial pursuit to exploit the novel abilities of HALO to determine vertical profiles of aspects of atmospheric water -- like vapor, liquid and ice, both in cloud and precipitation forms, along with the aerosol contaminants where cloud tiny droplets form -- from the thin air. A brand new era of airborne atmospheric research." The aircraft, outfitted with a lot of advanced technology, is definitely an initiative by German climate and environment research institutions (see below) and it is run by the German Aerospace Center (DLR).

The flight belongs to the NARVAL project (Next-generation Aircraft Remote-Realizing for Validation Studies) and can supply the researchers with increased more information around the metabolic rate of tropical clouds (Fig. 1). The transatlantic plane tickets from Oberpfaffenhofen to Barbados will complement the stationary dimensions from the cloud observatory on Barbados. The collected data will lead to some better knowledge of cloud and precipitation processes and will assist you to reduce questions in climate models.

Remote realizing instruments, situated within the "Belly Pod" beneath the aircraft?s shell, will identify vertical profiles of humidity and temperature and also the distribution of tiny droplets and aerosols (Fig. 2). Furthermore, so-known as dropsondes is going to be launched throughout the flight. These radiosondes usually ascend from Earth with the aid of a weather balloon and perform dimensions enroute with the atmosphere. This time around, they'll be came by parachute and can glide back down.

The very first measurement flight is really a joint project from the MPI-M using the Meteorological Institute from the College Hamburg, DLR, Colleges of Perfume, Leipzig and Heidelberg and also the Forschungszentrum J?lich. It will require the researchers on the lengthy-haul flight to Barbados, in which the MPI-M cloud observatory is situated, and back. Ideally, comparison dimensions using the satellite CloudSat is going to be carried out throughout the plane tickets. The satellite measures the Atlantic clouds in trajectories crosswise towards the flight route. Short plane tickets of HALO in parallel using these satellite trajectories have the ability to ensure the satellite?s dimensions (Fig. 3): the aircraft flies in a lower altitude compared to satellite and may therefore identify the clouds a lot more accurate.

As a whole, the environment route Oberpfaffenhofen -- Barbados and back ought to be flown three occasions in December 2013 ("NARVAL South"). Throughout the 2nd flight, a nearby flight from Barbados eastward with the trade wind clouds is planned. The goal would be to identify clouds which are directly at risk of the Barbados cloud observatory and also to do a comparison towards the land-based cloud observatory data.

The 2nd area of the mission is going to be completed underneath the direction from the College Hamburg in The month of january ("NARVAL North"). HALO depends on Iceland to look at the backsides of fronts within the North Atlantic. The quantity of precipitation around the backsides of fronts is really a questionable subject in science because satellite findings and model information provide spun sentences. "Measured values are missing?? because ships don't sail during these typical storm zones" states principal investigator Prof. Felix Ament in the Center for Earth System Research and Sustainability (CEN), College of Hamburg. "A effective HALO mission could provide important details and eliminate a 'blank spot' into the spotlight of science."

The study aircraft HALO is definitely an initiative by German climate and environment research institutions. HALO is funded by: Federal Secretary of state for Education and Research (BMBF), German Research Foundation (DFG), Helmholtz Association, Max Planck Society, Leibniz Association, Free Condition of Bavaria, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Package), GFZ German Research Center for Geosciences, Forschungszentrum J?lich and German Aerospace Center (DLR)

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Thin, low Arctic clouds played an important role in the massive 2012 Greenland ice melt

April 3, 2013

The ICECAPS Mobile Science Facility at Summit Station against a backdrop of Arctic clouds. ICECAPS is short for Integrated Characterization of Energy, Clouds, Atmospheric state and Precipitation.

Download here (Credit: CIRES/University of Colorado )

Clouds over the central Greenland Ice Sheet last July were “just right” for driving surface temperatures there above the melting point, according to a new study by scientists at NOAA and the Universities of Wisconsin, Idaho and Colorado. The study, published today in Nature, found that thin, low-lying clouds allowed the sun’s energy to pass through and warm the surface of the ice, while at the same time trapping heat near the surface of the ice cap. This combination played a significant role in last summer's record-breaking melt.

“Thicker cloud conditions would not have led to the same amount of surface warming,” said Matthew Shupe, research meteorologist with NOAA’s Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences at the University of Colorado and the NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory. “To understand the region’s future, you’ll need to understand its clouds. Our finding has implications for the fate of ice throughout the Arctic.”

Scientists around the world are trying to understand how quickly Greenland is warming because ice melt there contributes to sea level rise globally. The Greenland Ice Sheet is second only to Antarctica in ice volume. In July, more than 97 percent of the Greenland Ice Sheet surface experienced some degree of melting, including at the National Science Foundation’s Summit Station, high atop the ice sheet. According to ice core records, the last time the surface at Summit experienced any degree of melting was in 1889, but it is not known whether this extended across the entire ice sheet.

To investigate whether clouds contributed to, or counteracted, the surface warming that melted the ice, the authors modeled the near-surface conditions. The model was based on observations from a suite of sophisticated atmospheric sensors operated as part of a study called the Integrated Characterization of Energy, Clouds, Atmospheric State and Precipitation at Summit.

“The July 2012 ice melt was triggered by an influx of unusually warm air sweeping in from North America, but that was only one factor,” said David Turner, research meteorologist with the NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory and one of the lead investigators. “In our paper, we show that low-lying clouds containing a low amount of condensed water were instrumental in pushing surface air temperatures up above freezing and causing the surface ice to melt.”

Clouds can cool the surface by reflecting solar energy back into space, and can warm it by radiating heat energy back down to the surface. The balance of those two processes depends on many factors, including wind speed, turbulence, humidity and cloud “thickness,” or liquid water content.

In certain conditions, these clouds can be thin enough to allow some solar radiation to pass through, while still “trapping” infrared radiation at ground level. That is exactly what happened last July: the clouds were just right for maximum surface warming. Thicker clouds would have reflected away more solar radiation; thinner ones couldn’t have trapped as much heat, and in either of those cases, there would have been less surface warming.

The researchers also found these thin, low-lying liquid clouds occur 30 to 50 percent of the time in summer, both over Greenland and across the Arctic. Current climate models tend to underestimate their occurrence in the Arctic, which limits those models’ ability to predict how clouds and their warming or cooling effects may respond to climate change.

“The cloud properties and atmospheric processes observed with the Summit Station instrument array provide a unique dataset to answer the large range of scientific questions we want to address,” said Turner. “Clouds play a big role in the surface mass and energy budgets over the Greenland Ice Sheet. Melting of the world’s major ice sheets can significantly impact human and environmental conditions via its contribution to sea-level rise.”

Better understanding of clouds also improves climate models.

“Our results may help to explain some of the difficulties that current global climate models have in simulating the Arctic surface energy budget, including the contributions of clouds,” said Ralf Bennartz, lead author for the study and professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Above all, this study highlights the importance of continuous and detailed ground-based observations over the Greenland Ice Sheet and elsewhere. Only such detailed observations will lead to a better understanding of the processes that drive Arctic climate.”

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