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McFarquhar, Greg

Publications and source records attributed to McFarquhar, Greg.

At least 19 records

62°S Witnesses the Transition of Boundary Layer Marine Aerosol Pattern Over the Southern Ocean (50°S–68°S, 63°E– 150°E) During the Spring and Summer: Results From MARCUS (I)

The Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Mobile Facility-2 was installed onboard the research vessel Aurora Australis to measure aerosol properties during the 2017-2018 Measurement of Aerosols, Radiation, and CloUds over the pristine Southern ocean (MARCUS) Experiment, providing unique data on aerosols latitudinal and seasonal variation, including south of 60 degrees S where previous observations are scarce. Data from a Cloud Condensation Nuclei (CCN) counter and Ultra-High-Sensitivity Aerosol Spectrometer show that both the number concentration (N-CCN) and size distribution of CCN-active aerosols, with diameters (D) between 60 nm < D < 1,000 nm are different over the North Southern Ocean (NSO) (50 degrees S-60 degrees S) and the South Southern Ocean (SSO) (62 degrees S-68 degrees S). The average NSO N-CCN at 0.2% and 0.5% supersaturation were 28% and 49% less than that over the SSO. This increase of CCN over the SSO is caused by the increase of aerosols with 60 nm < D < 200 nm, consistent with calculations of Aerosol Scattering Angstrom Exponents derived from a nephelometer. Aerosol hygroscopicity growth factor measured by the Hygroscopic Tandem Differential Mobility Analyzer stayed close to 1.41 for aerosols with 50 nm < D < 250 nm over the SSO, but increased from 1.30 to 1.67 over the NSO, indicating different chemical compositions. Both CCN and Ice Nucleating Particles (INPs) showed a stronger variation with season than with latitude. The variation of heat-labile and presumably proteinacous INPs suggests an increase of ice nucleating-active microbes in summer.

Niu, Qing↗

Assessing Latent and Kinetic Energy Trend Changes in Extratropical Cyclones From 1940 to 2020: Results From ERA‐5 Reanalysis

Abstract Baroclinic or extratropical cyclones (ETCs) transport heat and moisture to higher latitudes, making it fundamentally important to understand how their influence changes as Earth's climate evolves. A 2–8‐day Lanzcos bandpass filter is applied to European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecasting 5th Generation Reanalysis latent energy (LE) and kinetic energy (KE) data to assess how ETCs have changed from 1940 to 2020 relative to full‐scale changes in LE and KE. Full‐scale KE trends are more positive at high latitudes relative to mid‐latitudes, confirming several previous studies that ETCs have shifted poleward. LE increases have occurred globally, and trends in both full‐scale LE and KE are statistically significant in the southern high latitudes. The high relative fractional contribution of 2–8‐day LE wave power and trend clearly suggest that ETCs have an increasingly important role in poleward moisture transport but are not solely responsible for the observed statistically significant increases.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Quantifying Uncertainty in Ice Particle Velocity–Dimension Relationships Using MC3E Observations

Abstract Ice particle terminal fall velocity ( V t ) is fundamental for determining microphysical processes, yet remains extremely challenging to measure. Current theoretical best estimates of V t are functions of Reynolds number. The Reynolds number is related to the Best number, which is a function of ice particle mass, area ratio ( A r ), and maximum dimension ( D max ). These estimates are not conducive for use in most models since model parameterizations often take the form , where ( α , β ) depend on habit and D max . A previously developed framework is used to determine surfaces of equally plausible ( α , β ) coefficients whereby ice particle size/shape distributions are combined with V t best estimates to determine mass- ( V M ) or reflectivity-weighted ( V Z ) velocities that closely match parameterized V M ,SD or V Z ,SD calculated using the ( α , β ) coefficients using two approaches. The first uses surfaces of equally plausible ( a , b ) coefficients describing mass ( M )–dimension relationships (i.e., ) to calculate mass- or reflectivity-weighted velocity from size/shape distributions that are then used to determine ( α , β ) coefficients. The second investigates how uncertainties in A r , D max , and size distribution N ( D ) affect V M or V Z . For seven of nine flight legs flown on 20 and 23 May 2011 during the Mesoscale Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E), uncertainty from natural parameter variability—namely, the variability in ice particle parameters in similar meteorological conditions—exceeds uncertainties arising from different A r assumptions or D max estimates. The combined uncertainty between A r , D max , and N ( D ) produced smaller variability in ( α , β ) compared to varying M ( D ), demonstrating M ( D ) must be accurately quantified for model fall velocities. Primary sources of uncertainty vary considerably depending on environmental conditions. Significance Statement Ice particle fall velocity is fundamental for numerous processes within clouds, and hence is a critical property that must be accurately represented in weather and climate models. Using aircraft observations of ice particle shapes and sizes obtained in clouds behind midlatitude thunderstorms, this work develops a new framework for estimating ice particle fall velocities and their uncertainty, including quantifying the importance of different uncertainty sources from cloud microphysics measurements. Natural parameter variability contributes the most uncertainty in ice particle fall velocity estimates, although other sources can also be important contributors to uncertainty in certain conditions. Additional work examining ice particle data is needed to further understand how dependent uncertainty in certain ice particle properties are to local environmental conditions.

Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences↗

Intercomparison of airborne and surface-based measurements during the CLARIFY, ORACLES and LASIC field experiments

Data are presented from intercomparisons between two research aircraft, the FAAM BAe-146 and the NASA Lockheed P3, and between the BAe-146 and the surface-based DOE (Department of Energy) ARM (Atmospheric Radiation Monitoring) Mobile Facility at Ascension Island (8 S, 14.5W, a remote island in the mid-Atlantic). These took place from 17 August to 5 September 2017, during the African biomass burning season. The primary motivation was to give confidence in the use of data from multiple platforms with which to evaluate numerical climate models. The three platforms were involved in the CLouds-Aerosol-Radiation Interaction and Forcing for Year 2017 (CLARIFY-2017), ObseRvations of Aerosols above CLouds and their intEractionS (ORACLES), and Layered Atlantic Smoke and Interactions with Clouds (LASIC) field experiments. Comparisons from flight segments on six days where the BAe-146 flew alongside the ARM facility on Ascension Island are presented, along with comparisons from wing-tip to wing-tip flight of the P3 and BAe-146 on 18 th August 2017. The intercomparison flight sampled a relatively clean atmosphere overlying a moderately polluted boundary layer, while the 6 fly-bys of the ARM site sampled both clean and polluted conditions 2–4 km upwind. We compare and validate characterisations of aerosol physical, chemical, and optical properties, atmospheric radiation, and cloud microphysics between platforms. We assess the performance of measurement instrumentation in the field, under conditions where sampling conditions are not tightly controlled as in laboratory measurements where calibrations are performed. Solar radiation measurements compared well between airborne platforms. Optical absorption coefficient measurements compared well across all three platforms, even though absolute magnitudes were often low (< 10 Mm -1 ) and close to the sensitivity limits of measurement instrumentation thereby confounding assessments of the comparability of absorption Ångström exponent characterisations. Aerosol absorption measurements from airborne platforms were more comparable than aircraft-to-ground observations. Scattering coefficient observations compared well between airborne platforms, but agreement with ground-based measurements was worse, potentially caused by small differences in sampling conditions or actual aerosol population differences. Chemical composition measurements followed a similar pattern, with better comparisons between the airborne platforms. Thermodynamics, aerosol, and cloud microphysical properties generally compared well.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Opportunistic experiments to constrain aerosol effective radiative forcing

Aerosol–cloud interactions (ACIs) are considered to be the most uncertain driver of present-day radiative forcing due to human activities. The nonlinearity of cloud-state changes to aerosol perturbations make it challenging to attribute causality in observed relationships of aerosol radiative forcing. Using correlations to infer causality can be challenging when meteorological variability also drives both aerosol and cloud changes independently. Natural and anthropogenic aerosol perturbations from well-defined sources provide “opportunistic experiments” (also known as natural experiments) to investigate ACI in cases where causality may be more confidently inferred. These perturbations cover a wide range of locations and spatiotemporal scales, including point sources such as volcanic eruptions or industrial sources, plumes from biomass burning or forest fires, and tracks from individual ships or shipping corridors. We review the different experimental conditions and conduct a synthesis of the available satellite datasets and field campaigns to place these opportunistic experiments on a common footing, facilitating new insights and a clearer understanding of key uncertainties in aerosol radiative forcing. Cloud albedo perturbations are strongly sensitive to background meteorological conditions. Strong liquid water path increases due to aerosol perturbations are largely ruled out by averaging across experiments. Opportunistic experiments have significantly improved process-level understanding of ACI, but it remains unclear how reliably the relationships found can be scaled to the global level, thus demonstrating a need for deeper investigation in order to improve assessments of aerosol radiative forcing and climate change.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Ice and Supercooled Liquid Water Distributions over the Southern Ocean based on In Situ Observations and Climate Model Simulations

Three climate models are evaluated using in situ airborne observations from the Southern Ocean Clouds, Radiation, Aerosol Transport Experimental Study (SOCRATES) campaign. The evaluation targets cloud phases, microphysical properties, thermodynamic conditions, and aerosol indirect effects from –40°C to 0°C. Compared with 580-s averaged observations (i.e., 100 km horizontal scale), the Community Atmosphere Model version 6 (CAM6) shows the most similar result for cloud phase frequency distribution and allows more liquid-containing clouds below –10°C compared with its predecessor—CAM5. The Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM) underestimates (overestimates) ice phase frequencies below (above) –20°C. CAM6 and E3SM show liquid and ice water contents (i.e., LWC and IWC) similar to observations from –25°C to 0°C, but higher LWC and lower IWC than observations at lower temperatures. Simulated in-cloud RH shows higher minimum values than observations, possibly restricting ice growth during sedimentation. As number concentrations of aerosols larger than 500 nm (Na 500 ) increase, observations show increases of LWC, IWC, liquid, and ice number concentrations (N liq , N ice ). Number concentrations of aerosols larger than 100 nm (Na 100 ) only show positive correlations with LWC and N liq . From –20°C to 0°C, higher aerosol number concentrations are correlated with lower glaciation ratio and higher cloud fraction. From –40°C to –20°C, large aerosols show positive correlations with glaciation ratio. CAM6 shows small increases of LWC and N liq with Na 500 and Na 100 . E3SM shows small increases of N ice with Na 500 . Altogether, CAM6 and E3SM underestimate aerosol indirect effects on ice crystals and supercooled liquid droplets over the Southern Ocean.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Developing and Testing a Novel Stochastic Ice Microphysics Parameterization for Cloud and Climate Models Using ARM Field Campaign Data (Final Progress Report)

The major goals of this project were: 1) to use field campaign measurements from DOE’s Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) program to characterize variability of important parameters describing properties of ice particles in the atmosphere; 2) based on this observational analysis, to develop a parameterization scheme for weather and climate models that stochastically varies these parameters, and implement the new scheme into a weather model called the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF); 3) to use WRF coupled with the new stochastic scheme to simulate ARM field campaign thunderstorm cases and analyze how accounting for this parameter variability affects the model simulations. This work was performed jointly between the National Center for Atmospheric Research, University of Oklahoma, and University of Utah. To accomplish these goals, we extended an approach previously developed to characterize the variability in the size distribution of ice particles to parameters that are explicitly represented in models (i.e., relationships between ice particle mass and size, and between particle fall velocity and size). Our project was, to our knowledge, the first to apply observationally-constrained estimates of this parameter variability describing mass-size and fall velocity-size in a modeling framework. Our results showed efficacy of the approach, evaluated using ARM observations. Similarly, to our knowledge, work in this project was the first to propose and evaluate in detail a stochastic approach for unresolved turbulent mixing in high-resolution model simulations against detailed, benchmark large eddy simulations and ARM observations. Results showed some promising behavior, particularly with increased mixing and dilution of air in thunderstorm cores with surrounding environmental air, bringing the stochastic simulations closer to the benchmark large eddy simulations; however, results were somewhat degraded using stochastic mixing compared to observations from the AMIE/DYNAMO field campaign. This project also further refined and applied a modeling methodology called “piggybacking” that can robustly separate dynamical and thermodynamic impacts of model changes, and comparison studies of different models based on cases developed from ARM observations. Finally, this project directly supported three graduate students who completed their PhDs as well as a postdoctoral research fellow.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Cold-Air Outbreaks in the Marine Boundary Layer Experiment (COMBLE) Field Campaign Report

The Cold-Air Outbreaks in the Marine Boundary Layer Experiment (COMBLE) was conducted successfully between 1 December 2019 and 31 May 2020 around the Norwegian Sea. COMBLE deployed the U.S. Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) first Mobile Facility (AMF1) along the coast of northern Scandinavia, at an arctic latitude (70°N), and an array of additional instruments on Bear Island (75°N) in the Norwegian Sea. The instruments deployed at these two sites collected a large array of in situ and remote-sensing observations of atmospheric conditions, clouds, precipitation, and aerosol. The main objective of COMBLE is to quantify the properties of shallow convective clouds that develop as part of an air-mass transformation process when cold air blows over open water. The two COMBLE sites are located at ~1,200 km and ~500 km from the cold source, i.e., arctic ice edge, respectively.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Structure of an Atmospheric River over Australia and the Southern Ocean. Part I: Tropical and Midlatitude Water Vapor Fluxes

An atmospheric river (AR) impacting Australia-Tasmania and the Southern Ocean during the Austral summer on 28-29 January 2018 during the SOCRATES campaign is analyzed using both a modeling and observational approach. Gulfstream-V dropsonde measurements and GPM radar analyses were used in conjunction with Weather Research and Forecasting model simulations with water vapor tracers to investigate the relative contributions of tropical and mid-latitude moisture sources to the AR. Moisture associated with a monsoonal tropical depression became entrained into a mid-latitude frontal system that extended to 60°S over the Southern Ocean reaching the associated low pressure system 850 km off the east coast of Antarctica – effectively connecting the tropics and the polar region. Tropical moisture contributed to about 50% of the precipitable water within the AR. The tropical contribution to precipitation decreased with latitude, from > 70% over the Australian continent, to ~50% off the Australian coast, to less than 10% poleward of 60°S. Precipitation in the AR conformed to a seeder-feeder model, the seeder precipitation forming primarily from tropical sourced moisture above the altitude of the 0°C isotherm, and the feeder precipitation sourced from mid-latitude sourced moisture below the altitude of the 0°C isotherm. The integrated vapor transport (IVT) through the core of the AR reached above 500 kg m-1s-1 during 1200 UTC 28 January to 0600 UTC 29 January 29, 1.29 times the average amount of water carried by the world’s largest river, the Amazon. The high IVT strength might be attributed to the higher water vapor content associated with the warmer temperatures in Austral summer.

Rauber, Robert M.↗

MARCUS Ice Nucleating Particle Measurements (revised 7/2020)

These data list ice nucleating particle (INP) number concentrations active in the immersion freezing mode. Aerosol filters were collected during 4 voyages of the Aurora Australis vessel from 02 November 2017 to 22 March 2018, as part of the Measurements of Aerosols, Radiation and Clouds over the Southern Ocean (MARCUS) study. These voyages transected the Southern Ocean from Hobart, Tasmania to four Australian Antarctic Division stations, including three in Antarctica. Collections were made over alternating periods of 24 and 48 hours using open-faced polycarbonate filters that were approximately 18 m MSL, sited near the AOS trailer and other AMF measurements. The volume of air filtered ranged from 19000 to 38000 standard liters per filter sample. Filters were stored and returned frozen to Colorado State University (CSU), where immersion freezing measurements over a range from 0 to -28 degC were made using the CSU Ice Spectrometer (IS). Collected particles from each filter were resuspended in filtered, deionized water, and then dispensed into the IS and cooled to obtain cumulative INP temperature spectra. Aliquots of suspensions from selected samples were also heat treated (95 degC for 20 min) to denature and deactivate biological INPs, and digested in 10% H2O2 at 95 degC under UV-B for 20 min to remove all organic carbon INPs, prior to measurement using the IS.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Simulations of Winter Arctic Clouds and Associated Radiation Fluxes Using Different Cloud Microphysics Schemes in the Polar WRF: Comparisons With CloudSat, CALIPSO, and CERES

Clouds are important for the Arctic climate, but simulating such clouds with numerical models is still challenging. The accuracy of model clouds has not been sufficiently examined due to the harsh Arctic environment obstructing cloud observations, especially during Arctic winters experiencing polar nights. This study compares the Arctic winter clouds simulated by a weather forecast model to cloud observations from active (lidar and radar) satellite instruments. The model successfully produced cloud patterns similar to the satellite observations. However, the choice of the cloud physics module in the model can modify the amount of cloud water significantly enough to affect the simulated surface climate.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Cloud, Aerosol, and Complex Terrain Interactions (CACTI) Field Campaign Report

General circulation models and downscaled regional models exhibit persistent biases in deep convective initiation location and timing, cloud top height, stratiform area and precipitation fraction, and anvil coverage (e.g., Del Genio 2012, Del Genio et al. 2012, Hohenegger and Stevens 2013, Song et al. 2013). Despite important impacts on the distribution of atmospheric heating, moistening, momentum, and precipitation (e.g., Hartmann et al. 1984, Fritsch et al. 1986, Houze 1989, 2004, Donner et al. 2001, Del Genio and Kovari 2002, Schumacher et al. 2004, Nesbitt et al. 2006, Storelvmo 2012), nearly all climate models fail to represent mesoscale convective organization (Del Genio 2012), while system evolution is not represented at all (Ovchinnikov et al. 2006). Recent advances in cumulus parameterization coupled with increasing model resolution have improved predictions, but even relatively higher-resolution models without parameterized deep convection have some persistent kinematic and microphysical biases (e.g., Blossey et al. 2007, Matsui et al. 2009, Luo et al. 2010, Lang et al. 2011, Varble et al. 2011, Fridlind et al. 2012, Hagos et al. 2014, Varble et al. 2014a-b, Fan et al. 2017, Stanford et al. 2017, Han et al. 2019). To improve representation of convective systems in models requires adequate characterization of their predictability as a function of environmental conditions. Because of the significant sensitivities of deep convective initiation, intensity, lifetime, propagation, and mesoscale convective organization to many factors including multi-scale atmospheric circulations, ambient environmental stability, humidity, wind distributions, and cloud microphysical processes, this characterization relies on comprehensively observing many cases of convective initiation, non-initiation, organization, and non-organization.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Sensitivity of Simulated Deep Convection to a Stochastic Ice Microphysics Framework

Ice microphysics parameterizations in models must make major simplifications relative to observations, typically employing empirical relationships to represent average functional properties of particles. However, previous studies have established that ice particle properties vary even in similar cloud types and thermodynamic environments, and it remains unclear how this so-called “natural variability” impacts simulated deep convection. This uncertainty is addressed by implementing a stochastic framework into the Predicted Particle Properties microphysics scheme in the Weather Research and Forecasting model. The approach stochastically varies the coefficients of the mass-size (m-D) relationship (m=aD b ) for unrimed and partially rimed ice. Using guidance from aircraft in situ measurements obtained during the Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E), the scheme samples from distributions of the prefactor (a) and the exponent (b) of the m-D relationship. Simulations of two MC3E deep convective cases indicate that the stochastic m-D scheme produces considerable variability of anvil cirrus cloud optical depth (τ) distributions, even for the same ice water path (IWP). Thus, the stochastic scheme produces variable cloud radiative forcing that is independent of IWP. This τ-IWP relationship variability is nonexistent using the deterministic m-D ensemble. Additional sensitivity tests are performed in which the fallspeed-size relationship (V=cD d ) is stochastically varied, resulting in variable precipitation amounts and rain rate distributions. Results are presented in the context of satellite and precipitation observations and include comparison with other ensemble configurations using perturbed initial and lateral boundary conditions and small-amplitude noise added to the potential temperature field.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

Measurements of Aerosols, Radiation, and Clouds over the Southern Ocean (MARCUS) Field Campaign Report

The Southern Ocean (SO) is the stormiest place on earth, buffeted by winds and waves that circle the ice of Antarctica, sheathed in clouds that mantle a dynamic ocean with rich ecosystems. The remote and usually pristine environment, typically removed from anthropogenic and natural continental aerosol sources, makes the SO unique for examining cloud-aerosol interactions for liquid and ice clouds, and the role of primary and secondary marine biogenic aerosols and sea salt. There is strong seasonality in aerosol sources and sinks over the SO that are poorly understood. Weather and climate models are challenged by uncertainties and biases in the simulation of SO clouds, aerosols, precipitation, and radiative transfer that trace to poor physical understanding of these processes, and by cloud feedbacks (e.g., phase changes) in response to warming. Models almost universally underestimate sunlight reflected by near-surface cloud, particularly in the cold sector of cyclonic storm systems, and this may be due to difficulties in representing pervasive supercooled and mixed-phase boundary-layer (BL) clouds. The Southern Ocean Clouds Radiation Transport Aerosol Transport Experimental Study (SOCRATES) white paper (Marchand et al. 2014) describes the motivation, scientific themes, and testable hypotheses that led to a multi-agency and international measurement campaign to study clouds, aerosols, and the air-sea interface over the SO. As a separate project within this international umbrella, the Measurement of Aerosols, Radiation, and Clouds over the Southern Ocean (MARCUS) field program was conducted between 29 October 2017 and 25 March 2018. During MARCUS, instruments from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility’s second Mobile Facility (AMF2) were installed on the Australian icebreaker Aurora Australis as it made resupply missions from Hobart, Tasmania to the Australian Antarctic stations of Casey, Mawson, and Davis, as well as Macquarie Island. Figure 1 shows the voyages conducted during MARCUS. The MARCUS data are unique in that they are the only set of data in the broader international effort that a) acquired comprehensive observations of clouds, aerosols, and radiation south of 60&deg;S, and b) acquired measurements across the full SO latitudinal range in the spring and fall seasons.

atmospheric emitted radiance interferometer↗

Measurements of Aerosols, Radiation, and Clouds over the Southern Ocean (MARCUS) Ice Nucleating Particle Measurements Field Campaign Report

Evidence exists that sea-spray-sourced ice nucleating particles (INPs) are organic in origin, resulting from biological and biochemical processes in seawater and the sea surface microlayer, and represent a distinctly different and variable, but oftentimes much less effective, INP population in comparison to long-range transported desert dust (DeMott et al. 2016; McCluskey et al. 2018a). Over the Southern Ocean (SO), far from land sources, these INPs may dominate in the marine boundary layer (McCluskey et al. 2018b). Thereby, marine INPs may affect cloud phase and lifetime in this region where pervasive supercooled and mixed-phase boundary-layer clouds appear underrepresented in climate models. This motivated collection of ice nucleating particle concentration measurements during the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) user facility Measurements of Aerosols, Radiation and Clouds over the Southern Ocean (MARCUS) deployment of the second ARM Mobile Facility (AMF2) on the Aurora Australis vessel from early November, 2017 (Austral spring) to late March, 2018 (Austral fall). During this period, four voyages were made from Hobart, Tasmania to the Australian Antarctic Division bases at Casey, Davis, and Mawson, as well as a final resupply cruise to Macquarie Island, the sight of the related Macquarie Island Cloud and Radiation Experiment (MICRE) campaign. Aerosol filter collections of alternating 24- and 48-hour duration were made during all voyages. These filters were returned frozen for subsequent processing to determine variability in the temperature spectrum of the concentrations of INPs active via the immersion freezing mechanism and to conduct additional analyses to indicate the chemical and biological nature of INPs over the SO. The MARCUS data set provides the first spatial and seasonal picture of INP concentrations over the SO in more than four decades, complementing the full annual cycle of INP data we collected for a point location in MICRE.

Ice nucleation, aerosols, arctic processes, marine↗