Preprints
Filtering by Subject: Atmospheric Sciences
Automated machine learning to evaluate the information content of tropospheric trace gas columns for fine particle estimates over India: a modeling testbed
Published: 2022-03-20
Subjects: Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Atmospheric Sciences, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Computer Sciences, Earth Sciences, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology
India is largely devoid of high-quality and reliable on-the-ground measurements of fine particulate matter (PM2.5). Ground-level PM2.5 concentrations are estimated from publicly available satellite Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) products combined with other information. Prior research has largely overlooked the possibility of gaining additional accuracy and insights into the sources of PM using [...]
Complex multi-source emissions quantification results for the PoMELO vehicle measurement system, test results from the CSU METEC facility
Published: 2022-03-17
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Industrial Engineering, Other Engineering, Petroleum Engineering, Systems Engineering
Methane emissions from oil and gas sites are often characterized by mixed plumes from multiple sources in close proximity. This presents a challenge for screening methods that rely on emissions quantification to direct and prioritize follow-up inspections. Here, we present results from experiments evaluating mixed-source quantifications using the University of Calgary Portable Methane Leak [...]
2021 North American Heatwave Amplified by Climate-Change-Driven Nonlinear Interactions
Published: 2022-02-03
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Climate, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Heat conditions in North America in summer 2021 exceeded prior heatwaves by margins many would have considered impossible under current climate conditions. Associated severe impacts highlight the need for understanding the heatwave’s physical drivers and relations to climate change, to improve the projection and prediction of future extreme heat risks. Here, we find that slow- and fast-moving [...]
Vertically Resolved Convective/Stratiform Echo Type Identification and Convectivity Retrieval for Vertically Pointing Radars
Published: 2022-01-27
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Meteorology, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology
Using data from the airborne HIAPER Cloud Radar (HCR), a partitioning algorithm (ECCO-V) that provides vertically resolved convectivity and convective vs stratiform radar echo classification is developed for vertically pointing radars. The algorithm is based on the calculation of reflectivity and radial velocity texture fields that measure the horizontal homogeneity of cloud and precipitation [...]
Two decades of changing anthropogenic mercury emissions in Australia: inventory development, trends, and atmospheric implications
Published: 2022-01-27
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Biogeochemistry, Environmental Health and Protection
Mercury is a toxic environmental pollutant emitted into the atmosphere by both natural and anthropogenic sources. In Australia, previous estimates of anthropogenic mercury emissions differ by up to a factor of three, with existing inventories either outdated or inaccurate and several lacking Australia-specific input data. Here, we develop a twenty-year inventory of Australian anthropogenic [...]
Using satellites to uncover large methane emissions from landfills
Published: 2021-12-28
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences
As atmospheric methane concentrations increase at record pace, it is critical to identify individual emission sources with high potential for mitigation. Landfills are responsible for large methane emissions that can be readily abated but have been sparsely observed. Here we leverage the synergy between satellite instruments with different spatiotemporal coverage and resolution to detect and [...]
A continuous vertically resolved ozone dataset from the fusion of chemistry climate models with observations using a Bayesian neural network
Published: 2021-12-14
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences
Continuous historic datasets of vertically resolved stratospheric ozone, support the case for ozone recovery, are necessary for the running of offline models and increase understanding of the impacts of ozone on the wider atmospheric system. Vertically resolved ozone datasets are typically constructed from multiple satellite, sonde and ground-based measurements that do not provide continuous [...]
Geographically-resolved social cost of anthropogenic emissions accounting for both direct and climate-mediated effects
Published: 2021-11-17
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Climate, Environmental Sciences, Physical and Environmental Geography, Sustainability
The magnitude and distribution of physical and societal impacts from long-lived greenhouse gases are insensitive to the emission source location; the same is not true for major co-emitted short-lived pollutants like aerosols. Here we combine novel global climate model simulations with established response functions to show that identical aerosols emitted from different regions (Brazil, China, [...]
Massive-Parallel Trajectory Calculations version 2.2 (MPTRAC-2.2): Lagrangian transport simulations on Graphics Processing Units (GPUs)
Published: 2021-11-10
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Computer Sciences, Meteorology, Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Lagrangian models are fundamental tools to study atmospheric transport processes and for practical applications such as dispersion modeling for anthropogenic and natural emission sources. However, conducting large-scale Lagrangian transport simulations with millions of air parcels or more can become numerically rather costly. In this study, we assessed the potential of exploiting graphics [...]
Constraining clouds and convective parameterizations in a climate model from past climate
Published: 2021-10-06
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Climate
Cloud and convective parameterizations strongly influence uncertainties in equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS). We provide a proof-of-concept study to constrain these parameterizations in a perturbed parameter ensemble of the atmosphere-only version of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) Model E2.1 simulations by evaluating model biases in the present-day runs using multiple [...]
Interpretable Models Capture the Complex Relationship Between Climate Indices and Fire Season Intensity in Maritime Southeast Asia
Published: 2021-09-10
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Statistical Models
There have been many extreme fire seasons in Maritime Southeast Asia (MSEA) over the last two decades, a trend which will likely continue or accelerate due to climate change. Fires, in turn, are a major driver of atmospheric carbon monoxide (CO) variability, especially in the Southern Hemisphere. Here we attempt to maximize the amount of CO variability that can be explained via [...]
Flow-dependent and dynamical systems analyses of predictability of the Pacific-North American summertime circulation
Published: 2021-09-10
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Dynamical Systems, Earth Sciences
Forecast skills of numerical weather prediction (NWP) models and intrinsic predictability can be flow-dependent, e.g., different among weather regimes. Here, we have examined the predictability of distinct Pacific-North American weather regimes in June-September. Four weather regimes are identified using a self-organizing map analysis of daily 500-hPa geopotential height anomalies, and are [...]
Extreme smog challenge of India intensified by increasing lower tropospheric stability
Published: 2021-08-30
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Climate
Air pollution in India severely impacts the air quality, public health and economy in one of the world’s most densely populated regions. Persistent agricultural fires during the late-autumn period and widespread winter-time pollution contribute to the extreme smog in south Asia, especially affecting the entire northern India. While the links between anthropogenic emissions, air quality and health [...]
Fire-Generated Tornadic Vortices
Published: 2021-08-23
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Meteorology
Fire-generated tornadic vortices (FGTVs) linked to pyrocumulonimbi (pyroCb) are a potentially deadly, yet poorly understood and seldom observed wildfire hazard. In this study we use radar and satellite observations to examine three FGTV cases during high impact wildfires during the 2020 fire season in California, USA. We establish that these FGTVs each exhibit tornado-strength anticyclonic [...]
Comprehensive aerial survey quantifies high methane emissions from the New Mexico Permian Basin
Published: 2021-08-20
Subjects: Atmospheric Sciences, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology, Oil, Gas, and Energy, Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Limiting emissions of climate-warming methane from oil and gas (O&G) is a major opportunity for short-term climate benefits. We deploy a basin-wide airborne survey of the New Mexico Permian Basin, spanning 35,923 km^2, 26,292 active wells, and over 15,000 km of natural gas pipelines using an independently-validated hyperspectral methane point source detection and quantification system. The [...]