UARS studies

Reading UARS news

The efforts of the UARS community are now reflected in a JAS special UARS issue (Vol. 51 No. 20), where 21 papers (7 lead by UK scientists!) appear. Alan O'Neill and William Lahoz are first authors in one paper each (both deal with the NH winter of 91-92; the O'Neill paper mainly from the Meteorology point of view, the Lahoz paper mainly from the tracer transport point of view). Alan O'Neill is an author in a number of other papers which used UKMO data, whereas William Lahoz is an author in another paper which used MLS water vapour data. An example of the way UGAMP scientists are using UARS data to study tracer transport in the mid stratosphere is given by Figure 1.

Fig. 1. Record number versus theta (K) cross section of MLS water vapour data (ppmv) for UARS day 122 (11 January 1992) along a viewing track of the MLS instrument which cuts the polar vortex and the Aleutian anticyclone at right angles to the jet stream between them. The track goes from about 20 S, 141 E to 20 S, 33 E. The abscissa indicates the record number associated with the MLS water vapour measurement. [There are 1318 or 1319 MLS records, i.e. profile measurements, in one day. GMT (in hours) of the record number is record number * 24 / records for one day]. The ordinate indicates potential temperature. Marked on the RHS of the figure are the corresponding height values for a reference atmosphere. The location of the equator, 30, 60 and 80 N latitude circles along the viewing track in marked at the top of the figure by the crosses. The position of the crosses indicates the potential temperature levels theta to which the water vapour mixing ratios have been interpolated. The 6 ppmv isopleth is marked in bold. The contour step is 0.2 ppmv. The theta level at which the pressure is 22 hPa is marked by the bold dashed line. The LSTs are, in ascending record number along the abscissa, ~ 23.8 h (30 N), ~ 6 h (80 N), 13 h (30 N).

Future papers using UARS data will include a study by Alan O'Neill and William Lahoz of the SH winter of 1992 (including vortex mergers) and a study of the tropics and transport between the tropics and mid-latitudes.

Future studies will use UARS data to test the meteorology and transport of UGAMP atmospheric models, including the recently available UGAMP stratosphere-mesosphere Model (USMM) as part of UGAMP's contribution to the ECCN project, which has made available time on the Met. Office Cray C-90 supercomputer, an annual integration has begun with the troposphere-stratosphere of the Met. Office Unified Model. Results from these simulations will be compared with annual integrations which have been made with EUGCM.

Alan and William submitted a proposal on behalf of UGAMP to have access to data from ESA's GOME instrument, which measures ozone concentrations in the stratosphere and upper troposphere. This instrument will be flown on the ERS-2 satellite scheduled for launch in early 1995. The proposal was awarded top grading by peer review.

William Lahoz and people in Bob Harwood's group at Edinburgh have submitted a paper on the data validation of MLS water vapour to the JGR special issue on UARS data validation.

Alan and William attended the UARS conference held at Longmont, Colorado, in early November where recently elected guest investigators (including UGAMP guest investigator Lesley Gray) were able to discuss their proposals to use UARS data.

William Lahoz

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