Ozone trends at northern mid- and high latitudes

The paper "Ozone trends at northern mid- and high latitudes – a European perspective" by Harris et al., has been recently published in Annales Geophysicae. This interesting paper shows the main conclusions of the EU CANDIDOZ project which investigated the chemical and dynamical influences on decadal ozone trends focusing on the Northern Hemisphere. The results shows an almost monotonic negative trend from the late 1970s to the mid 1990s followed by an increase in the NH mid latitudes and in the Arctic. The article analyzes the chemical and dynamical causes of this ozone increase.

Training School over UV Radiation

This “Training School” is organized by the COST 726: Long term changes and climatology of biologically effective UV Radiation over Europe. The main objetive is the understanding of biologically effective solar UV radiation in an interdisciplinary context, using the knowledge base and results from COST Action 726. A further aim is to educate a pool of national experts with the knowledge and international contacts to promote and disseminate their understanding of recent and past values of biologically effective UV radiation across all fields of science.

More information in the web of COST Action 726

Ozone mini-holes

Extreme low ozone episodes called ozone mini-holes are characterized by a quick and small-scale decrease in total ozone amount followed by an equally rapid recovery after a few days. These anomalous events have been observed in both hemispheres in winter or early spring. In mid-latitudes, these episodes can be explained by different dynamic processes such as the displacement of the polar vortex, the influence of planetary waves, the advection from the tropics of air patches with low total ozone content and vertical uplift of isentropic air-mass in the lower and middle stratosphere.

The following article analyses the main characteristic of these anomalous events:

Bojkov, R. D., and D. S. Balis (2001), Characteristics of episodes with extremely low ozone values in the northern middle latitudes 1957 –2000, Ann. Geophys., 19, 797– 807.

International Radiation Symposium 2008

The International Radiation Symposium (IRS2008) on Current Problems in Atmospheric Radiation will be held during August 3-8, 2008 at Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil. The Symposium is organized every four years by the International Radiation Commission (IRC). This will be the first edition in South America and is an opportunity to share ideas and experiences on the current problems in atmospheric radiation from theory and modeling to measurements and applications on weather and climate.

More information in the following link:

• IRS2008

Ozone vs. Climate change

Ozone and climate change are linked in two important ways:

• The greenhouse gases produces near-surface global warming. This fact is expected to cool the stratosphere, and in turn, it is expected to produce a relative increase in stratospheric ozone depletion.
• Conversely, ozone is a radiative forcing of the climate system. There are two opposing effects. On the one hand, ozone increases in the troposphere from pollution associated with human activities leads to a warming of Earth’s surface. In contrast, stratospheric ozone depletion represents a small negative forcing, which leads to cooling of Earth’s surface.

There are several interesting links which detail this subject:

• Ozone impacts on climate change (RealClimate)
• Twenty Questions and Answers about the Ozone Layer (Question 18)
• Tango in the Atmosphere: Ozone and Climate Change

European Fleet for Airborne Research (EUFAR)

EUFAR (http://www.eufar.net/) is an European project which aims at coordinating the operations of the European fleet of instrumented aircraft in the field of environmental research in the atmospheric, marine, terrestrial and Earth sciences. EUFAR is divided in several expert working groups such as aerosols, radiation and remote sensing.

EUFAR is organizing its 2nd Summer School on Airborne Cloud and AerosolScience (ACAS) open to PhD students and Post Docs. This school will take place in Utrecht, The Netherlands from April 14th to April 25th 2008. The aim of the school is to train students in airborne research focused on aerosols and clouds.

ORACLE-O3

The project "Ozone layer and UV radiation in a changing climate evaluated during the IPY (ORACLE-O3)" deals with experimental and modelling research on the ozone layer, UV radiation and the effects of personal UV exposure during the International Polar Year 2007-2008 (IPY). This project is divided into 7 main activities:

• Ozone loss (detection and impact on UV radiation)
• PSC and cirrus
• Atmospheric chemistry
• UV radiation
• Ozone and climate change and feedback
• Data management
• Education, outreach and communication

ORACLE-O3 project has contributions from 67 research institutions in 22 countries. Spanish constribution is summarized in this presentation:

• Spanish contribution to ORACLE-O3

Aerosol references and links

My colleage Dra. Sandra Mogo from University of Beira Interior (Portugal) focuses her research on the nature and behavior of aerosols (optical properties, laboratory and field measurements, optical instrumentation, radiative forcing and modelization). Sandra has a close collaboration with the Atmospheric Optical Group from University of Valladolid (Spain).

Sandra's web-page contains two very interesting lists about aerosol science:

• Absorption references
  
• Links

Valencia Anchor Station

Valencia Anchor Station (VAS) is an automatic meteorological station equipped with a large number of instruments to carry out validation activities of remote sensing data and products . It is located at about 80 km from the city of Valencia (Spain) in a reasonably homogeneous and flat area of about 50x50 km2.

The main scientific objectives of the VAS are:

• Definition of a large scale validation area for low-spatial resolution missions.
• Definition and characterisation of a large scale reference pixel.
• Study of scaling issues. Time Interpolation and Spatial Averaging.

VAS takes part in validation and calibration activities of satellite sensors corresponding to several missions such as EarthCARE (Earth Clouds, Aerosols and Radiation Explorer) and CERES (Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System).

More information in its web:

• Valencia Anchor Station

WMO Sand and Dust Storm Warning System for Europe, Africa and Middle East

Spain is currently implementing a WMO Regional Sand and Dust Storm Warning System Centre for Europe, Africa and Middle East. This Regional Centre aims to achieve three major objectives:

• provide real-time information from a core-operational and quality controlled dust monitoring and forecasting system.


• maintain a web portal with both research and near-real information and links to available dust forecasting and monitoring systems within the region.


• implement a web-oriented modelling and observational historical data base available for case-study and climatological analysis.

More information in the following link:

• Presentation in WMO/GEO Expert Meeting
  

The Spanish Antarctic base is already opened

After many hard working days in the last couple of weeks, "Gabriel de Castilla" Antarctic Base is completely operative. At all, 14 Spaniards and 1 Mexican will stay during three months in this far place. My colleages Antonio Serrano (row of down, second by the left) and Maria Luisa Cancillo (row of above, second by the right) have already started their research works about the radiative budget in the permafrost (frozen ground) . Good Luck!!!!

GOME-2 Team

I would like to write about the group within which I am currently doing a research stay. The GOME-2 Team at DLR belongs to Remote Sensing Technology Institute (IMF) . Its main research topics are related with the algorithm development in order to obtain total columns products of ozone, minor trace gases and cloud properties. These satellite products are generated at DLR in the framework of the Satellite Application Facility on Ozone and Atmospheric Chemistry Monitoring (O3M SAF).

The Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment-2 (GOME-2) is one of the new-generation European instruments carried on MetOp-A (launched in October 2006). It continues the long-term monitoring of atmospheric trace gases started by GOME on ERS-2 and SCIAMACHY on Envisat.

Arrival to Antarctica

My colleages Antonio Serrano and María Luísa Cancillo from University of Extremadura have already arrived to Deception Island. The meteorological conditions have been quite unfavorable during The Drake passage, between Cape Horn and Antarctica. In addition, the "Gabriel de Castilla" Spanish Base has a lot of snow cover (about 2 meters). Thus, the instalation works will be very hard.

In the Base campaign dairy, there is current information about this antarctic expedition.

El Pais newspaper has published a broad information about the arrival to Antactican of this expedition.

Quadrennial Ozone Symposium

The 2008 Quadrennial Ozone Symposium will take place in Tromsø, Norway, from 29 June to 5 July 2008. The main topics are:

• Ozone depletion in a historical perspective


• Observations – total ozone, vertical distribution, analysis and evaluation


• UV changes


• Tropospheric ozone – trends, precursors, emissions


• Climate ozone interaction


• Ozone recovery

More information in the symposium web:

• QOS2008

Carlos Toledano

I visited my colleague Dr. Carlos Toledano last week. He is currently doing a postdoctoral research stay at Meteorological Institute from University of Munich. He works together with Dr. Peter Koepke in the Radiation and Remote Sensing Group.

Carlos focuses his research on the study of atmospheric aerosols with optical methods. He did his Ph.D. thesis at Atmospheric Optics Group from University of Valladolid (Spain).

Antarctic Research

The AIRE group of the University of Extremadura is also involved in Antarctic research. Thus, next week, María Luisa Cancillo and Antonio Serrano, members of this research group, will travel to Decepción Island to carry out research activities related to the energy balance of the permafrost. They will stay at the "Gabriel de Castilla" Spanish Antarctic Base for two months.

More information in the following link:

• Antarctic research group

6rd Spanish-Portuguese Assembly of Geodesy and Geophysics

The 6rd Spanish-Portuguese Assembly of Geodesy and Geophysics will be held the next February 2008 in Tomar (Portugal).

Information about topics, deadlines, etc, in the following link:

• Spanish-Portuguese Assembly of Geodesy and Geophysics

Iberian Aerosols Measuments Network (RIMA)

RIMA (Red Ibérica de Medida fotométrica de Aerosoles) Network is currently maded up of 15 Cimel photometer. This network is greatly expanded by collaborators from national institutes and universities from Spain and Portugal. RIMA Network is coordinated by University of Valladolid (Spain) and it is associated with AERONET network.

AIRE research group (University of Extremadura) is participating since 2004 with a Cimel photometer located at Cáceres.

More information about RIMA Network in its web (in Spanish):

• RIMA Network

German Aerospace Center (DLR)

Currently, I am a visiting scientist at Remote Sensing Technology Institute (IMF) at DLR in Wessling near to Munich (Germany). The research stay will last until the end of January 2008 and it focus on the ozone data comparison between GOME-2 satellite instrument and Brewer spectroradiometers in Iberian Peninsula.

This research stay is a continuation of a O3-SAF VS Activity carried out the past year which was summarized in this report:

• Validation of total ozone GOME data with measurments of Spanish Brewer Network

More information in the following links:

• O3-SAF Project


• GOME-2 sensor

7th EMS Annual Meeting

European Meteorological Society (EMS) Annual Meeting was held in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Madrid, Spain from 1 to 5 October 2007. This event addressed a wide spectrum of scientific and application topics in atmospheric sciences – Atmosphere and the Water Cycle, Forecasting the Weather from one day to one year ahead, Climatology (under the auspices of ECSN) and Meteorology and Society.

In this meeting, Dr. Francisco Javier Acero belonging AIRE research group presented the following study:

• Analysis of UV radiation values during a low ozone
  episode over Exremadura (Spain) in January 2006

UV radiation conference in Davos

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Physikalisch-Meteorologisches Observatorium Davos (PMOD/WRC), a conference dedicated to solar UV radiation research carried out in Davos (Switzerland) from 18 to 20 September 2007. The conference got together about 100 scientists interested in solar UV radiation, with topics ranging from measurements and modelling, to the influence of UV radiation on humans and climate.

Dr. Antonio Serrano belonging to AIRE Research Group (Extremadura University) participated in this interesting event and he presented the following works:

• Relationship between ultraviolet solar radiation and total ozone column at Cáceres (Spain)
• Calibration method for broadband ultraviolet radiometers: Improving solar zenith angle dependence

Calibration campaign of broad-band UV radiometer Arenosillo 2007

The first Spanish calibration campaign of ultraviolet broad-band radiometer was carried out at the “El Arenosillo” INTA station in Huelva (Spain), from 20 August to 15 September 2007. This campaign was organized by Spanish Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA) and University of Extremadura with the colaboration of Spanish Institute of Meteorology (INM).

In all, 22 broad-band UV instruments from 13 institutions took part in this important event.