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Corral AF, Braun RA, Cairns B, Gorooh VA, Liu H, Ma L, Mardi AH, Painemal D, Stamnes S, van Diedenhoven B, Wang H, Yang Y, Zhang B, Sorooshian A. An Overview of Atmospheric Features Over the Western North Atlantic Ocean and North American East Coast - Part 1: Analysis of Aerosols, Gases, and Wet Deposition Chemistry. JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH. ATMOSPHERES : JGR 2021; 126:e2020JD032592. [PMID: 34211820 PMCID: PMC8243758 DOI: 10.1029/2020jd032592] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/24/2020] [Accepted: 11/04/2020] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
The Western North Atlantic Ocean (WNAO) and adjoining East Coast of North America are of great importance for atmospheric research and have been extensively studied for several decades. This broad region exhibits complex meteorological features and a wide range of conditions associated with gas and particulate species from many sources regionally and other continents. As Part 1 of a 2-part paper series, this work characterizes quantities associated with atmospheric chemistry, including gases, aerosols, and wet deposition, by analyzing available satellite observations, ground-based data, model simulations, and reanalysis products. Part 2 provides insight into the atmospheric circulation, boundary layer variability, three-dimensional cloud structure, properties, and precipitation over the WNAO domain. Key results include spatial and seasonal differences in composition along the North American East Coast and over the WNAO associated with varying sources of smoke and dust and meteorological drivers such as temperature, moisture, and precipitation. Spatial and seasonal variations of tropospheric carbon monoxide and ozone highlight different pathways toward the accumulation of these species in the troposphere. Spatial distributions of speciated aerosol optical depth and vertical profiles of aerosol mass mixing ratios show a clear seasonal cycle highlighting the influence of different sources in addition to the impact of intercontinental transport. Analysis of long-term climate model simulations of aerosol species and satellite observations of carbon monoxide confirm that there has been a significant decline in recent decades among anthropogenic constituents owing to regulatory activities.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea F Corral
- Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
| | - Rachel A Braun
- Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
| | - Brian Cairns
- NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, NY, USA
| | - Vesta Afzali Gorooh
- Center for Hydrometeorology and Remote Sensing (CHRS), Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The Henry Samueli School of Engineering, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA
| | - Hongyu Liu
- National Institute of Aerospace, Hampton, VA, USA
| | - Lin Ma
- Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
| | - Ali Hossein Mardi
- Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
| | - David Painemal
- NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, USA
- Science Systems and Applications, Inc., Hampton, VA, USA
| | | | - Bastiaan van Diedenhoven
- NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, NY, USA
- Columbia University Center for Climate System Research, New York, NY, USA
| | - Hailong Wang
- Atmospheric Sciences and Global Change Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA
| | - Yang Yang
- Atmospheric Sciences and Global Change Division, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA
| | - Bo Zhang
- National Institute of Aerospace, Hampton, VA, USA
| | - Armin Sorooshian
- Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
- Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
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Ecosystem responses in the southern Caribbean Sea to global climate change. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2012; 109:19315-20. [PMID: 23071299 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1207514109] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Over the last few decades, rising greenhouse gas emissions have promoted poleward expansion of the large-scale atmospheric Hadley circulation that dominates the Tropics, thereby affecting behavior of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). Expression of these changes in tropical marine ecosystems is poorly understood because of sparse observational datasets. We link contemporary ecological changes in the southern Caribbean Sea to global climate change indices. Monthly observations from the CARIACO Ocean Time-Series between 1996 and 2010 document significant decadal scale trends, including a net sea surface temperature (SST) rise of ∼1.0 ± 0.14 °C (±SE), intensified stratification, reduced delivery of upwelled nutrients to surface waters, and diminished phytoplankton bloom intensities evident as overall declines in chlorophyll a concentrations (ΔChla = -2.8 ± 0.5%⋅y(-1)) and net primary production (ΔNPP = -1.5 ± 0.3%⋅y(-1)). Additionally, phytoplankton taxon dominance shifted from diatoms, dinoflagellates, and coccolithophorids to smaller taxa after 2004, whereas mesozooplankton biomass increased and commercial landings of planktivorous sardines collapsed. Collectively, our results reveal an ecological state change in this planktonic system. The weakening trend in Trade Winds (-1.9 ± 0.3%⋅y(-1)) and dependent local variables are largely explained by trends in two climatic indices, namely the northward migration of the Azores High pressure center (descending branch of Hadley cell) by 1.12 ± 0.42°N latitude and the northeasterly progression of the ITCZ Atlantic centroid (ascending branch of Hadley cell), the March position of which shifted by about 800 km between 1996 and 2009.
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