The summer 2012 Greenland heat wave: In situ and remote sensing observations of water vapor isotopic composition during an atmospheric river event

Jean-Louis Bonne; Hans Christian Steen-Larsen; Camille Risi; Martin Werner; Harald Sodemann; Jean-Lionel Lacour; Xavier Fettweis; Grégory Cesana; Marc Delmotte; Olivier Cattani; Paul Travis Vallelonga; Helle Astrid Kjær; Cathy Clerbaux; Árny Erla Svienbjörndóttir; Valérie Masson-Delmotte

doi:10.1002/2014JD022602

The summer 2012 Greenland heat wave: In situ and remote sensing observations of water vapor isotopic composition during an atmospheric river event

Jean-Louis Bonne, Hans Christian Steen-Larsen, Camille Risi, Martin Werner, Harald Sodemann, Jean-Lionel Lacour, Xavier Fettweis, Grégory Cesana, Marc Delmotte, Olivier Cattani, Paul Travis Vallelonga, Helle Astrid Kjær, Cathy Clerbaux, Árny Erla Svienbjörndóttir, Valérie Masson-Delmotte

Physics of Ice, Climate and Earth

52 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

During 7–12 July 2012, extreme moist and warm conditions occurred over Greenland, leading to widespread surface melt. To investigate the physical processes during the atmospheric moisture transport of this event, we study the water vapor isotopic composition using surface in situ observations in Bermuda Island, South Greenland coast (Ivittuut), and northwest Greenland ice sheet (NEEM), as well as remote sensing observations (Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) instrument on board MetOp-A), depicting propagation of similar surface and midtropospheric humidity and δD signals. Simulations using Lagrangian moisture source diagnostic and water tagging in a regional model showed that Greenland was affected by an atmospheric river transporting moisture from the western subtropical North Atlantic Ocean, which is coherent with observations of snow pit impurities deposited at NEEM. At Ivittuut, surface air temperature, humidity, and δD increases are observed. At NEEM, similar temperature increase is associated with a large and long-lasting ∼100‰δD enrichment and ∼15‰ deuterium excess decrease, thereby reaching Ivittuut level. We assess the simulation of this event in two isotope-enabled atmospheric general circulation models (LMDz-iso and ECHAM5-wiso). LMDz-iso correctly captures the timing of propagation for this event identified in IASI data but depict too gradual variations when compared to surface data. Both models reproduce the surface meteorological and isotopic values during the event but underestimate the background deuterium excess at NEEM. Cloud liquid water content parametrization in LMDz-iso poorly impacts the vapor isotopic composition. Our data demonstrate that during this atmospheric river event the deuterium excess signal is conserved from the moisture source to northwest Greenland.

Original language	English
Journal	Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface
Volume	120
Issue number	7
Pages (from-to)	2970-2989
ISSN	2169-8996
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/2014JD022602
Publication status	Published - 1 Apr 2015

Keywords

Faculty of Science
Greenland
melt
Remote Sensing

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Bonne, J-L., Steen-Larsen, H. C., Risi, C., Werner, M., Sodemann, H., Lacour, J-L., Fettweis, X., Cesana, G., Delmotte, M., Cattani, O., Vallelonga, P. T., Kjær, H. A., Clerbaux, C., Svienbjörndóttir, Á. E., & Masson-Delmotte, V. (2015). The summer 2012 Greenland heat wave: In situ and remote sensing observations of water vapor isotopic composition during an atmospheric river event. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, 120(7), 2970-2989. https://doi.org/10.1002/2014JD022602

The summer 2012 Greenland heat wave : In situ and remote sensing observations of water vapor isotopic composition during an atmospheric river event. / Bonne, Jean-Louis; Steen-Larsen, Hans Christian; Risi, Camille et al.

In: Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, Vol. 120, No. 7, 01.04.2015, p. 2970-2989.

Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review

Bonne, J-L, Steen-Larsen, HC, Risi, C, Werner, M, Sodemann, H, Lacour, J-L, Fettweis, X, Cesana, G, Delmotte, M, Cattani, O, Vallelonga, PT, Kjær, HA, Clerbaux, C, Svienbjörndóttir, ÁE & Masson-Delmotte, V 2015, 'The summer 2012 Greenland heat wave: In situ and remote sensing observations of water vapor isotopic composition during an atmospheric river event', Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, vol. 120, no. 7, pp. 2970-2989. https://doi.org/10.1002/2014JD022602

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abstract = "During 7–12 July 2012, extreme moist and warm conditions occurred over Greenland, leading to widespread surface melt. To investigate the physical processes during the atmospheric moisture transport of this event, we study the water vapor isotopic composition using surface in situ observations in Bermuda Island, South Greenland coast (Ivittuut), and northwest Greenland ice sheet (NEEM), as well as remote sensing observations (Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) instrument on board MetOp-A), depicting propagation of similar surface and midtropospheric humidity and δD signals. Simulations using Lagrangian moisture source diagnostic and water tagging in a regional model showed that Greenland was affected by an atmospheric river transporting moisture from the western subtropical North Atlantic Ocean, which is coherent with observations of snow pit impurities deposited at NEEM. At Ivittuut, surface air temperature, humidity, and δD increases are observed. At NEEM, similar temperature increase is associated with a large and long-lasting ∼100‰δD enrichment and ∼15‰ deuterium excess decrease, thereby reaching Ivittuut level. We assess the simulation of this event in two isotope-enabled atmospheric general circulation models (LMDz-iso and ECHAM5-wiso). LMDz-iso correctly captures the timing of propagation for this event identified in IASI data but depict too gradual variations when compared to surface data. Both models reproduce the surface meteorological and isotopic values during the event but underestimate the background deuterium excess at NEEM. Cloud liquid water content parametrization in LMDz-iso poorly impacts the vapor isotopic composition. Our data demonstrate that during this atmospheric river event the deuterium excess signal is conserved from the moisture source to northwest Greenland.",

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T2 - In situ and remote sensing observations of water vapor isotopic composition during an atmospheric river event

AU - Bonne, Jean-Louis

AU - Steen-Larsen, Hans Christian

AU - Risi, Camille

AU - Werner, Martin

AU - Sodemann, Harald

AU - Lacour, Jean-Lionel

AU - Fettweis, Xavier

AU - Cesana, Grégory

AU - Delmotte, Marc

AU - Cattani, Olivier

AU - Vallelonga, Paul Travis

AU - Kjær, Helle Astrid

AU - Clerbaux, Cathy

AU - Svienbjörndóttir, Árny Erla

AU - Masson-Delmotte, Valérie

PY - 2015/4/1

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N2 - During 7–12 July 2012, extreme moist and warm conditions occurred over Greenland, leading to widespread surface melt. To investigate the physical processes during the atmospheric moisture transport of this event, we study the water vapor isotopic composition using surface in situ observations in Bermuda Island, South Greenland coast (Ivittuut), and northwest Greenland ice sheet (NEEM), as well as remote sensing observations (Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) instrument on board MetOp-A), depicting propagation of similar surface and midtropospheric humidity and δD signals. Simulations using Lagrangian moisture source diagnostic and water tagging in a regional model showed that Greenland was affected by an atmospheric river transporting moisture from the western subtropical North Atlantic Ocean, which is coherent with observations of snow pit impurities deposited at NEEM. At Ivittuut, surface air temperature, humidity, and δD increases are observed. At NEEM, similar temperature increase is associated with a large and long-lasting ∼100‰δD enrichment and ∼15‰ deuterium excess decrease, thereby reaching Ivittuut level. We assess the simulation of this event in two isotope-enabled atmospheric general circulation models (LMDz-iso and ECHAM5-wiso). LMDz-iso correctly captures the timing of propagation for this event identified in IASI data but depict too gradual variations when compared to surface data. Both models reproduce the surface meteorological and isotopic values during the event but underestimate the background deuterium excess at NEEM. Cloud liquid water content parametrization in LMDz-iso poorly impacts the vapor isotopic composition. Our data demonstrate that during this atmospheric river event the deuterium excess signal is conserved from the moisture source to northwest Greenland.

AB - During 7–12 July 2012, extreme moist and warm conditions occurred over Greenland, leading to widespread surface melt. To investigate the physical processes during the atmospheric moisture transport of this event, we study the water vapor isotopic composition using surface in situ observations in Bermuda Island, South Greenland coast (Ivittuut), and northwest Greenland ice sheet (NEEM), as well as remote sensing observations (Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) instrument on board MetOp-A), depicting propagation of similar surface and midtropospheric humidity and δD signals. Simulations using Lagrangian moisture source diagnostic and water tagging in a regional model showed that Greenland was affected by an atmospheric river transporting moisture from the western subtropical North Atlantic Ocean, which is coherent with observations of snow pit impurities deposited at NEEM. At Ivittuut, surface air temperature, humidity, and δD increases are observed. At NEEM, similar temperature increase is associated with a large and long-lasting ∼100‰δD enrichment and ∼15‰ deuterium excess decrease, thereby reaching Ivittuut level. We assess the simulation of this event in two isotope-enabled atmospheric general circulation models (LMDz-iso and ECHAM5-wiso). LMDz-iso correctly captures the timing of propagation for this event identified in IASI data but depict too gradual variations when compared to surface data. Both models reproduce the surface meteorological and isotopic values during the event but underestimate the background deuterium excess at NEEM. Cloud liquid water content parametrization in LMDz-iso poorly impacts the vapor isotopic composition. Our data demonstrate that during this atmospheric river event the deuterium excess signal is conserved from the moisture source to northwest Greenland.

KW - Faculty of Science

KW - Greenland

KW - melt

KW - Remote Sensing

U2 - 10.1002/2014JD022602

DO - 10.1002/2014JD022602

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0148-0227

VL - 120

SP - 2970

EP - 2989

JO - Journal of Geophysical Research

JF - Journal of Geophysical Research

IS - 7

ER -

The summer 2012 Greenland heat wave: In situ and remote sensing observations of water vapor isotopic composition during an atmospheric river event

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Keywords

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