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Observational Evidence Against Mountain-Wave Generation of Ice Nuclei as a Prerequisite for the Formation of Three Solid Nitric Acid Polar Stratospheric Clouds Observed in the Arctic in Early December 1999A number of recently published papers suggest that mountain-wave activity in the stratosphere, producing ice particles when temperatures drop below the ice frost point, may be the primary source of large NAT particles. In this paper we use measurements from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) instruments on board the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) polar-orbiting satellites to map out regions of ice clouds produced by stratospheric mountain-wave activity inside the Arctic vortex. Lidar observations from three DC-8 flights in early December 1999 show the presence of solid nitric acid (Type Ia or NAT) polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs). By using back trajectories and superimposing the position maps on the AVHRR cloud imagery products, we show that these observed NAT clouds could not have originated at locations of high-amplitude mountain-wave activity. We also show that mountain-wave PSC climatology data and Mountain Wave Forecast Model 2.0 (MWFM-2) raw hemispheric ray and grid box averaged hemispheric wave temperature amplitude hindcast data from the same time period are in agreement with the AVHRR data. Our results show that ice cloud formation in mountain waves cannot explain how at least three large scale NAT clouds were formed in the stratosphere in early December 1999.
Document ID
20100031887
Acquisition Source
Headquarters
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Pagan, Kathy L.
(San Francisco State Univ. San Francisco, CA, United States)
Tabazadeh, Azadeh
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Drdla, Katja
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field, CA, United States)
Hervig, Mark E.
(G and A Technical Software, Inc. Driggs, ID, United States)
Eckermann, Stephen D.
(Naval Research Lab. Washington, DC, United States)
Browell, Edward V.
(NASA Langley Research Center Hampton, VA, United States)
Legg, Marion J.
(Bay Area Environmental Research Inst. Sonoma , CA, United States)
Foschi, Patricia G.
(San Francisco State Univ. Tiburon, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 25, 2013
Publication Date
February 26, 2004
Publication Information
Publication: Journal of Geophysical Research
Volume: 109
ISSN: 0148-0227
Subject Category
Geophysics
Report/Patent Number
AD-A524963
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
MOUNTAIN WAVES
MWFM (MOUNTAIN WAVE FORECAST MODEL)
AVHRR (ADVANCED VERY HIGH RESOLUTION RADIOMETERS)
PSC (POLAR STRATOSPHERIC CLOUDS)

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