Stratospheric Temperature Trends over 1979–2015 Derived from Combined SSU, MLS, and SABER Satellite Observations

AbstractTemperature trends in the middle and upper stratosphere are evaluated using measurements from the Stratospheric Sounding Unit (SSU), combined with data from the Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) and Sounding of the Atmosphere Using Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER) instruments. Data from MLS and SABER are vertically integrated to approximate the SSU weighting functions and combined with SSU to provide a data record spanning 1979–2015. Vertical integrals are calculated using empirically derived Gaussian weighting functions, which provide improved agreement with high-latitude SSU measurements compared to previously derived weighting functions. These merged SSU data are used to evaluate decadal-scale trends, solar cycle variations, and volcanic effects from the lower to the upper stratosphere. Episodic warming is observed following the volcanic eruptions of El Chichon (1982) and Mt. Pinatubo (1991), focused in the tropics in the lower stratosphere and in high latitudes in the middle and upper str...

[1]  P. V. Delst,et al.  Community Radiative Transfer Model for Stratospheric Sounding Unit , 2011 .

[2]  D. Shindell,et al.  Solar signals in CMIP‐5 simulations: the ozone response , 2015 .

[3]  Daniel M. Mitchell,et al.  Global temperature response to the major volcanic eruptions in multiple reanalysis data sets , 2015 .

[4]  J. Lorente,et al.  How Robust Are Trends in the Brewer-Dobson Circulation Derived from Observed Stratospheric Temperatures? , 2015 .

[5]  J. Lamarque,et al.  Changes in Stratospheric Temperatures and Their Implications for Changes in the Brewer-Dobson Circulation, 1979-2005 , 2012 .

[6]  Daniel R. Marsh,et al.  The 11 year solar cycle signal in transient simulations from the whole atmosphere community climate model , 2012 .

[7]  Robert Tibshirani,et al.  An Introduction to the Bootstrap , 1994 .

[8]  Rolando R. Garcia,et al.  Simulation of secular trends in the middle atmosphere, 1950–2003 , 2007 .

[9]  Daniel R. Marsh,et al.  Climate change from 1850 to 2005 simulated in CESM1(WACCM) , 2013 .

[10]  R. Saunders,et al.  A review of Stratospheric Sounding Unit radiance observations for climate trends and reanalyses , 2015 .

[11]  A. J. Miller,et al.  An update of observed stratospheric temperature trends , 2009 .

[12]  T. Shepherd,et al.  A method for merging nadir-sounding climate records, with an application to the global-mean stratospheric temperature data sets from SSU and AMSU , 2015 .

[13]  James M. Russell,et al.  Assessment of the quality of the Version 1.07 temperature‐versus‐pressure profiles of the middle atmosphere from TIMED/SABER , 2008 .

[14]  Dong L. Wu,et al.  Title : Validation of the Aura Microwave Limb Sounder Temperature and Geopotential Height Measurements , 2007 .

[15]  Volker Grewe,et al.  A comparison of model‐simulated trends in stratospheric temperatures , 2003 .

[16]  John M. Wallace,et al.  Representation of the Equatorial Stratospheric Quasi-Biennial Oscillation in EOF Phase Space , 1993 .

[17]  S. Solomon,et al.  Observational evidence of strengthening of the Brewer‐Dobson circulation since 1980 , 2015 .

[18]  Y. Kawatani,et al.  Stratospheric Processes And their Role in Climate Three dimensional structure of planetary wave activity from tropical to extratropical regions in ENSO , 2006 .

[19]  H. Lee,et al.  Simulation of the combined effects of solar cycle, quasi-biennial oscillation, and volcanic forcing on stratospheric ozone changes in recent decades , 2003 .

[20]  J. Zawodny,et al.  Trends in stratospheric ozone derived from merged SAGE II and Odin-OSIRIS satellite observations , 2014 .

[21]  John R. Lanzante,et al.  Effect of Volcanic Eruptions on the Vertical Temperature Profile in Radiosonde Data and Climate Models , 2009 .

[22]  Amy H. Butler,et al.  The mystery of recent stratospheric temperature trends , 2012, Nature.

[23]  C. Boone,et al.  Past changes in the vertical distribution of ozone – Part 3: Analysis and interpretation of trends , 2015 .

[24]  Craig S. Long,et al.  Recalibration and merging of SSU observations for stratospheric temperature trend studies , 2014 .

[25]  J. Zawodny,et al.  Combined SAGE II–GOMOS ozone profile data set for 1984–2011 and trend analysis of the vertical distribution of ozone , 2013 .

[26]  A. Robock.  Volcanic eruptions and climate , 2000 .

[27]  Craig S. Long,et al.  Signatures of naturally induced variability in the atmosphere using multiple reanalysis datasets , 2015 .

[28]  Dian J. Seidel,et al.  Stratospheric temperature changes during the satellite era , 2016 .

[29]  V. Ramaswamy,et al.  Stratospheric temperature trends: Observations and model simulations , 2001 .

[30]  Haifeng Qian,et al.  Stratospheric Temperature Climate Data Record from Merged SSU and AMSU-A Observations , 2016 .

[31]  Mark R. Schoeberl,et al.  Relative Contribution of Greenhouse Gases and Ozone-Depleting Substances to Temperature Trends in the Stratosphere: A Chemistry–Climate Model Study , 2010 .

[32]  Haifeng Qian,et al.  Construction of Stratospheric Temperature Data Records from Stratospheric Sounding Units , 2012 .

[33]  James M. Russell,et al.  Retrieval of mesospheric and lower thermospheric kinetic temperature from measurements of CO2 15 µm Earth Limb Emission under non‐LTE conditions , 2001 .

[34]  W. Randel,et al.  Cooling of the Arctic and Antarctic Polar Stratospheres due to Ozone Depletion , 1999 .

[35]  John R. Lanzante,et al.  Stratospheric temperature trends: our evolving understanding , 2011 .

[36]  On the seasonal dependence of tropical lower-stratospheric temperature trends , 2009 .