Abstract
Low tropospheric temperature inversion is very common in the Arctic region. Based on the hyperspectral Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) profiles from 2002 to 2020, this study provides a comprehensive analysis of the characteristics and anomalies for low tropospheric inversions in the entire Arctic, especially during the summer period. Three types of inversion are classified here, representing the inversions under the clear-sky condition (“clear” inversion), under the cloudy condition with clouds under the inversion layer top (“cloud-I” inversion), and without clouds under the inversion layer top (“cloud-II” inversion). Obvious seasonality is revealed in these three types of inversion, which is stronger in winter than in summer, as per previous studies. We further found that a “summer” peak of inversions occurs in the Arctic, notably in July. Averaged over the study region (60−90° N, 180° W−180° E), the frequencies of “cloud-I” and “cloud-II” inversions peak in July with values of about 22.1% and 34.6%, respectively. Moreover, the three inversion types all display a small “July” peak of inversion strength, ranging from 2.14 to 3.19 K. The result reveals that when the frequency and strength of summer inversions are both with high positive anomalies, there would be a drop in sea ice concentration in September. This implied that the high positive anomalies, both in inversion frequency and strength in summer, might be a predicted signal for the extreme low sea ice event in September. It is also noted that during the extreme low sea ice events in 2007 and 2020, the summer inversion has a strong positive anomaly. However, the summer inversion in 2012, when the sea ice extent also broke the low record, was not extreme as in 2007 and 2020. Further study needs to be supported by follow-up models and observations to evaluate the impact of the inversions on the sea ice.
Highlights
The temperature inversion is a reversal phenomenon in which the air temperature in the troposphere increases with the height
The dataset we used for the Arctic temperature inversion analysis is from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS)/Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU)/Humidity Sounder for Brazil (HSB) (AIRS for simplicity) Version 7 (V7) Level 3 (L3) products [35]
Winter is the period of high occurrence of temperature inversions with stronger strength, while the frequency and strength of inversions in May and September these results could only represent the situations of a few Arctic site ods
Summary
The temperature inversion is a reversal phenomenon in which the air temperature in the troposphere increases with the height. In the Arctic, the temperature inversion occurs in the lower troposphere, which may have specific effects on the various climate processes. It has been reported that the inversion may contribute to the high concentrations of the air pollutants [1,2]. The temperature inversion controls the transport of moisture and heat from leads and polynyas [7], and its characteristics are essential for accurate sea-ice modeling and simulations [8,9,10,11]. Studies on temperature inversions are of great significance for the Arctic climate and environment
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