Abstract
Temperature and humidity inversions are common in the Arctic’s lower troposphere, and are a crucial component of the Arctic’s climate system. In this study, we quantify the intraseasonal oscillation of Arctic temperature and specific humidity inversions and investigate its interannual variability using data from the Surface Heat Balance of the Arctic (SHEBA) experiment from October 1997 to September 1998 and the European Centre for Medium-Range Forecasts (ECMWF) Reanalysis (ERA)-interim for the 1979–2017 period. In January 1998, there were two noticeable elevated inversions and one surface inversion. The transitions between elevated and surface-based inversions were associated with the intraseasonal variability of the temperature and humidity differences between 850 and 950 hPa. The self-organizing map (SOM) technique is utilized to obtain the main modes of surface and elevated temperature and humidity inversions on intraseasonal time scales. Low (high) pressure and more (less) cloud cover are related to elevated (surface) temperature and humidity inversions. The frequency of strong (weak) elevated inversions over the eastern hemisphere has decreased (increased) in the past three decades. The wintertime Arctic Oscillation (AO) and Arctic Dipole (AD) during their positive phases have a significant effect on the occurrence of surface and elevated inversions for two Nodes only.
Highlights
Temperature inversions in the lower troposphere occur frequently in the Arctic, especially in winter [1]
The vertical profiles of temperature and specific humidity from the Surface Heat Balance of the Arctic (SHEBA) experiment and ERA-interim reanalysis data in January 1998 revealed the intraseasonal variability of temperature and specific humidity inversions
The self-organizing map (SOM) technique was utilized to investigate the spatial patterns of the intraseasonal oscillation over the whole Arctic Ocean and their interannual variability and trend
Summary
Temperature inversions in the lower troposphere occur frequently in the Arctic, especially in winter [1]. The recent increasing trends in lower tropospheric temperature can influence features of the Arctic inversions [2], which in turn modulate the surface energy balance and the amplified Arctic response to increased greenhouse gas concentrations [3,4]. The strength of the Arctic inversions influences ozone and other pollutants’ concentrations [5,6,7] in the Arctic troposphere. There is a strong interaction between Arctic clouds and the vertical temperature structure in the troposphere [8,9,10,11]. Temperature inversions play a key role in the Arctic climate system. There are two types of Arctic temperature inversions: surface-based and elevated inversions [12]
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