4th TICOSONDE WORKSHOP
Thursday, March 26, 2009, 8:30 AM - 5:30 PM
at
Universidad
Nacional,
Campus Omar Dengo, Heredia, Costa Rica
Room 2, Biblioteca Joaquin Garcia Monge
Organizers:
Dra. Jessica Valverde-Canossa, LAA-UNA
Dr. Henry Selkirk, NASA GSFC
Geog. Mauricio Zamora, PRIAS-CENAT
pdf version: 4th_Ticosonde_Workshop-Program_and_Abstracts.pdf
SCIENTIFIC PROGRAM
4th TICOSONDE WORKSHOP
Welcome/Introduction - Ticosonde Accomplishments
8:30 AM Dra JŽssica Valverde-Canossa,
LAA, UNA
8:35 AM MSc.
Wilberth JimŽnez Marin, Director de la Escuela de Ciencias Ambientales, UNA
8:40
AM Dra.
Luisa Castillo, Vicerrectora de Investigaci—n, UNA
8:50 AM Mr.
Timothy Lattimer, Embajada
de EEUU – Ticosonde and international scientific
cooperation
1. The SHADOZ and CFH Balloonsonde
Program
9:00 AM Dr.
Henry Selkirk, NASA-GSFC/UMBC – The Ticosonde/SHADOZ
balloonsonde project: Four years of water vapor and ozone
observations over Costa Rica and opportunities for the future
9:30 AM MSc. Jacquie Witte, NASA GSFC – Overview and highlights
from the Southern Hemisphere Additional Ozonesondes (SHADOZ) Project
10:00 AM Sr.
Victor Hugo Beita, UNA – Ticosonde
ozone measurements over Costa Rica as an important tool to study the influence
of volcanic emissions
10:15 AM Srta.
Diana Gonz‡les, UNA – Evaluation of the
seasonal variation of water vapor at the tropical tropopause
10:30 – 11:00 AM Break
2. Results from Recent Observational
Campaigns
11:00 AM Dr.
Darrel Baumgardner - UNAM - Studies of the variations
of tropospheric ozone in relation to lightning in tropical latitudes: Barbados,
Houston, Mexico and the Gulf of Mexico
11:30 AM Sr.
Berny Fallas , ICE and Sr. Evelyn Quir—z, IMN
– Review of weather conditions during the NASA TC4 mission
11:45 AM Sr.
Marcial Garbanzo, UCR – Variability of the
free atmosphere over Costa Rica during the summers of 2004-2007 and winter of
2006
12:00 – 1:30 PM Lunch
2. Results from Recent Observational
Campaigns, cont.
1:30 AM Dr.
Alfonso Pino Graell, Univ. of Panam‡ –
Behavior of some TC-4 atmospheric parameters measured by sondes
and NASA aircraft
2:00 PM MSc. Erick Rivera, UCR – Relevant features of
the 2008 climate in Central America and the Caribbean
2:15 PM Geog.
Mauricio Zamora, CeNAT – Airborne Research:
Past, present and new projects
3. Enhancing Climate Observations in
Costa Rica
2:30 PM Dr. Amando Leyva Contreras, UNAM –
Ground-based aerosol measurements in Mexico
3:00 PM Sr.
Sebasti‡n Miranda, UNA – Variation on the
SO2 flux in the plume of the Turrialba
Volcano according to data collected by NOVAC instruments, May 2008-February
2009
3:15 PM Srta.
Kristel Heinrich - Aerosol and lidar
observations in Costa Rica and the National Climate Program
3:30 – 4:00 PM Break
4:00 PM Dr.
Jorge Amador, UCR - The Intra-Americas low-level jet and tropical cyclone activity
4:30 PM Dr.
Jorge AndrŽs Diaz - UCR – The ULISES Project: The use of in situ and remote sensing instrumentation
for the study of gaseous emissions at active volcanoes and in urban areas
4:45 PM Dra. Jessica Valverde – The oxidizing capacity of the atmosphere: H2O2
and organic peroxide measurements in a tropical wet forest in Costa Rica and
their contribution to the HOx budget
5:00 PM Workshop
summary and action items for future work (discussion led by Dr.
Henry Selkirk)
5:15 PM End
of Workshop
5:30 PM Publication
discussion – Investigators, students
1. The SHADOZ and CFH Balloonsonde
Program
The Ticosonde/SHADOZ
Balloonsonde Project: Four years of water vapor and
ozone observations over Costa Rica and opportunities for the future
Henry Selkirk1,
JŽssica Valverde-Canossa2 and Holger Všmel3
1GEST/UMBC, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, USA, 2LAA-EDECA,
Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica, 3Deutscher
Wetterdienst, Germany
(Contact:
Henry.B.Selkirk@nasa.gov)
Presenter:
Dr. Henry Selkirk
In the summer of 2004 with
the Ticosonde/NAME radiosonde
campaign at Juan Santamaria International Airport,
NASA partnered with the Instituto Meterol—gico
Nacional, the Universidad de Costa Rica, the Universidad
Nacional, CeNAT in the
first of what has become a highly successful series of sustained measurements
of the vertical structure and variability of the tropical atmosphere. Balloonsonde
measurements of water vapor and ozone using the Cryogenic Frostpoint
Hygrometer (CFH) and electrochemical cell (ECC) ozonesondes began in July 2005
during the NASA Tropical Cloud Systems and Processes (TCSP) airborne mission in
Costa Rica. These measurements, in concert with NASA's Southern Hemisphere
Additional Ozonesondes (SHADOZ) program, have since continued, both on an
intensive campaign basis as well as regularly-scheduled launches.
The CFH instrument is
recognized as a reference instrument for in situ water vapor measurements in
the troposphere and the lower stratosphere, and the Ticosonde/SHADOZ
CFH data record from Costa Rica, together with the corresponding ECC ozonesonde profiles, now represent the longest-running
record of reliable water vapor measurements in the tropics and have provided
key validation data for water vapor measurements on the NASA Aura and Aqua
satellites as well as for intercomparison with
airborne in situ instruments in two NASA field missions based at San JosŽ.
High frequency and
high-resolution radiosonde measurements have now been
made in five Ticosonde campaigns with nearly 1000
launches. Four of these intensive (4X daily) campaigns took place during the
northern summer season when Costa Rica lies within the Intertropical
Convergence Zone. Time-height
cross-sections of the winds and temperatures during each of these campaigns
from 2004-2007 show coherent variability in the tropical tropopause layer (TTL)
and above due to westward propagating waves forced by regional deep convection
in the ITCZ. We have been able to
show with the radiosonde, CFH water vapor data and
ECC ozonesonde data that the modulation of tropopause
temperatures by these waves can lead to tropopause dehydration through
adiabatic lifting.
The Ticosonde/SHADOZ
ozonesonde profiles have also at times been strongly
affected by SO2 in the plume of Volcan Turrialba, and we have found that affected profiles
consistent with plumes of SO2 detected by the Aura satellite OMI
instrument. We look forward to
adopting a technique developed by Prof. Gary Morris of Valparaiso University to
provide more quantitative measurements of volcanic plume SO2 from
the sondes, in collaboration with OVSICORI at UNA and the OMI science team.
Ticosonde data are not only critical in satellite data validation, but
they are beginning to be being used in efforts to improve the quality of
numerical simulations in atmospheric general circulation models, as well as
increasingly in chemistry climate models (CCMs). The particular challenge in CCMs is to achieve a proper balance of dynamics and
chemistry in the TTL and this impacts can impact the
models' convective and microphysical parameterizations, chemistry codes and
transport numerics.
The ongoing CFH/ECC launch
program presents other unique opportunities for Costa Rica to make important
contributions to climate science and the important task of monitoring the
global atmosphere with ground-based measurements. NASA has expressed some interest in partnering with ICE in
sun photometry and micropulse lidar
(MPL) measurements of aerosols and clouds as part of its AERONET and MPLNET
programs. Data from a Costa Rican
MPL could be used to establish the existence of thin and even subvisible cirrus in the upper troposphere for comparison
with water vapor saturation date derived from concomitant CFH
measurements. Another important
step forward would be to establish Costa Rica as a tropical site in the WMO's GCOS Reference Upper Air Network (GRUAN). As the only tropical site currently
with an ongoing CFH launch program, Costa Rica is well positioned to make an
important contribution to the world effort to understand climate change.
Overview and Highlights
from the Southern Hemisphere Additional Ozonesondes (SHADOZ) project
Jacquelyn
Witte1,
Anne M. Thompson2
(SHADOZ PI) and the SHADOZ Team
1SAIC, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, USA, 2Penn
State University, State College, PA, USA
(Contact: Jacquelyn.Witte@nasa.gov)
Presenter: Jacquelyn
Witte
Advances in tropospheric ozone data products being developed
for tropical and subtropical regions using Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer
(TOMS) and the current Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) onboard NASA's Aura
spacecraft have continued to motivate efforts to renew and expand the
collection of balloon-borne ozonesondes observations. NASA's Southern
Hemisphere ADditional Ozonesondes (SHADOZ) project is
a web-based archive established in 1998.
It's goals are to support validation of
satellite ozone measurements, improve remote sensing techniques for estimating
tropical and subtropical ozone, and provide a database for process studies and model
validation. Profile data are taken
from balloon-borne ozonesondes, currently at 12 stations coordinating weekly to
bi-weekly launches. Station data
are publically available at a central location via the internet:
<http://croc.gsfc.nasa.gov/shadoz>.
Data also includes
measurements from various SHADOZ supported field campaigns, such as, the Indian
Ocean Experiment (INDOEX), Sounding of Ozone and Water in the Equatorial Region
(SOWER), Aerosols99 Atlantic Cruise, and the most recent CR-AVE mission in
Panama (July/August 2007). We highlight
some of the accomplishments and applications of the SHADOZ database, such as,
1/ the establishment of baseline tropical trends and seasonality, 2/ the validation
the wave-one in the tropics, 3/ ongoing satellite validation studies, 4/
improvements to model run assimiliations, 5/
improvements in sonde intercomparisons
studies (Balloon Experiment on Standards for Ozone Sondes [BESOS]), and 6/ decerning high-resolution features in the Quasi-bienniel Oscillations (QBO) in ozone in the lower
stratosphere.
TICOSONDE
ozone measurements over Costa Rica as an important tool to study the influence
of volcanic emissions
V.
Beita-Guerrero1, J. Valverde-Canossa1; H. Všmel2;
H. Selkirk3; D. Gonz‡lez1; S. Carvajal1; J.
Arce1; S. Carn4; J. Herrera1, R. Susana1
1Laboratorio
de An‡lisis Ambiental,
Universidad Nacional, Heredia, Costa Rica, 2Deutscher
Wetterdienst, Germany 3GEST/UMBC, NASA Goddard Space Flight
Center, USA, 4University of Michigan, USA
(Contact: jvalverde25@gmail.com)
Presenter: Victor Hugo Beita-Guerrero
In Costa Rica there are ~250 volcanic structures, i.e.
volcanoes, caldron, volcanic necks, maars. They belong
to so called Pacific Rim of Fire. From these structures five are active
volcanoes and three of them are close to the Central Valley: Po‡s, Irazœ, and Turrialba. Costa Rica has ~4.2 million inhabitants of which
about two-thirds live in the Central Valley. Due to their location, height and
meteorological factors these volcanoes represent a significant threat to the
human and animal health and the environment. One of the main gases emitted by
volcanoes is SO2, and exposure to high levels of this gas is known
to produce respiratory and cardiovascular illness which is enhanced on people
with asthma or chronic lung or heart disease. It also damages trees and crops,
and together with nitrogen oxides it is one of the main precursors of acid
rain. SO2 also is implicated in the formation of acid aerosols in
the µm range, which are known to have serious health implications as
well as contributing to climate change.
Vertical profile measurements of ozone have been made weekly at
Alajuela, Central Valley, Costa Rica (10.22¡N, 83.13¡W, 883.5 m a.s.l) by balloon-borne electrochemical concentration cell
(ECC) ozonesondes which reach altitudes of about 30 km. Though these
measurements are intended to measure ozone, they are also sensitive to the
presence of SO2 because SO2 interferes with the normal
chemistry of the electrochemical cell (ECC) method for ozone detection, with
the net result being that each molecule of SO2 registers as minus
one molecule of O3. Since the launches began in July 2005 and up to
the present, episodes of high SO2 concentrations (>20 ppbv) have been observed, with a peak in frequency and
magnitude in 2007. Though Poas and Irazœ volcanoes are the closest to the Central Valley we
attribute the presence of this SO2 mainly to the Turrialba
volcano. In the last 3 years Turrialba volcanoe has increased its seismic activity and fumarole emissions and the plume has shown significant
changes in its chemical composition. Prevailing easterlies disperse the plume
on the Central Valley. OMI SO2 data also confirms this showing the Turrialba plume moving westward in the direction of
Alajuela.
Evaluation
of the seasonal variation of water vapor at the tropical tropopause
D. Gonz‡lez1; J. Valverde-Canossa1;
H. Všmel2; H. Selkirk3S. Carvajal1; V.
Beita-Guerrero1; J. Arce1; J. Herrera1, R.
Susana1
1Laboratorio
de An‡lisis Ambiental, Universidad Nacional, Heredia, Costa Rica, 2Deutscher
Wetterdienst, Germany, 3GEST/UMBC, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, USA
(Contact: jvalverde25@gmail.com)
Presenter: Diana Gonz‡lez
Since 1980 the stratospheric water vapor
has tended to increase but in 2001 it decreased suddenly and has remained at
lower levels since then. The reasons and processes involved in these changes
are unknown. Therefore it is critical to study the processes that take place in
the tropical upper troposphere/lower stratosphere region since it is the source
for most of the stratospheric air and thus its humidity. The tropical
tropopause plays a key role in controlling the transport of water vapor between
the troposphere and stratosphere. In order to better understand the role of the
tropopause in the transport of water vapor, this study is focused on the
seasonal cycle and interannual variability of this
important trace species. Vertical profile measurements of water vapor, ozone
and physical parameters (i.e. pressure, temperature, humidity, wind velocity
and direction) have taken place at Alajuela, Costa Rica (10.22¡N, 83.13¡W, and
883.5 m a.s.l) by balloon-borne Cryogenic Frostpoint Hygrometer (CFH), Electrochemical
Concentration Cell (ECC) ozonesondes and standard radiosondes
respectively. Regular water vapor launches began in July 2005 and are currently
conducted monthly with soundings typically reaching altitudes of 30 km. We
observed that typical tropopause temperatures are -80 ¼C to -87 ¼C from
December and April and -76 ¼C to -82 ¼C from June to September. A similar
behavior was observed in the mixing ratio of water vapor where typical
concentrations are 2 ppmv to 4 ppmv
from December and April and 3 ppmv to 7 ppmv from June to September. It is also observed that
throughout the year the water vapor mixing ratio at the tropopause is
correlated to the temperature.
2. Results from Recent Observational
Campaigns
Studies of the variations of tropospheric
ozone en relation to lightning in tropical latitudes: Barbados, Houston, Mexico
and the Gulf of Mexico.
Darrel
Baumgardner
Centro
de Ciencias de la Atm—sfera – UNAM, Universidad Nacional Aut—noma de
MŽxico
Presenter: Darrel Baumgardner
As part of the INTEX Ozonesonde Network 2006 Study (IONS-06) thirty ozonesondes
were launched from the Central de Ciencias de la Atm—sfera (CCA) at the Universidad Nacional
Aut—noma de MŽxico, in the southwest sector of Mexico
City, in August and September of 2006. Vertical profiles of ozone, temperature
and relative humidity were measured up to altitudes that usually exceeded 30
km. These measurements are complementary to those that were made during the
same period at 22 other locations in the United States and Canada.
The analysis compares the profiles of
ozone made in the tropical latitude of Mexico City (19¡
N, 99¡W) with those made at mid and high
latitudes and evaluates the relationship
of these profiles to lightning frequency and intensity in nearby regions.
Review of weather conditions during TC4
mission
Berny
Fallas
Instituto
Costarricense de Electricidad
(ICE)
(Contact: bernyfallas@yahoo.com)
Evelyn Quir—z
Instituto
Meteorol—gico Nacional (IMN)
Presenters: Berny Fallas and Evelyn Quir—z
On the latest NASA Mission
in Costa Rica (TC4), weather conditions played an important role due
to its relevance on local weather conditions at Juan Santamar’a
Airport, that were crucial for the timings of take off and landings of the
planes used on the mission, furthermore, it was important to locate spots of
scientific interest, as invest areas with deep convection and/or cirrus. This
talk tries to make a review of the main weather features on July and August,
when TC4 experiments were done.
Variability of the Free
Atmosphere over Costa Rica during the Summers of
2004-2007 and Winter of 2006
Marcial Garbanzo Salas
School of Physics,
University of Costa Rica
(contact:
mac@fisica.ucr.ac.cr)
Presenter: Marcial Garbanzo Salas
During the
summers of 2004-2007 and the winter of 2006 NASA airborne field campaigns were
carried out from Juan Santamaria Airport (09 59 N, 82
42 W) Costa Rica. Four radiosondes per day were launched
at 00:00, 06:00, 12:00 and 18:00 GMT for periods from 1 to 2.5 months. The data
were collected at 2-sec intervals. The radiosondes
used were RS80-15G, RS90-AG, and RS92-SGP. The data collected have been
processed in order to study the vertical structure of the atmosphere up to ~30 km
in temperature, potential temperature, relative humidity, equivalent potential
temperature, saturated equivalent potential temperature, and wind. The research
that is being carried out will allow, among other aspects, to determine the
diurnal variation of the planetary boundary layer, the characteristics at the
beginning and end of the ÒveranilloÓ phenomenon
during the summer rainy season, soundings associated with severe weather, and comparison
of the characteristics of ÒEl Ni–oÓ and ÒLa Ni–aÓ years. Here some findings of
the research, illustrated with examples, are presented. The analysis of the
data is in progress but some examples are given here in time-height diagrams
for the winter of 2006 and summer 2007, periods coinciding with the Costa
Rica-Aura Validation Experiment (CR-AVE) and NASA TC4 (Tropical
Composition, Cloud and Climate Coupling) missions.
Behavior of Some TC-4
Atmospheric Parameters Measured by Sondes and NASA Aircraft
A. Pino
Graell1, S. Guerra1, D.
Castillo1, A. Maturell1, J. Espinoza2, H.
Samudio1, L. Jord‡n1
1Laboratory of Atmospheric
Physics of the University of Panama, Ave. Simon Bolivar, El Cangrejo,
Republic of Panama; Phone: (011 - 507) 523 5328, Fax: (011 - 507) 523 2150; E-
mail: atmosfer@ancon.up.ac.pa
2Panama Canal Autority – Hidrometeorology
Department; Phone: (00507) 276 1729, Fax: (00507) 276 1729, E-mail: jaespinosa@pancanal.com
Presenter:
Prof. Alfonso Pino Graell
The
Laboratory of Atmospheric Physics of the University of Panama collaborated with
NASA TC-4 field campaign during July and August, 2007. To study the profiles of some
atmospheric parameters, sondes were launched twice daily from San JosŽ, Costa
Rica and Las Tablas, Panama. One of these parameters is relative humidity whose
daily vertical structure is associated with tropical deep convection. Relative
humidity behavior through upper troposphere and lower stratosphere is very
important in order to assess the contribution of water vapor to climate change,
since water vapor is the most powerful greenhouse gas. Relative humidity, temperature and ozone
profiles obtained from data collected with sondes launched from Panama and
Costa Rica, during TC-4, are analyzed.
Relative humidity profiles show inversion layers near 550 mb which are linked with deep convection processes occurred
previously. Radiative
forcing from maritime anvil cirrus plays an important role in the modulation of
climate change, since these clouds have a cooling effect as a consequence of
scattering incoming sunlight by cirrus ice crystals. But these clouds also have a warming effect due to the fact
that they absorb upwelling thermal infrared radiation emitted from the
surface. During TC-4, several
coordinated flights of ER-2 (over the cirrus layer) and DC-8 aircrafts (below
the cirrus layer) were planned. A
discussion of the incoming solar radiation budget as well as the thermal
infrared radiation budget measured during the coordinated flights occurred on
August 6, 2007, will be presented.
RELEVANT FEATURES OF THE 2008 CLIMATE IN
CENTRAL AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN
Jorge
A. Amador1,2, Eric J. Alfaro1,2,
Erick R. Rivera1, and Blanca Calder—n1
1Center
for Geophysical Research and 2School of Physics, University of Costa
Rica, San JosŽ, Costa Rica
Presenter:
Erick Rivera
Under current climate
change scenarios, climate monitoring becomes a key issue to planning activities
focused on the reduction and amelioration of societal impacts caused by a
changing climate. This work aims at identifying 2008 climate anomalies with
respect to climate mean (1971-2000) for the most relevant climate features
affecting Central America and the Caribbean. Daily mean temperature and daily
precipitation for a set of stations, on both slopes of Central America for
2008, were used to compare their climatology with corresponding values for that
particular year. Gridded NCEP/NCAR data were used to analyze 2008 wind
anomalies over the Caribbean, a region dominated by the Intra-Americas
Low-Level Jet (IALLJ), in the context of El Ni–o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)
cold phase of 2008. Also, sea surface temperature indexes for the Tropical
North Atlantic (TNA) and Ni–o 3 regions were used to study its relationship
with the IALLJ wind anomalies. The Mid-Summer Drought (MSD) or ÒveranilloÓ for the selected sites along the Pacific slope
of Central America was investigated by using precipitation pentad distribution.
A brief discussion of the 2008 cold outbreaks and cyclone activity in both the
Caribbean and eastern tropical Pacific is presented. All selected stations
along the Pacific slope showed a decrease in the 2008 mean surface temperature,
the opposite being true for most Caribbean slope stations. Rainy season for
Central America evolved in a way consistent with the presence of La Ni–a event
and the meridional migration of the ITCZ. The MSD, a
characteristic of the annual cycle of precipitation in Central America, was
well defined along the Pacific side of this region. Wind anomalies associated
with the IALLJ were larger (smaller) than normal during February (July) 2008,
consistent with earlier findings in regards to the relationship of the IALLJ
and ENSO phases. Cold outbreaks for 2008 were near the normal frequency (16)
for the period 1971-2001. The year of 2008 was very active for tropical storm
formation in the Caribbean basin (lat < 24¼ N, lon
> 60¼ W). From 16 named storms observed in the Atlantic, 10 entered the
Caribbean basin. Eight (five) Atlantic cyclones were hurricanes (strong
hurricanes) and from the five hurricanes crossing the Caribbean basin, four
were strong.
Keywords: Intra-Americas
Low-Level Jet, Mid-Summer Drought, ENSO phases
3. Enhancing Climate Observations in
Costa Rica
The sites AERONET-UNAM
ÒMexico CityÓ and ÒHermosilloÓ in the Mexican Republic. A brief review of their characteristics
and their information on the atmospheric aerosol of their respective zones of
monitoring activity
Amando Leyva
Contreras
Universidad Nacional Aut—noma de MŽxico, Instituto de
Geof’sica,
Del. Coyoacan,
C.P. 04510, MŽxico D.F., MEXICO
(Contact: aleyva@geofisica.unam.mx)
Presenter: Amando Leyva Contreras
The site Aeronet ÒMexico CityÓ was installed and put in operation in
March of 1999. Its central objective is the roboticized
monitoring of the system of suspended particles (SPS) in a zone with important
urban and industrial development, high indices of contamination and an intense
and constant development of the population, and urban activities, in the
Metropolitan Zone of the Mexico Valley. The site ÒHermosilloÓ, installed and
put in operation and November of 2001 in the campus of the University of Sonora,
in the city of Hermosillo, state of Sonora, it is located in a desert zone, the
Desert of Sonora, climatologically defined by its geographic position within
the boreal latitudinal belt of the high pressures. In spite of their intrinsic
dryness, the NW of the Mexican Republic sees intensified this characteristic
thanks to the proximity with respect to the Cold Current of California, that
maintains reduced rates of oceanic evaporation and reduced the humidity
contribution toward the near continental region. In this site, important
challenges for our work group are pending. One of them: to collect sufficient
data to explain the mechanisms by means of which the SPS interacts with the
regionally prevailing time systems: tradewinds, winds
of the east, the jetstream, and, of singular
relevance, the North American Monsoon System (NAMS), to form the cloud cover
and the precipitation regime in the NW Mexican region.
Variation on the SO2 flux in
the plume of the Turrialba Volcano, according to the
data collected by NOVAC instruments, from May 2008 to February 2009.
S.
Miranda1, B.Galle2, E. Duarte1,
E. Fernandez1, D. Rojas1, A. Mata1, H.
Villalobos1, V. Conde3, M. Johansson2, C.
Rivera2
1. Observatorio Vulcanol—gico y Sismol—gico de Costa Rica
(OVSICORI-UNA). 2. Department of Radio and Space Science,
Chalmers University of Technology 3. Instituto de Ciencias de la Tierra. Universidad de El
Salvador
(Contact: smiranda_brenes@hotmail.com)
Presenter: Sebasti‡n Miranda
NOVAC is a recently started project, funded by the European
Union in 2005, with the aim to establish a global network of stations for the
quantitative measurement of volcanic gas emissions, especially SO2.
The network is based on the Scanning Dual-beam mini-DOAS. As part of this project, four DOAS
stations were installed in Costa Rica around Turrialba
Volcano at the end of April 2008. This volcano was selected due to its recent
reactivation, accessibility and high increasing levels of the SO2
Flux since 2001. For example, in that year the SO2 flux was 1
ton/day approximately, while in August 2007 the SO2 flux was higher
than 61 ton/day.
Since January 2008 the
sulfur dioxide flux increased. For example, from May to November of that year
the monthly SO2 flux average calculated was between 651 and 2120
ton/day, although from December 2008 to February 2009 the activity of Turrialba Volcano has decreased. The monthly SO2
flux average for this period was around 250 ton/day. Sulfur dioxide emissions have had a major impact on
environment around the volcano, especially on the west flank. This was the prevailing plume direction
during this period and it is possible that there was formation of acid rain,
resulting in the burning of vegetation in the area.
Key words: Turrialba Volcano, NOVAC
project, DOAS stations and SO2 flux.
Costa RicaÕs National Climate Change
Strategy: Technological MRV through ultraviolet, aerosol, and LIDAR
observations
Kristel
Heinrich
National
Meteorological Institute, Climate Change Program March, 2009
(Contact:
kheinrich@imn.ac.cr)
Presenter:
Kristel Heinrich
The Bali Action Plan towards a post-2012 climate regime, year
when the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate ChangeÕs (UNFCCC) Kyoto
Protocol expires, states four action pillars as key elements which must be
concreted in order to ensure adequate emissions reductions by all Parties in
years to come, as recommended by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC). Specifically, the four
building blocks of the Bali Action Plan are mitigation, adaptation, financing,
and technology transfer from Annex I Parties to developing countries. All actions on mitigation, and likely
all actions on the other tree pillars (giving the state of the negotiations to
the Conference of the Parties in December 2009 in Copenhagen) must be properly
measurable, reportable, and verifiable (MRV) in order to be accepted by the
UNFCCC.
Costa Rica has voluntarily and
unilaterally taken the international commitment to becoming carbon neutral by
the year 2021, on the bicentennial of its independence, thus gaining
international recognition. Thus,
the National Climate Change Strategy (NCCS) was created around the equally
important National and International Agendas. The National Agenda has been defined around six strategic
axes or components, the main of which are Mitigation and Adaptation; the other
four transversal components are: Metrics, Capacity Building and Technology
Transfer, Education, Culture and Public Awareness, and Financing. The International Agenda is also
structured around six strategic components, the key of which are Exert
International Influence and Attract Foreign Resources. Leadership, Legitimacy, Presence in
Multilateral and Binational Forums, and International
Capacity Building are the other four components which, similarly to the
National Agenda, are transversal and complimentary within the Strategy.
Projects such as lidar
aerosol measurements and ultraviolet measurements through the Ticosonde ozonesonde program are
crucial to actively develop measurable, reportable, and verifiable climate
change science which will allow to envision the local threats of this global
problem. This new torrent of hard
scientific data will strengthen support to the twelve pillars of the NCCS such
as access to new international financial mechanisms and concrete public
awareness material.
THE INTRA-AMERICAS
LOW-LEVEL JET AND TROPICAL CYCLONE ACTIVITY
Jorge
A. Amador
Center
for Geophysical Research and School of Physics, University of Costa Rica, San
Jose, Costa Rica
Presenter:
Jorge A. Amador
A relevant climate feature
of the Intra-Americas Sea (IAS) is the low-level jet (IALLJ) dominating the IAS
circulation, both in summer and winter; and yet it is practically unknown with
regard to its nature, structure, interactions with mid-latitude and tropical
phenomena, and its role in regional weather and climate. This paper deals with
the IALLJ current knowledge and its contribution to IAS circulation–precipitation
patterns and presents recent findings about the IALLJ based on first in situ
observations during Phase 3 of the Experimento Clim‡tico en las Albercas de Agua C‡lida (ECAC),
an international field campaign to study IALLJ dynamics during July 2001. Nonhydrostatic fifth-generation Pennsylvania State
University National Center for Atmospheric Research Mesoscale
Model (MM5) simulations were compared with
observations and reanalysis. Large-scale circulation patterns of the IALLJ
northern hemisphere summer and winter components suggest that trades, and so
the IALLJ, are responding to land–ocean thermal contrasts during the
summer season of each continent. The IALLJ is a natural component of the
American monsoons as a result of the continentÕs approximate north–south land distribution. During warm (cold) El Ni–o-Southern
Oscillation phases, winds associated with the IALLJ core (IALLJC) are stronger
(weaker) than normal, so precipitation anomalies are positive (negative) in the
western Caribbean near Central America and negative (positive) in the central
IAS. Stronger (weaker) than normal IALLJC winds during warm (cold) ENSO events
imply a stronger (weaker) than normal vertical wind shears in the Caribbean, a
condition known to inhibit (allow) deep convection and tropical cyclone
activity. During the ECAC Phase 3, strong surface winds associated with the
IALLJ induced upwelling, cooling down the sea surface temperature by 1–2¼
C. The atmospheric mixed layer height reached 1 km near the surface wind
maximum below the IALLJC. Observations indicate that primary water vapor
advection takes place in a shallow layer between the IALLJC and the ocean
surface. Latent heat flux peaked below the IALLJC. Neither the reanalysis nor
MM5 captured the observed thermodynamic and kinematic IALLJ structure. So far,
IALLJ knowledge is based on either dynamically initialized data or simulations
of global (regional) models, which implies that a more systematic and
scientific approach is needed to improve it. The Intra-Americas Study of
Climate Processes (IASCLIP) is a great regional opportunity to address trough field work, modeling, and process studies, many of the IALLJ
unknown features.
Key
words: Intra-Americas low-level
jet; tropical cyclone activity; El Ni–o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)
The ULISES Project: The Use of in situ and Remote Sensing
Instrumentation for the Study of Gaseous Emissions at Active Volcanoes and
Urban Areas
Dr. Jorge AndrŽs D’az
Professor, Escuela de F’sica. FM 430., Head. Gas Sensing Lab. CICANUM. Universidad de Costa Rica, Co- PI. TICOSONDE
Project
(Contact: 8875-2714; jorge.andres.diaz@gmail.com)
Presenter: Dr. Jorge AndrŽs D’az
The start of the ULISES
project is presented to the TICOSONDE forum, as the spearhead for the
development of a platform for in-situ and/or local data acquisition, and to
compare it with data taken with satellites and airborne platforms for remote
sensing instrument validation and calibration.(Ground
Truth Validation).
The project seeks to use
sensor-based instruments for the continuous monitoring and visualization of
volcanic and urban areas gas emissions, through the development of mass
spectrometry, complemented with electrochemical sensors, optical and compared
with those taken with remote sensors.
A key milestone for this
project was the signature early this year of a Technical Assistance Agreement
(TAA) with NASA at the Kennedy Space Center. Part of the action plan is to
participate in the International Symposium on Remote Sensing for Environment
(ISRSE 33) to be held in coming May in Stresa, taly.
The project seeks to
integrate advanced and graduate students for conducting seminars and graduation
thesis, and hopes to lay the groundwork for starting collaborations with other
national academic institutions and to establish international research
collaborations.
Oxidizing capacity of the atmosphere: H2O2 and
organic peroxides measurements at a tropical wet forest in Costa Rica and their
contribution to the HOx budget
Dra.
JŽssica Valverde Canossa
Professor Universidad Nacional, EDECA, LAA, , Co- PI. TICOSONDE
Project, , Co- PI. SHADOZ Program.
Contact:
jvalverde25@gmail.com
Presenter:
Dra. JŽssica Valverde Canossa
Measurements of H2O2 and
organic hydroperoxides in the tropical forest are fundamental to help
understand the reactivity of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOC) at low
NOx. The central roles of HO (hydroxyl radical), HO2
(hydroperoxyl radical) and RO2 (peroxy radical) in the troposphere
have long been recognized. Recently HOx radicals (HOx =
HO + HO2) have been measured in unexpected high concentrations under
conditions characterized by high concentrations of BVOC and low levels of
nitrogen oxides (NOx = NO + NO2). The comparison of
measurements with model results showed that, based on present understanding of
the chemistry, HO concentrations are underestimated by factors of 5-10,
evidencing a ÒmissingÓ source for HO. Preliminary laboratory and model analyses
have shown that measurements of H2O2 and organic
peroxides can provide key information to help resolve the discrepancy.
Therefore we propose an integrated approach consisting of laboratory
experiments, measurement of peroxides and other trace gases in the tropical
forest in Costa Rica and modelling investigations in
order to improve our understanding concerning the reactivity of BVOC at low NOx
and the HOx (HOx = HO + HO2) system.