Onset, extent, and duration of dehydration in the Southern Hemisphere polar vortex

Abstract

Satellite observations of water vapor and aerosol extinction along with temperature trajectory calculations are analyzed for the Southern Hemisphere winter of 1992 in order to determine the onset, extent, and duration of dehydration within the polar vortex. Our investigation uses measurements of water vapor from the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) and aerosol extinction from the Cryogenic Limb Array Etalon Spectrometer (CLAES), both on board the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS). Evidence of persistent ice cloud formation, supported by temperature statistics obtained from air parcel trajectories, suggests that the onset of the dehydration process occurs between late June and early July. By late August-early September water vapor depleted areas within the vortex no longer coincide with high aerosol extinctions, indicating that severe dehydration has occurred with the irreversible removal of water vapor over vast areas. Areas with depleted levels of water vapor, below the prewinter values, persist well into November. Evidence for dehydration is found on potential temperature surfaces from 420 K (the lower limit of the MLS measurements) to 520 K (approximately 16 to 22 km). The horizontal extent of the dehydrated area at 465 K encompasses up to 35% of the total vortex area equatorward of 80°S. A comparison of CLAES aerosol extinction measurements and model calculations of aerosol extinction suggests an average ice particle number concentration and size of 10-2-10-3 cm-3 and 10-30 μm, respectively. We show that the difference between the timing of the onset of dehydration found here and that in a recent analysis of Polar Ozone and Aerosol Measurement III (POAM) observations can be explained by the latitudinal sampling pattern of the POAM instrument. Copyright 2001 by the American Geophysical Union.