Atmospheric dynamics InfraStructure in Europe

Final Report Summary - ARISE (Atmospheric dynamics InfraStructure in Europe)

Recent studies have robustly demonstrated that variations in the circulation of the middle atmosphere influence weather and climate throughout the troposphere all the way to the Earth’s surface. A key part of the coupling between the troposphere and stratosphere occurs through the propagation and breaking of planetary-scale Ro-by waves and gravity waves. Limited observation of the middle atmosphere and these waves in particular limits the ability to faithfully reproduce the dynamics of the middle atmosphere in numerical weather prediction and climate models. Observations above the stratopause, where measurements are rare, could then provide crucial information for a better description of the atmosphere and more accurate longer-term weather forecasts, on timescales up to several weeks ahead.
The challenge of the ARISE project (http://arise-project.eu) was to combine complementary measurements to provide updated 3D images of the atmosphere and unresolved disturbances from the ground to the mesosphere with unprecedented spatio-temporal resolution. The considered time scales range from seconds for extreme events (volcanoes, thunderstorms, cyclones, avalanches, meteorites) to minutes or hours for gravity waves, days for planetary waves and up to tens of years for long term mean trend studies. The observations cover areas with very different climatic regimes, extending over Europe and outlying regions, including polar and equatorial regions.

The infrastructure integrates:
- the infrasound networks, part of the International Monitoring System (IMS) developed for verification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT - http://www.ctbto.org/) ,
- the Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change
– using lidar (LIght Detection And Ranging),
- the Network for the Detection of Mesosphere Change (NDMC, http://wdc.dlr.de/ndmc) , dedicated mainly but not only to airglow layer measurements in the mesosphere.

It will also include the complementary infrasound stations of various countries, specific infrasound stations located near volcanoes for volcanic source studies, ionospheric arrays to determine coupling with near Earth space and satellite observations.

The ARISE main objectives are the following:
- improving the representation of gravity and planetary waves in stratosphere-resolving climate models, crucial to estimating the impact of stratospheric climate forcing on the troposphere,
- monitoring climate-related phenomena such as severe weather, thunderstorms and sudden stratospheric warmings, over large time periods, in order to characterize their intensity and evolution over time in relation with climate change,
- providing a near-real time and continuous monitoring of natural hazards such as large volcanic eruptions, cyclones, avalanches, and meteorites.

The expected benefits are a better description of the atmosphere and an improved accuracy in shortand medium-range weather forecasts up to scales of weeks. The data will be used for monitoring the middle atmosphere dynamics, its long-term mean trends and also the evolution of extreme event characteristics with climate change. Furthermore, the benefits include civil applications related to monitoring of natural hazards. It concerns for example remote monitoring of volcanoes for civil aviation in case of ash injections in the atmosphere.

Final Report Summary - ARISE (Atmospheric dynamics InfraStructure in Europe)

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