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Yung, Yuk L.

Publications and source records attributed to Yung, Yuk L..

At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2014

Estimating Sampling Biases and Measurement Uncertainties of AIRS-AMSU-A Temperature and Water Vapor Observations Using MERRA Reanalysis

We use MERRA (Modern Era Retrospective-Analysis for Research Applications) temperature and water vapor data to estimate the sampling biases of climatologies derived from the AIRS/AMSU-A (Atmospheric Infrared Sounder/Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit-A) suite of instruments. We separate the total sampling bias into temporal and instrumental components. The temporal component is caused by the AIRS/AMSU-A orbit and swath that are not able to sample all of time and space. The instrumental component is caused by scenes that prevent successful retrievals. The temporal sampling biases are generally smaller than the instrumental sampling biases except in regions with large diurnal variations, such as the boundary layer, where the temporal sampling biases of temperature can be +/- 2 K and water vapor can be 10% wet. The instrumental sampling biases are the main contributor to the total sampling biases and are mainly caused by clouds. They are up to 2 K cold and greater than 30% dry over mid-latitude storm tracks and tropical deep convective cloudy regions and up to 20% wet over stratus regions. However, other factors such as surface emissivity and temperature can also influence the instrumental sampling bias over deserts where the biases can be up to 1 K cold and 10% wet. Some instrumental sampling biases can vary seasonally and/or diurnally. We also estimate the combined measurement uncertainties of temperature and water vapor from AIRS/AMSU-A and MERRA by comparing similarly sampled climatologies from both data sets. The measurement differences are often larger than the sampling biases and have longitudinal variations.

MERRA↗
NASA NTRS2012

Nitrogen Incorporation in CH4-N2 Photochemical Aerosol Produced by Far UV Irradiation

Nitrile incorporation into Titan aerosol accompanying hydrocarbon chemistry is thought to be driven by extreme UV wavelengths (lambda < 120 nm) or magnetospheric electrons in the outer reaches of the atmosphere. Far UV radiation (120 - 200 nm), which is transmitted down to the stratosphere of Titan, is expected to affect hydrocarbon chemistry only and not initiate the formation of nitrogenated species. We have examined the chemical properties of photochemical aerosol produced at far UV wavelengths using a High-Resolution Time-of-Flight Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (HR-ToF-AMS), which allows for elemental analysis of particle-phase products. Our results show that aerosol formed from CH4/N2 photochemistry contains a surprising amount of nitrogen, up to 16% by mass, a result of photolysis in the far UV. The proportion of nitrogenated organics to hydrocarbon species is shown to be correlated with that of N2 in the irradiated gas. The aerosol mass greatly decreases when N2 is removed, indicating that N2 plays a major role in aerosol production. Because direct dissociation of N2 is highly improbable given the immeasurably low cross-section at the wavelengths studied, the chemical activation of N2 must occur via another pathway. Any chemical activation of N2 at wavelengths > 120 nm is presently unaccounted for in atmospheric photochemical models. We suggest that reaction with CH radicals produced from CH4 photolysis may provide a mechanism for incorporating N into the molecular structure of the aerosol. Further work is needed to understand the chemistry involved, as these processes may have significant implications for prebiotic chemistry on the early Earth and similar planets.

Trainer, Melissa G.↗
NASA NTRS2008

Validation of AIRS Retrievals of CO2 via Comparison to In Situ Measurements

Topics include AIRS on Aqua, 2002-present with discussion about continued operation to 2011 and beyond and background, including spectrum, weighting functions, and initialization; comparison with aircraft and FTIR measurements in Masueda (CONTRAIL) JAL flask measurements, Park Falls, WI FTIR, Bremen, GDF, and Spitsbergen, Norway; AIRS retrievals over addition FTIR sites in Darwin, AU and Lauder, NZ; and mid-tropospheric carbon dioxide weather and contribution from major surface sources. Slide titles include typical AIRS infrared spectrum, AIRS sensitivity for retrieving CO2 profiles, independence of CO2 solution with respect to the initial guess, available in situ measurements for validation and comparison, comparison of collocated V1.5x AIRS CO2 (N_coll greater than or equal to 9) with INTEX-NA and SPURT;

AIRS↗
NASA NTRS2008

Interannual Variability and Trends of Extratropical Ozone: Northern Hemisphere - Part 1

The authors apply principal component analysis (PCA) to the extratropical total column ozone from the combined merged ozone data product and the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts assimilated ozone from January 1979 to August 2002. The interannual variability (IAV) of extratropical O-3 in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) is characterized by four main modes. Attributable to dominant dynamical effects, these four modes account for nearly 60% of the total ozone variance in the NH. The patterns of variability are distinctly different from those derived for total O-3 in the tropics. To relate the derived patterns of O-3 to atmospheric dynamics, similar decompositions are performed for the 30 100-Wa geopotential thickness. The results reveal intimate connections between the IAV of total ozone and the atmospheric circulation. The first two leading modes are nearly zonally symmetric and represent the connections to the annular modes and the quasi-biennial oscillation. The other two modes exhibit in-quadrature, wavenumber-1 structures that, when combined, describe the displacement of the polar vortices in response to planetary waves. In the NH, the extrema of these combined modes have preferred locations that suggest fixed topographical and land-sea thermal forcing of the involved planetary waves. Similar spatial patterns and trends in extratropical column ozone are simulated by the Goddard Earth Observation System chemistryclimate model (GEOS-CCM). The decreasing O-3 trend is captured in the first mode. The largest trend occurs at the North Pole, with values similar to-1 Dobson Unit (DU) yr(-1). There is almost no trend in tropical O-3. The trends derived from PCA are confirmed using a completely independent method, empirical mode decomposition, for zonally averaged O-3 data. The O-3 trend is also captured by mode 1 in the GEOS-CCM, but the decrease is substantially larger than that in the real atmosphere.

Yung, Yuk L.↗
NASA NTRS2006

Is Solar Variability Reflected in the Nile River?

We investigate the possibility that solar variability influences North African climate by using annual records of the water level of the Nile collected in 622-1470 A.D. The time series of these records are nonstationary, in that the amplitudes and frequencies of the quasi-periodic variations are time-dependent. We apply the Empirical Mode Decomposition technique especially designed to deal with such time series. We identify two characteristic timescales in the records that may be linked to solar variability: a period of about 88 years and one exceeding 200 years. We show that these timescales are present in the number of auroras reported per decade in the Northern Hemisphere at the same time. The 11-year cycle is seen in the Nile's high-water level variations, but it is damped in the low-water anomalies. We suggest a possible physical link between solar variability and the low-frequency variations of the Nile water level. This link involves the influence of solar variability on the atmospheric Northern Annual Mode and on its North Atlantic Ocean and Indian Ocean patterns that affect the rainfall over the sources of the Nile in eastern equatorial Africa.

solar variability↗
NASA NTRS2006

Vertical Moist Thermodynamic Structure and Spatial-Temporal Evolution of the MJO in AIRS Observations

The atmospheric moisture and temperature profiles from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS)/Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit on the NASA Aqua mission, in combination with the precipitation from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), are employed to study the vertical moist thermodynamic structure and spatial-temporal evolution of the Madden-Julian oscillation (MJO). The AIRS data indicate that, in the Indian Ocean and western Pacific, the temperature anomaly exhibits a trimodal vertical structure: a warm (cold) anomaly in the free troposphere (800-250 hPa) and a cold (warm) anomaly near the tropopause (above 250 hPa) and in the lower troposphere (below 800 hPa) associated with enhanced (suppressed) convection. The AIRS moisture anomaly also shows markedly different vertical structures as a function of longitude and the strength of convection anomaly. Most significantly, the AIRS data demonstrate that, over the Indian Ocean and western Pacific, the enhanced (suppressed) convection is generally preceded in both time and space by a low-level warm and moist (cold and dry) anomaly and followed by a low-level cold and dry (warm and moist) anomaly. The MJO vertical moist thermodynamic structure from the AIRS data is in general agreement, particularly in the free troposphere, with previous studies based on global reanalysis and limited radiosonde data. However, major differences in the lower-troposphere moisture and temperature structure between the AIRS observations and the NCEP reanalysis are found over the Indian and Pacific Oceans, where there are very few conventional data to constrain the reanalysis. Specifically, the anomalous lower-troposphere temperature structure is much less well defined in NCEP than in AIRS for the western Pacific, and even has the opposite sign anomalies compared to AIRS relative to the wet/dry phase of the MJO in the Indian Ocean. Moreover, there are well-defined eastward-tilting variations of moisture with height in AIRS over the central and eastern Pacific that are less well defined, and in some cases absent, in NCEP. In addition, the correlation between MJO-related mid-tropospheric water vapor anomalies and TRMM precipitation anomalies is considerably more robust in AIRS than in NCEP, especially over the Indian Ocean. Overall, the AIRS results are quite consistent with those predicted by the frictional Kelvin-Rossby wave/conditional instability of the second kind (CISK) theory for the MJO.

troposhere↗
NASA NTRS2005

Extratropical signature of the quasi-biennial oscillation

Using the assimilated data from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) reanalysis, we show that the extratropical signature of the tropical quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) is seen mostly in the North Annular Mode (NAM) of atmospheric variability. To understand the extratropical manifestation of the QBO, we discuss two effects that have been suggested earlier: (1) The extratropical circulation is driven by the QBO modulation of the planetary wave flux, and (2) the extratropical circulation is driven by the QBO-induced meridional circulation. We found that the first effect is seen in wave 1 in the beginning of winter and in wave 2 in the end of winter. The QBO-induced circulation affects midlatitude regions over the entire winter. To investigate the QBONAM coupling, we use an equation that relates the stream function of the meridional circulation and the polar cap averaged temperature, which is a proxy for the NAM index. In addition to the annual (omega)a and the QBO frequency (omega)Q the spectrum of its solutions indicates the satellite frequencies at (omega)a +/- (o.

tropical quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO)↗
NASA NTRS2005

Cirrus Clouds on Mars: Data Analysis and GCM Modeling

The goal of the investigation was to obtain a better retrieval of cirrus ice concentrations [to] gain a quantitative understanding of the cirrus clouds in the upper atmosphere by analyzing The Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) data obtained by the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS). We study the global distribution of dust and ice for a Martian year to address the fundamental question of the importance of ice in the Martian atmosphere.

Yung, Yuk L.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Laboratory Evidence for a Key Intermediate in the Venus Atmosphere: Peroxychloroformyl Radical

For two decades, the peroxychloroformyl radical, ClC(O)OO, has played a central role in models of the chemical stability of the Venus atmosphere. No confirmation, however, has been possible in the absence of laboratory measurements for ClC(O)OO. We report the isolation of ClC(O)OO in a cryogenic matrix and its infrared and ultraviolet spectral signatures. These experiments show that ClC(O)OO is thermally and photolytically stable in the Venus atmosphere. These experimental discoveries validate the existence of ClC(O)OO, confirm several longstanding model assumptions, and provide a basis for the astronomical search for this important radical species.

photochemistry↗