Dynamics and Chemistry of the Summer Stratosphere

Each summer the North American Monsoon Anticyclone (NAMA) dominates the circulation of the North-Western Hemisphere and acts to partially confine and isolate air from the surrounding atmosphere. Strong convective storms in the NAMA regularly reach altitudes deep into the lower stratosphere, with some ascending above 20 km. These storms carry water and pollutants from the troposphere into the otherwise very dry stratosphere, where they can have a significant impact on radiative and chemical processes, potentially including destruction of stratospheric ozone. The Dynamics and Chemistry of the Summer Stratosphere (DCOTSS) field campaign is a NASA Earth Venture Suborbital research project aimed at investigating these thunderstorms. DCOTSS utilizes NASA’s ER-2 aircraft and conducted two ~8-week science deployments based out of Salina, KS spanning early to late summer.

DCOTSS Project Page

Disciplines:   Field Campaigns

Recent DCOTSS News

Nov. 21, 2022

DCOTSS 2022 Open Data Workshop
 Read Article
Collection Disciplines Spatial Temporal
DCOTSS-Model-Output_1
Dynamics and Chemistry of the Summer Stratosphere Model Output 		Clouds Spatial Coverage:
(-90, 90), (-180, 180)
Temporal Coverage:
2021-06-09 - Present
Collection Disciplines Spatial Temporal
DCOTSS-Radar-Satellite-Data_1
Dynamics and Chemistry of the Summer Stratosphere Radar and Satellite (Remote Sensing) Data Products 		Clouds,  Field Campaigns Spatial Coverage:
(10, 55), (-135, -60)
Temporal Coverage:
2021-07-05 - Present
Collection Disciplines Spatial Temporal
DCOTSS-Aircraft-Data_1
Dynamics and Chemistry of the Summer Stratosphere Airborne Data Products 		Aerosols,  Field Campaigns Spatial Coverage:
(13.5, 58), (-131, -78.5)
Temporal Coverage:
2021-06-09 - Present
DCOTSS-Balloon-Data_1
Dynamics and Chemistry of the Summer Stratosphere Balloon Data Products 		Field Campaigns Spatial Coverage:
(0, 49), (-172, 0)
Temporal Coverage:
2021-06-09 - Present
DCOTSS-Reports_1
Dynamics and Chemistry of the Summer Stratosphere Reports 		Clouds,  Field Campaigns Spatial Coverage:
(25, 47), (-123, -80)
Temporal Coverage:
2021-07-16 - Present

DCOTSS Citations

Li Y, Dykema J, Deshler T, and Keutsch F (2021). Composition Dependence of Stratospheric Aerosol Shortwave Radiative Forcing in Northern Midlatitudes. Geophysical Research Letters, 48 (24), http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1029/2021GL094427


Smith J B (2021). Convective hydration of the stratosphere. Perspective Atmospheric Science, 373 (6560), 1194. http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.abl8740


Chang K, Bowman K P, Siu L W, and Rapp A D (2021). Convective Forcing of the North American Monsoon Anticyclone at Intraseasonal and Interannual Time Scales. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 78 (9), 2941. http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/JAS-D-21-0009.1


Cooney J W, Bedka K M, Bowman K P, Khlopenkov K V, an dItterly K (2021). Comparing Tropopause-Penetrating Convection Identifications Derived From NEXRAD and GOES Over the Contiguous United States. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 126 (14), http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2020JD034359


Khlopenkov K V, Bedka K M, Cooney J W, and Itterly K (2021). Recent Advances in Detection of Overshooting Cloud Tops From Longwave Infrared Satellite Imagery. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 126 (14), http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JD034319


Clapp C E, Smith J B, Bedka K M, and Anderson J G (2021). Identifying Outflow Regions of North American Monsoon Anticyclone-Mediated Meridional Transport of Convectively Influenced Air Masses in the Lower Stratosphere. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 126 (10), http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2021JD034644


Siu L W and Bowman K P (2020). Unsteady Vortex Behavior in the Asian Monsoon Anticyclone. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 77 (12), 4067. http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/JAS-D-19-0349.1


Wang D, Jensen M P, D'lorio J A, Jozef G, Giangrande S E, Johnson K L, Luo Z J, Starzec M, and Mullendore G L (2020). An Observational Comparison of Level of Neutral Buoyancy and Level of Maximum Detrainment in Tropical Deep Convective Clouds. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 125 (16), http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2020JD032637


Liu N, Liu C, and Hayden L (2020). Climatology and Detection of Overshooting Convection From 4 Years of GPM Precipitation Radar and Passive Microwave Observations. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 125 (7), http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2019JD032003


Starzec M, Mullendore G L, and Homeyer C R (2020). Retrievals of Convective Detrainment Heights Using Ground-Based Radar Observations. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 125 (5), http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2019JD031164


Feng Z, Houze R A Jr, Leung L R, Song F, Hardin J C, Wang J, Gustafson W I Jr and Homeyer C R (2019). Spatiotemporal Characteristics and Large-Scale Environments of Mesoscale Convective Systems East of the Rocky Mountains. Journal of Climate, 32 (21), 7303. http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/jcli-d-19-0137.1


Clapp C E and Anderson J G (2019). Modeling the Effect of Potential Nitric Acid Removal During Convective Injection of Water Vapor Over the Central United States on the Chemical Composition of the Lower Stratosphere. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 124 (16), 9743. http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2018JD029703


Siu L W and Bowman K P (2019). Forcing of the Upper-Tropospheric Monsoon Anticyclones. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 76 (7), 1937. http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/jas-d-18-0340.1


Bedka K, Murillo E M, Homeyer C R, Scarino B and Mersiovsky H (2018). The Above-Anvil Cirrus Plume: An Important Severe Weather Indicator in Visible and Infrared Satellite Imagery. Weather and Forecasting, 33 (5), 1159. http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/waf-d-18-0040.1


Liu N and Liu C (2018). Synoptic Environments and Characteristics of Convection Reaching the Tropopause over Northeast China. Monthly Weather Review, 146 (3), 745. http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/mwr-d-17-0245.1


Cooney J W, Bowman K P, Homeyer C R and Fenske T M (2018). Ten Year Analysis of Tropopause-Overshooting Convection Using GridRad Data. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 123 (1), 329. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2017jd027718


Smith J B, Wilmouth D M, Bedka K M, Bowman K P, Homeyer C R, Dykema J A, Sargent M R, Clapp C E, Leroy S S, Sayres D S, Dean‐Day J M, Paul Bui T and Anderson J G (2017). A case study of convectively sourced water vapor observed in the overworld stratosphere over the United States. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 122 (17), 9529. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2017jd026831


Anderson J G, Weisenstein D K, Bowman K P, Homeyer C R, Smith J B, Wilmouth D M, Sayres D S, Klobas J E, Leroy S S, Dykema J A and Wofsy S C (2017). Stratospheric ozone over the United States in summer linked to observations of convection and temperature via chlorine and bromine catalysis. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114 (25), http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1619318114


Homeyer C R, McAuliffe J D and Bedka K M (2017). On the Development of Above-Anvil Cirrus Plumes in Extratropical Convection. Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 74 (5), 1617. http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/jas-d-16-0269.1


Bedka K M and Khlopenkov K (2016). A Probabilistic Multispectral Pattern Recognition Method for Detection of Overshooting Cloud Tops Using Passive Satellite Imager Observations. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 55 (9), 1983. http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/jamc-d-15-0249.1


Liu N and Liu C (2016). Global distribution of deep convection reaching tropopause in 1 year GPM observations. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 121 (8), 3824. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2015jd024430


Solomon D L, Bowman K P and Homeyer C R (2016). Tropopause-Penetrating Convection from Three-Dimensional Gridded NEXRAD Data. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 55 (2), 465. http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/jamc-d-15-0190.1


Homeyer C R, Bowman K P, Pan L L, Zondlo M A and Bresch J F (2011). Convective injection into stratospheric intrusions. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 116 (D23), http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2011jd016724