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Northern Iraq was the political and economic center of the Neo-Assyrian Empire (c. 912 to 609 BCE)—the largest and most powerful empire of its time. After more than two centuries of regional dominance, the Neo-Assyrian state plummeted from its zenith (c. 670 BCE) to complete political collapse (c. 615 to 609 BCE). Earlier explanations for the Assyrian collapse focused on the roles of internal politico-economic conflicts, territorial overextension, and military defeat. Here, we present a high-resolution and precisely dated speleothem record of climate change from the Kuna Ba cave in northern Iraq, which suggests that the empire’s rise occurred during a two-centuries-long interval of anomalously wet climate in the context of the past 4000 years, while megadroughts during the early-mid seventh century BCE, as severe as recent droughts in the region but lasting for decades, triggered a decline in Assyria’s agrarian productivity and thus contributed to its eventual political and economic collapse. 

Abstract. Radiation fogs at Summit Station, Greenland (72.58^∘ N,38.48^∘ W; 3210 m a.s.l.), are frequently reported by observers. Thefogs are often accompanied by fogbows, indicating the particles are composedof liquid; and because of the low temperatures at Summit, this liquid issupercooled. Here we analyze the formation of these fogs as well as theirphysical and radiative properties. In situ observations of particle size anddroplet number concentration were made using scattering spectrometers near 2 and 10 m height from 2012 to 2014. These data are complemented bycolocated observations of meteorology, turbulent and radiative fluxes, andremote sensing. We find that liquid fogs occur in all seasons with thehighest frequency in September and a minimum in April. Due to thecharacteristics of the boundary-layer meteorology, the fogs are elevated,forming between 2 and 10 m, and the particles then fall toward the surface.The diameter of mature particles is typically 20–25 µm in summer.Number concentrations are higher at warmer temperatures and, thus, higher insummer compared to winter. The fogs form at temperatures as warm as −5 ^∘C, while the coldest form at temperatures approaching −40 ^∘C. Facilitated by the elevated condensation, in winter two-thirds offogs occurred within a relatively warm layer above the surface when thenear-surface air was below −40 ^∘C, as cold as −57 ^∘C,which is too cold to support liquid water. This implies that fog particlessettling through this layer of cold air freeze in the air column beforecontacting the surface, thereby accumulating at the surface as ice withoutriming. Liquid fogs observed under otherwise clear skies annually imparted1.5 W m⁻² of cloud radiative forcing (CRF). While this is a smallcontribution to the surface radiation climatology, individual events areinfluential. The mean CRF during liquid fog events was 26 W m⁻², andwas sometimes much higher. An extreme case study was observed toradiatively force 5 ^∘C of surface warming during the coldest partof the day, effectively damping the diurnal cycle. At lower elevations ofthe ice sheet where melting is more common, such damping could signal a rolefor fogs in preconditioning the surface for melting later in the day. 

Abstract. The uptake of carbonyl sulfide (COS) by terrestrial plants is linked tophotosynthetic uptake of CO2 as these gases partly share the sameuptake pathway. Applying COS as a photosynthesis tracer in models requires anaccurate representation of biosphere COS fluxes, but these models have notbeen extensively evaluated against field observations of COS fluxes. In thispaper, the COS flux as simulated by the Simple Biosphere Model, version 4(SiB4), is updated with the latest mechanistic insights and evaluated with siteobservations from different biomes: one evergreen needleleaf forest, twodeciduous broadleaf forests, three grasslands, and two crop fields spread overEurope and North America. We improved SiB4 in several ways to improve itsrepresentation of COS. To account for the effect of atmospheric COS molefractions on COS biosphere uptake, we replaced the fixed atmospheric COS molefraction boundary condition originally used in SiB4 with spatially andtemporally varying COS mole fraction fields. Seasonal amplitudes of COS molefractions are ∼50–200 ppt at the investigated sites with aminimum mole fraction in the late growing season. Incorporating seasonalvariability into the model reduces COS uptake rates in the late growingseason, allowing better agreement with observations. We also replaced theempirical soil COS uptake model in SiB4 with a mechanistic model thatrepresents both uptake and production of COS in soils, which improves thematch with observations over agricultural fields and fertilized grasslandsoils. The improved version of SiB4 was capable of simulating the diurnal andseasonal variation in COS fluxes in the boreal, temperate, and Mediterraneanregion. Nonetheless, the daytime vegetation COS flux is underestimated onaverage by 8±27 %, albeit with large variability across sites. On aglobal scale, our model modifications decreased the modeled COS terrestrialbiosphere sink from 922 Gg S yr−1 in the original SiB4 to753 Gg S yr−1 in the updated version. The largest decrease influxes was driven by lower atmospheric COS mole fractions over regions withhigh productivity, which highlights the importance of accounting forvariations in atmospheric COS mole fractions. The change to a different soilmodel, on the other hand, had a relatively small effect on the globalbiosphere COS sink. The secondary role of the modeled soil component in theglobal COS budget supports the use of COS as a global photosynthesis tracer. Amore accurate representation of COS uptake in SiB4 should allow for improvedapplication of atmospheric COS as a tracer of local- to global-scaleterrestrial photosynthesis. 

Abstract. A large array of proxy recordssuggests that the “4.2ka event” marks an approximately300-year long period (∼3.9 to 4.2ka) ofmajor climate change across the globe. However, the climatic manifestation ofthis event, including its onset, duration, and termination, remains lessclear in the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) domain. Here, we present new oxygenisotope (δ¹⁸O) data from a pair of speleothems (ML.1 and ML.2)from Mawmluh Cave, Meghalaya, India, that provide a high-resolution record ofISM variability during a period (∼3.78 and 4.44ka) that fullyencompasses the 4.2ka event. The sub-annually to annually resolved ML.1δ¹⁸O record is constrained by 18 ²³⁰Th dates with anaverage dating error of ±13 years (2σ) and a resolution of ∼40 years, which allows us to characterize the ISM variability withunprecedented detail. The inferred pattern of ISM variability during theperiod contemporaneous with the 4.2ka event shares broad similarities andkey differences with the previous reconstructions of ISM from the MawmluhCave and other proxy records from the region. Our data suggest that the ISMintensity, in the context of the length of our record, abruptly decreased at∼4.0ka ( $\sim \pm 13$ years), marking the onset of a multi-centennialperiod of relatively reduced ISM, which was punctuated by at least twomulti-decadal droughts between ∼3.9 and 4.0ka. The latter stands outin contrast with some previous proxy reconstructions of the ISM, in which the4.2ka event has been depicted as a singular multi-centennial drought. 

Abstract The oxidation of carbonyl sulfide (OCS) is the primary, continuous source of stratospheric sulfate aerosol particles, which can scatter shortwave radiation and catalyze heterogeneous reactions in the stratosphere. While it has been estimated that the oxidation of dimethyl sulfide (DMS), emitted from the surface ocean accounts for 8%–20% of the global OCS source, there is no existing DMS oxidation mechanism relevant to the marine atmosphere that is consistent with an OCS source of this magnitude. We describe new laboratory measurements and theoretical analyses of DMS oxidation that provide a mechanistic description for OCS production from hydroperoxymethyl thioformate, a ubiquitous, soluble DMS oxidation product. We incorporate this chemical mechanism into a global chemical transport model, showing that OCS production from DMS is a factor of 3 smaller than current estimates, displays a maximum in the tropics consistent with field observations and is sensitive to multiphase cloud chemistry. 

Abstract. For the past decade, observations of carbonyl sulfide (OCS or COS) have been investigated as a proxy for carbon uptake by plants. OCS is destroyed by enzymes that interact with CO₂ during photosynthesis, namely carbonic anhydrase (CA) and RuBisCO, where CA is the more important one. The majority of sources of OCS to the atmosphere are geographically separated from this large plant sink, whereas the sources and sinks of CO₂ are co-located in ecosystems. The drawdown of OCS can therefore be related to the uptake of CO₂ without the added complication of co-located emissions comparable in magnitude. Here we review the state of our understanding of the global OCS cycle and its applications to ecosystem carbon cycle science. OCS uptake is correlated well to plant carbon uptake, especially at the regional scale. OCS can be used in conjunction with other independent measures of ecosystem function, like solar-induced fluorescence and carbon and water isotope studies. More work needs to be done to generate global coverage for OCS observations and to link this powerful atmospheric tracer to systems where fundamental questions concerning the carbon and water cycle remain.