Overshooting convection significantly impacts the composition of the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS), yet its linkage to Atmospheric Rivers (ARs) remains poorly understood. This study investigates how ARs modulate environmental conditions and moisture distribution associated with overshooting convection in the central and southeastern U.S. using data from the 2021-2022 DCOTSS field campaign, GridRad, and ERA5. ARs were most frequent and persistent during May and June, aligning with climatological peaks. Synoptic analysis reveals that AR size, rather than intensity, is positively correlated with overshooting convection, showing a distinct contrast between AR-associated and non-AR overshooting events. AR-associated cases are primarily driven by broad frontal updrafts and large-scale troughs with strong low-level jets. Conversely, non-AR events are characterized by localized, intense updrafts supported by high CAPE within anticyclonic upper jets. Although both types share the Gulf of Mexico as a low-level moisture source, AR-associated overshooting convection is distinguished by mid-level inflow from Pacific westerlies and a near-doubling of low-level air mass transport. DCOTSS measurements highlight critical differences in moisture signatures: AR-associated overshooting convection produces broad water vapor enhancements (similar to 100 ppmv) concentrated near the tropopause (340-380 K) and features more abundant lower-level moisture (315-340 K). In contrast, non-AR events produce narrow, geographically confined enhancements (similar to 50 ppmv) that penetrate deeper into the stratosphere (380-420 K). These findings demonstrate that AR-driven moisture pathways, modulated by synoptic-scale conditions, directly influence both the chemical composition and structural distribution of the UTLS over the North American Monsoon region.

On 24 June 2022, remnant outflow from a tornadic supercell storm that occurred in northern Kansas on the evening of 23 June 2022 was observed by the high-altitude NASA ER-2 aircraft during the Dynamics and Chemistry of the Summer Stratosphere (DCOTSS) field campaign. Namely, preliminary analysis indicates that stratospheric water vapor enhancements were observed at altitudes up to approximately 19.25 km (~1 km higher than any prior documented event), approximately 460 K potential temperature (~30 K higher than any prior documented event), and ozone mixing ratios of more than 1400 ppbv (more than double any prior documented event). The responsible storm was one of the most extreme events observed annually in the United States, within no more than 10 per year such high-reaching storms based on ground-based radar climatology. Here, we review the event using high-resolution ground-based radar volumes and satellite imagery and show that it reached altitudes exceeding 19 km for at least an hour. Linkages to the Kansas storm will be demonstrated via trajectory analyses initialized in the volumes impacted by the storm (as determined from radar and satellite observations). Broader evaluation of stratospheric composition impacts resulting from this event will also be presented.

Whole Air Samples (WAS) were collected as part of the Dynamics and Chemistry of the Summer Stratosphere (DCOTSS) field campaign in the Upper Troposphere-Lower Stratosphere (UTLS) region during Summer 2021 and 2022. Grid-Rad and satellite imagery were used to identify regions of overshooting convection, and areas with outflow from the overshooting were targeted by the DCOTSS aircraft using trajectory models and in-situ measurements. Because a wide range of trace gases with different atmospheric lifetimes and sources are measured, WAS can provide insight into the processes that influence trace gas composition of the UTLS over North America. We investigate the tropospheric tracer relationships within and around these deep convective regions to determine the extent of penetration of tropospheric gases into the lower stratosphere (LS). Compounds such as ethane and ethyne with short (< 6 months) tropospheric lifetimes do not reach the LS without rapid transport from deep convection, and we observe cases where these gases are elevated above stratospheric background, typically well correlated with other tropospheric tracers (e.g. CO). However, the relationship between enhanced water vapor from overshooting convection and tropospheric tracers is more complex. Further, we show that ratios between different trace gas species can help identify and distinguish air mass types (e.g., biomass burning, oil and gas production, urban influence, etc.). Finally, we determine the Cl- and Br- halogen budgets for 2021 and 2022 stratosphere over N. America and the contribution of very-short-lived organic halogen species.

Tropopause-overshooting convection in the midlatitudes provides a rapid transport pathway of air from the lower troposphere to the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS), and can result in the formation of above-anvil cirrus plumes (AACPs). Recent in situ observations from the Dynamics and Chemistry of the Summer Stratosphere (DCOTSS) field campaign are used to examine impacts from active overshooting convection on UTLS composition. There are little to no prior airborne observations of active overshooting convection, making observations from this flight valuable to interpreting and exploring processes seen in idealized modeling studies. DCOTSS research flight 13 on May 31st, 2022 sampled active overshooting convection over the state of Oklahoma for more than three hours with the NASA ER-2 high-altitude research aircraft. Additionally, an AACP was bisected during this flight, providing the first such extensive sampling of this phenomena. This study aims to provide a detailed understanding of changes in the UTLS composition from active overshooting convection and AACPs using the in-situ observations from this flight. The observations reveal multiple pronounced changes in air mass composition and stratospheric hydration. In agreement with prior modeling studies, maximum altitudes of water vapor enhancement were much higher than altitudes of mostly passive trace gas composition change. Stratospheric water vapor enhancements reached nearly a factor of four over background levels at a maximum altitude of 16.56 km and a potential temperature of 389.76 K. Carbon monoxide, a tracer of tropospheric origin, showed enhancements of a factor of two over background levels at a maximum altitude of 15.76 km and potential temperature of 363.6 K. There is a notable positive correlation between water vapor and ozone near the bisection of the AACP, which seems to be the result of horizontal mixing. It appears that the water vapor enhancement within the AACP was limited to the saturation mixing ratio of the low temperature environment.

The ice water content (IWC) of cirrus clouds is an essential parameter determining their radiative properties and thus is important for climate simulations. Therefore, for a reliable measurement of IWC on board research aircraft, it is important to carefully design the ice crystal sampling and measuring devices. During the ML-CIRRUS field campaign in 2014 with the German Gulfstream GV HALO (High Altitude and Long Range Research Aircraft), IWC was recorded by three closed-path total water together with one gas-phase water instrument. The hygrometers were supplied by inlets mounted on the roof of the aircraft fuselage. Simultaneously, the IWC is determined by a cloud particle spectrometer attached under an aircraft wing. Two more examples of simultaneous IWC measurements by hygrometers and cloud spectrometers are presented, but the inlets of the hygrometers were mounted at the fuselage side (M-55 Geophysica, StratoClim campaign 2017) and bottom (NASA WB57, MacPex campaign 2011). This combination of instruments and inlet positions provides the opportunity to experimentally study the influence of the ice particle sampling position on the IWC with the approach of comparative measurements. As expected from theory and shown by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) calculations, we found that the IWCs provided by the roof inlets deviate from those measured under the aircraft wing. As a result of the inlet position in the shadow zone behind the aircraft cockpit, ice particle populations with mean mass sizes larger than about 25 µm radius are subject to losses, which lead to strongly underestimated IWCs. On the other hand, cloud populations with mean mass sizes smaller than about 12 µm are dominated by particle enrichment and thus overestimated IWCs. In the range of mean mass sizes between 12 and 25 µm, both enrichment and losses of ice crystals can occur, depending on whether the ice crystal mass peak of the size distribution – in these cases bimodal – is on the smaller or larger mass mode. The resulting deviations of the IWC reach factors of up to 10 or even more for losses as well as for enrichment. Since the mean mass size of ice crystals increases with temperature, losses are more pronounced at higher temperatures, while at lower temperatures IWC is more affected by enrichment. In contrast, in the cases where the hygrometer inlets were mounted at the fuselage side or bottom, the agreement of IWCs is most frequently within a factor of 2.5 or better – due to less disturbed ice particle sampling, as expected from theory – independently of the mean ice crystal sizes. The rather large scatter between IWC measurements reflects, for example, cirrus cloud inhomogeneities and instrument uncertainties as well as slight sampling biases which might also occur on the side or bottom of the fuselage and under the wing. However, this scatter is in the range of other studies and represent the current best possible IWC recording on fast-flying aircraft.

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The microphysical and radiative properties of cirrus clouds continue to be beyond understanding and thus still represent one of the largest uncertainties in the prediction of the Earth's climate (IPCC, 2013). Our study aims to provide a guide to cirrus microphysics, which is compiled from an extensive set of model simulations, covering the broad range of atmospheric conditions for cirrus formation and evolution. The model results are portrayed in the same parameter space as field measurements, i.e., in the Ice Water Content-Temperature (IWC-T) parameter space. We validate this cirrus analysis approach by evaluating cirrus data sets from 17 aircraft campaigns, conducted in the last 15 years, spending about 94 h in cirrus over Europe, Australia, Brazil as well as South and North America. Altogether, the approach of this study is to track cirrus IWC development with temperature by means of model simulations, compare with observations and then assign, to a certain degree, cirrus microphysics to the observations. Indeed, the field observations show characteristics expected from the simulated Cirrus Guide. For example, high (low) IWCs are found together with high (low) ice crystal concentrations Nice. An important finding from our study is the classification of two types of cirrus with differing formation mechanisms and microphysical properties: the first cirrus type forms directly as ice (in situ origin cirrus) and splits in two subclasses, depending on the prevailing strength of the updraft: in slow updrafts these cirrus are rather thin with lower IWCs, while in fast updrafts thicker cirrus with higher IWCs can form. The second type consists predominantly of thick cirrus originating from mixed phase clouds (i.e., via freezing of liquid droplets – liquid origin cirrus), which are completely glaciated while lifting to the cirrus formation temperature region (< 235 K). In the European field campaigns, slow updraft in situ origin cirrus occur frequently in low- and high-pressure systems, while fast updraft in situ cirrus appear in conjunction with jet streams or gravity waves. Also, liquid origin cirrus mostly related to warm conveyor belts are found. In the US and tropical campaigns, thick liquid origin cirrus which are formed in large convective systems are detected more frequently.

Numerous airborne field campaigns were performed in the last decades to record cirrus clouds microphysical properties. Beside the understanding of the processes of cirrus formation and evolution, an additional motivation for those studies is to provide a database to evaluate the representation of cirrus clouds in global climate models. This is of importance for an improved certainty of climate predictions, which are affected by the poor understanding of the microphysical processes of ice clouds (IPCC, 2013). To this end, the observations should ideally cover the complete respective parameter range and not be influenced by instrumental artifacts. However, due to the difficulties in measuring cirrus properties on fast-flying, high-altitude aircraft, some issues with respect to the measurements have arisen. In particular, concerns about the relative humidity in and around cirrus clouds and the ice crystal number concentrations were under discussion. Too high ice supersaturations as well as ice number concentrations were often reported. These issues have made more chal-lenging the goal of compiling a large database using data from a suite of different instruments that were used on different campaigns. In this study, we have have addressed these challenges and compiled a large data set of cirrus clouds, sampled during eighteen field campaigns between 75 ◦ N and 25 ◦ S, representing measurements fulfilling the above men-tioned requirements. The most recent campaigns were performed in 2014; namely, the ATTREX campaign with the research aircraft Global Hawk and the ML-CIRRUS and ACRIDICON campaigns with HALO. The observations include ice water content (IWC: 130 hours of observations), ice crystal numbers (N ice : 83 hours), ice crystal mean mass size (: 83 hours) and relative humidity (RH ice ) in- and outside of cirrus clouds (78 and 140 hours). We will present the parameters as PDFs versus temperature and derive medians and core ranges (including the most frequent observations) for each parameter. The new large data sets confirm the earlier results presented by Schiller et al. (JGR, 2008), Krämer et al. (ACP, 2009) and Luebke et al. (ACP, 2013), which are all based on much smaller datasets. Further, we will show the geographical and altitude distribution of IWC, N ice , R ice and RH ice .