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Since 2011, the Global Energy and Water cycle Exchanges (GEWEX) Water Vapor Assessment (G-VAP) has provided performance analyses for state-of-the-art reanalysis and satellite water vapour products to the GEWEX Data and Analysis Panel (GDAP) and the user community in general. A significant component of the work undertaken by G-VAP is to characterise the quality and uncertainty of these water vapour records to (i) ensure full exploitation and (ii) avoid incorrect use or interpretation of results. This study presents results from the second phase of G-VAP, where we have extended and expanded our analysis of total column water vapour (TCWV) from phase 1, in conjunction with updating the G-VAP archive. For version 2 of the archive, we consider 28 freely available and mature satellite and reanalysis data products, remapped to a regular longitude–latitude grid of 2° × 2° and on monthly time steps between January 1979 and December 2019. We first analysed all records for a “common” short period of 5 years (2005–2009), focusing on variability (spatial and seasonal) and deviation from the ensemble mean. We observed that clear-sky daytime-only satellite products were generally drier than the ensemble mean, and seasonal variability/disparity in several regions up to 12 kg m−2 related to original spatial resolution and temporal sampling. For 11 of the 28 data records, further analysis was undertaken between 1988–2014. Within this “long period”, key results show (i) trends between −1.18 ± 0.68 to 3.82 ± 3.94 kg m−2 per decade and −0.39 ± 0.27 to 1.24 ± 0.85 kg m−2 per decade were found over ice-free global oceans and land surfaces, respectively, and (ii) regression coefficients of TCWV against surface temperatures of 6.17 ± 0.24 to 27.02 ± 0.51 % K−1 over oceans (using sea surface temperature) and 3.00 ± 0.17 to 7.77 ± 0.16 % K−1 over land (using surface air temperature). It is important to note that trends estimated within G-VAP are used to identify issues in the data records rather than analyse climate change. Additionally, breakpoints have been identified and characterised for both land and ocean surfaces within this period. Finally, we present a spatial analysis of correlations to six climate indices within the long period, highlighting regional areas of significant positive and negative correlation and the level of agreement among records.

Christian Theodor Vaupell (1821–1862) was a Danish scholar with pioneering investigations particularly on the late Quaternary development of bog forests, but also microscopy of plant anatomy and vegetative reproduction. His studies contributed to the early scientific thinking of the Quaternary environmental changes. Before his academic efforts, he had already survived the war between Prussia and Denmark albeit he became severely wounded and his left arm was amputated. The drama of his academic efforts, on the other hand, lies in the more or less suspicious dispute of his first doctoral thesis and his dismissal from the academic world during the following years. At the same time, he earned praise for his first thesis (never accepted as thesis but published as a regular book) from abroad; he was also able to attract private foundations for financial support of his scientific work. Following the enthusiasm of his time, Vaupell became attracted to the pine megafossils known to have been preserved in the bogs in north-west Europe. The megafossils led him to study not only the life systems of the ancient and modern bog forests but also their associations with Earth processes. As an interesting detail of his research, Vaupell made compound interpretations on the occurrence of megafossil stumps and their tree-ring growth patterns. In the course of the 20th century, Vaupell's studies have been cited as a general reference of post-glacial vegetation change and plant succession rather than clearly pioneering investigations of palaeoecology, an angle that we would like put into a contrasting perspective. To do so, we provide a brief portrait of Christian Vaupell and his research career. In conclusion, we wish to emphasize the comprehensiveness of Vaupell's views on the late Quaternary vegetation changes and the role of plant succession in that development.

The evolution of aerosols in the tropical upper troposphere/lower stratosphere between June 2006 and October 2009 is examined using the observations of the space borne CALIOP lidar aboard the CALIPSO satellite. Superimposed on several volcanic plumes and soot from an extreme biomass-burning event in 2009, the measurements reveal the existence of fast-cleansing episodes in the lower stratosphere to altitudes as high as 20 km. The cleansing of the layer, which extends from 14 to 20 km, takes place within 1 to 4 months during the southern tropics convective season that transports aerosol-poor tropospheric air into the lower stratosphere. In contrast, the convective season of the Northern Hemisphere summer shows an increase in the particle load at the tropopause consistent with a lofting of air rich with aerosols. These aerosols can consist of surface-derived material such as mineral dust and soot as well as liquid sulfate and organic particles. The flux of tropospheric air during the Southern Hemisphere convective season derived from CALIOP observations is shown to be 5 times at 16 km and 20 times at 19 km larger, respectively, than that associated with flux caused by slow ascent through radiative heating. These results suggest that convective overshooting is a major contributor to troposphere-to-stratosphere transport with concomitant implications for the Tropical Tropopause Layer top height, the humidity, the photochemistry and the thermal structure of the layer.

During African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses (AMMA) airborne measurements of ozone, CO and nitrogen oxides (NOx) were collected by French and German Falcon aircraft near three cities in West Africa (Cotonou, Niamey and Ouagadougou). They have been analysed to identify the good conditions to observe ozone plumes related to city emissions during the monsoon season. Results show that an O3 increase of 40–50 ppbv above the summer average concentration took place during two specific events: one near Cotonou on the coast of the Gulf of Guinea, and the other near Niamey in the Sahel region. In both cases a high level of NOx (3–5 ppbv) is related to the ozone production. Air mass transport simulations with FLEXPART and a tracer simulation with the BOLAM mesoscale model shows that Southern Hemisphere biomass burning emissions are always at higher altitude (>3 km) compared to the city emissions. In Niamey and Ouagadougou, the daily variability of ozone and CO correlates with the FLEXPART analysis showing the role of air mass stagnation near the city for 1–2 days and advection of emissions from the vegetated areas. Absence of ozone enhancements for high CO values can be explained by the occurrence of deep convection near the city. In the Sahel region, convection must be accounted for to understand the small number of observed ozone plumes but also to explain the high level of NOx in the 3–5 ppbv range, due to increasing soil emissions after rainfall. To verify that daily ozone production can reach 20 ppbv day−1 for the NOx and CO conditions encountered near West African cities, a simulation of the CiTTyCAT Lagrangian model was conducted using the observed average chemical composition reported by other aircraft during AMMA. Such ozone production is possible for NOx levels up to 5 ppb showing that West African cities are potentially significant sources of tropospheric ozone.

The EU HIBISCUS project consisted of a series of field campaigns during the intense convective summers in 2001, 2003 and 2004 in the State of São Paulo in Brazil. Its objective was to investigate the impact of deep convection on the Tropical Tropopause Layer (TTL) and the lower stratosphere by providing a new set of observational data on meteorology, tracers of horizontal and vertical transport, water vapour, clouds, and chemistry in the tropical Upper Troposphere/Lower Stratosphere (UT/LS). This was achieved using short duration research balloons to study local phenomena associated with convection over land, and long-duration balloons circumnavigating the globe to study the contrast between land and oceans. Analyses of observations of short-lived tracers, ozone and ice particles show strong episodic local updraughts of cold air across the lapse rate tropopause up to 18 or 19 km (420–440 K) in the lower stratosphere by overshooting towers. The long duration balloon and satellite measurements reveal a contrast between the composition of the lower stratosphere over land and oceanic areas, suggesting significant global impact of such events. The overshoots are shown to be well captured by non-hydrostatic meso-scale Cloud Resolving Models indicating vertical velocities of 50–60 m s−1 at the top of the Neutral Buoyancy Level (NBL) at around 14 km, but, in contrast, are poorly represented by global Chemistry-Transport Models (CTM) forced by Numerical Weather Forecast Models (NWP) underestimating the overshooting process. Finally, the data collected by the HIBISCUS balloons have allowed a thorough evaluation of temperature NWP analyses and reanalyses, as well as satellite ozone, nitrogen oxide, water vapour and bromine oxide measurements in the tropics.

Atmospheric liquid and solid water particles are stabilized if they are coated with either negative or positive electric charge. The surface charge causes an increase of the partial pressure of water vapour close to the surface of each particle, effectively allowing the particles to remain in their condensed phase even if the environmental relative humidity drops below unity. The theory, briefly presented in this paper, predicts a zero parameter relation between surface charge density and water vapour pressure. This relation was tested in a series of Electrodynamic Balance experiments. The measurements were performed by stabilizing charged droplets of pure water near an ice-surface. We observed a divergence in radius as the temperature approached the freezing point from below. We find that the measurements confirm the theory within the experimental uncertainty. In some cases this generally overlooked effect may have impact on cloud processes and on results produced by Electrodynamic Balance experiments.

During June, July and August 2006 five aircraft took part in a campaign over West Africa to observe the aerosol content and chemical composition of the troposphere and lower stratosphere as part of the African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis (AMMA) project. These are the first such measurements in this region during the monsoon period. In addition to providing an overview of the tropospheric composition, this paper provides a description of the measurement strategy (flights performed, instrumental payloads, wing-tip to wing-tip comparisons) and points to some of the important findings discussed in more detail in other papers in this special issue. The ozone data exhibits an "S" shaped vertical profile which appears to result from significant losses in the lower troposphere due to rapid deposition to forested areas and photochemical destruction in the moist monsoon air, and convective uplift of ozone-poor air to the upper troposphere. This profile is disturbed, particularly in the south of the region, by the intrusions in the lower and middle troposphere of air from the southern hemisphere impacted by biomass burning. Comparisons with longer term data sets suggest the impact of these intrusions on West Africa in 2006 was greater than in other recent wet seasons. There is evidence for net photochemical production of ozone in these biomass burning plumes as well as in urban plumes, in particular that from Lagos, convective outflow in the upper troposphere and in boundary layer air affected by nitrogen oxide emissions from recently wetted soils. This latter effect, along with enhanced deposition to the forested areas, contributes to a latitudinal gradient of ozone in the lower troposphere. Biogenic volatile organic compounds are also important in defining the composition both for the boundary layer and upper tropospheric convective outflow. Mineral dust was found to be the most abundant and ubiquitous aerosol type in the atmosphere over Western Africa. Data collected within AMMA indicate that injection of dust to altitudes favourable for long-range transport (i.e. in the upper Sahelian planetary boundary layer) can occur behind the leading edge of mesoscale convective system (MCS) cold-pools. Research within AMMA also provides the first estimates of secondary organic aerosols across the West African Sahel and have shown that organic mass loadings vary between 0 and 2 μg m−3 with a median concentration of 1.07 μg m−3. The vertical distribution of nucleation mode particle concentrations reveals that significant and fairly strong particle formation events did occur for a considerable fraction of measurement time above 8 km (and only there). Very low concentrations were observed in general in the fresh outflow of active MCSs, likely as the result of efficient wet removal of aerosol particles due to heavy precipitation inside the convective cells of the MCSs. This wet removal initially affects all particle size ranges as clearly shown by all measurements in the vicinity of MCSs.

We report in situ and remote observations proving occasional occurrence of solid particles in the tropical lowest stratosphere, 200 km from deep convective events. The particles were found during field campaigns in Southeast Brazil (49.03 W 22.36 S). They occur in the altitude range from 17.5 to 20.8 km, at temperatures up to at least 10 K above the expected frost point temperature. While stability of ice particles at these altitudes is unexpected from a theoretical point of view, it is argued that these observations are indications of tropospheric air masses penetrating into the stratosphere during convective overshoots. It is argued that the intrusion of tropospheric air must have carried a large amount of water with it, which effectively hydrated the lowest stratosphere, and consequently suppressed sublimation. This conclusion is further supported by a separate water vapor mixing ratio profile obtained at the same observation site.