HR: 14:25h
AN: A33H-04 INVITED    [Abstracts]
TI: Stratospheric Transport Times From Observations and Models
AU: * Hoor, P M
EM: hoor@mpch-mainz.mpg.de
AF: Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Atmospheric Chemistry Department, J.J. Becherweg 27, Mainz, D-55128, Germany
AU: Lelieveld, J
AF: Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Atmospheric Chemistry Department, J.J. Becherweg 27, Mainz, D-55128, Germany
AU: Boenisch, H
AF: Institute for Atmosphere and Environment, J.W.Goethe University, Altenhöferallee 1, Frankfurt/Main, D-60438, Germany
AU: Joeckel, P
AF: Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Atmospheric Chemistry Department, J.J. Becherweg 27, Mainz, D-55128, Germany
AU: Steil, B
AF: Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Atmospheric Chemistry Department, J.J. Becherweg 27, Mainz, D-55128, Germany
AU: Bruehl, C
AF: Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Atmospheric Chemistry Department, J.J. Becherweg 27, Mainz, D-55128, Germany
AU: Strahan, S
AF: UMBC - Goddard Earth Science & Technology Center (GEST), NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 8080, United States
AB: Transport time scales in the stratosphere are crucial to understand and calculate the effects of chemical active species on stratospheric chemistry. In general CO₂ or SF₆ have been used to calculate mean ages of air in the stratosphere, whereas shorter lived trace gases like CO are used to investigate cross tropopause transport and mixing on short time-scales close to the tropopause.
Besides mean ages and their assocated mean trace gas mixing ratios at a given point in the atmosphere other quantities of the trace gas distributions can be used to constrain stratospheric transport times, such as variability and slope. In particular the younger part of the age spectrum needs to be constrained since it determines the extent to which shorter lived compounds can be transported into the stratosphere.
We investigate transport times in the stratosphere based on observations of CO, N₂O and CO₂ and test a new approach to deduce transport times. For that purpose we compare observations from the ER-2 and other platforms. The approach is applied to global models (ECHAM5/MESSy, Combo GMI) to identify barriers as well as regions of rapid mixing and transport.
DE: 0300 ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE
DE: 3334 Middle atmosphere dynamics (0341, 0342)
DE: 3362 Stratosphere/troposphere interactions
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting