Abstract. Simultaneous in situ measurements of the long-lived trace species N20, CH4, CFC-12, CFC-113, CFC-11, CC14, CH3CC13, H-1211, and SF6 were made in the lower stratosphere and upper troposphere on board the NASA ER-2 high-altitude aircraft during the 1994 campaign Airborne Southern Hemisphere Ozone Experiment/Measurements for Assessing the Effects of Stratospheric Aircraft. The observed extratropical tracer abundances exhibit compact mutual correlations that show little interhemispheric difference or seasonal variability except at higher altitudes in southern hemisphere spring. The environmental impact of the measured source gases depends, among other factors, on the rate at which they release ozone-depleting chemicals in the stratosphere, that is, on their stratospheric lifetimes. We calculate the mean age of the air from the SF 6 measurements and show how stratospheric lifetimes of the other species may be derived semiempirically from their observed gradients with respect to mean age at the extratropical tropopause. We also derive independent stratospheric lifetimes using the CFC-11 lifetime and the slopes of the tracer' s correlations with CFC-11. In both cases, we correct for the influence of tropospheric growth on stratospheric tracer gradients using the observed mean age of the air, time series of observed tropospheric abundances, and model-derived estimates of the width of the stratospheric age spectrum. Lifetime results from the two methods are consistent with each other. Our best estimates for stratospheric lifetimes are 122 + 24 years for N2 ¸, 93 + 18 years for CH4, 87 + 17 years for CFC-12, 100 + 32 years for CFC-113, 32 + 6 years for CC14, 34 + 7 years for CH3CC13, and 24 + 6 years for H-1211. Most of these estimates are significantly smaller than currently recommended lifetimes, which are based largely on photochemical model calculations. Because the derived stratospheric lifetimes are identical to atmospheric lifetimes for most of the species considered, the shorter lifetimes would imply a faster recovery of the ozone layer following the phaseout of industrial halocarbons than currently predicted.
Abstract. Variations in the mixing ratio of trace gases of tropospheric origin entering the stratosphere in the tropics are of interest for assessing both troposphere to stratosphere transport fluxes in the tropics and the impact of these transport fluxes on the composition of the tropical lower stratosphere. Anomaly patterns of carbon monoxide (CO) and long-lived tracers in the lower tropical stratosphere allow conclusions about the rate and the variability of tropical upwelling to be drawn. Here, we present a simplified chemistry scheme for the Chemical Lagrangian Model of the Stratosphere (CLaMS) for the simulation, at comparatively low numerical cost, of CO, ozone, and long-lived trace substances (CH4, N2O, CCl3F (CFC-11), CCl2F2 (CFC-12), and CO2) in the lower tropical stratosphere. For the long-lived trace substances, the boundary conditions at the surface are prescribed based on ground-based measurements in the lowest model level. The boundary condition for CO in the lower troposphere (below about 4 km) is deduced from MOPITT measurements. Due to the lack of a specific representation of mixing and convective uplift in the troposphere in this model version, enhanced CO values, in particular those resulting from convective outflow are underestimated. However, in the tropical tropopause layer and the lower tropical stratosphere, there is relatively good agreement of simulated CO with in situ measurements (with the exception of the TROCCINOX campaign, where CO in the simulation is biased low ≈10–15 ppbv). Further, the model results (and therefore also the ERA-Interim winds, on which the transport in the model is based) are of sufficient quality to describe large scale anomaly patterns of CO in the lower stratosphere. In particular, the zonally averaged tropical CO anomaly patterns (the so called "tape recorder" patterns) simulated by this model version of CLaMS are in good agreement with observations, although the simulations show a too rapid upwelling compared to observations as a consequence of the overestimated vertical velocities in the ERA-Interim reanalysis data set. Moreover, the simulated tropical anomaly patterns of N2O are in good agreement with observations. In the simulations, anomaly patterns of CH4 and CFC-11 were found to be very similar to those of N2O; for all long-lived tracers, positive anomalies are simulated because of the enhanced tropical upwelling in the easterly shear phase of the quasi-biennial oscillation.
Abstract. During the second part of the TROCCINOX campaign that took place in Brazil in early 2005, chemical species were measured on-board the high-altitude research aircraft Geophysica (ozone, water vapor, NO, NO y , CH 4 and CO) in the altitude range up to 20 km (or up to 450 K potential temperature), i.e. spanning the entire TTL region roughly extending between 350 and 420 K.Here, analysis of transport across the TTL is performed using a new version of the Chemical Lagrangian Model of the Stratosphere (CLaMS). In this new version, the stratospheric model has been extended to the earth surface. Above the tropopause, the isentropic and cross-isentropic advection in CLaMS is driven by meteorological analysis winds and heating/cooling rates derived from a radiation calculation. Below the tropopause, the model smoothly transforms from the isentropic to the hybrid-pressure coordinate and, in this way, takes into account the effect of large-scale convective transport as implemented in the vertical wind of the meteorological analysis. As in previous CLaMS simulations, the irreversible transport, i.e. mixing, is controlled by the local horizontal strain and vertical shear rates.Stratospheric and tropospheric signatures in the TTL can be seen both in the observations and in the model. The composition of air above ≈350 K is mainly controlled by mixing on a time scale of weeks or even months. Based on CLaMS transport studies where mixing can be completely switched off, we deduce that vertical mixing, mainly driven by the vertical shear in the tropical flanks of the subtropical jets and, Correspondence to: P. Konopka (p.konopka@fz-juelich.de) to some extent, in the the outflow regions of the large-scale convection, offers an explanation for the upward transport of trace species from the main convective outflow at around 350 K up to the tropical tropopause around 380 K.
Abstract. Number concentrations of total and non-volatile aerosol particles with size diameters >0.01 µm as well as particle size distributions (0.4-23 µm diameter) were measured in situ in the Arctic lower stratosphere (10-20.5 km altitude). The measurements were obtained during the campaigns European Polar Stratospheric Cloud and Lee Wave Experiment (EUPLEX) and Envisat-Arctic-Validation (EAV). The campaigns were based in Kiruna, Sweden, and took place from January to March 2003. Measurements were conducted onboard the Russian high-altitude research aircraft Geophysica using the low-pressure Condensation Nucleus Counter COPAS (COndensation PArticle Counter System) and a modified FSSP 300 (Forward Scattering Spectrometer Probe). Around 18-20 km altitude typical total particle number concentrations n t range at 10-20 cm −3 (ambient conditions). Correlations with the trace gases nitrous oxide (N 2 O) and trichlorofluoromethane (CFC-11) are discussed. Inside the polar vortex the total number of particles >0.01 µm increases with potential temperature while N 2 O is decreasing which indicates a source of particles in the above polar stratosphere or mesosphere. A separate channel of the COPAS instrument measures the fraction of aerosol particles non-volatile at 250 • C. Inside the polar vortex a much higher fraction of particles contained non-volatile residues than outside the vortex (∼67% inside vortex, ∼24% outside vortex). This is most likely due to a strongly increased fraction of meteoric material in the particles which is transported downward from the mesosphere inside the polar vortex. The high Correspondence to: J. Curtius (curtius@mail.uni-mainz.de) fraction of non-volatile residual particles gives therefore experimental evidence for downward transport of mesospheric air inside the polar vortex. It is also shown that the fraction of non-volatile residual particles serves directly as a suitable experimental vortex tracer. Nanometer-sized meteoric smoke particles may also serve as nuclei for the condensation of gaseous sulfuric acid and water in the polar vortex and these additional particles may be responsible for the increase in the observed particle concentration at low N 2 O. The number concentrations of particles >0.4 µm measured with the FSSP decrease markedly inside the polar vortex with increasing potential temperature, also a consequence of subsidence of air from higher altitudes inside the vortex. Another focus of the analysis was put on the particle measurements in the lowermost stratosphere. For the total particle density relatively high number concentrations of several hundred particles per cm 3 at altitudes below ∼14 km were observed in several flights. To investigate the origin of these high number concentrations we conducted air mass trajectory calculations and compared the particle measurements with other trace gas observations. The high number concentrations of total particles in the lowermost stratosphere are probably caused by transport of originally tropospheric air from lower latitudes an...
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