To investigate the effects of the middle atmosphere on climate, the World Climate Research Programme is supporting the project "Stratospheric Processes and their Role in Climate" (SPARC). A central theme of SPARC, to examine model simulations of the coupled troposphere-middle atmosphere system, is being performed through the initiative called GRIPS (GCM-Reality Intercomparison Project for SPARC). In this paper, an overview of the objectives of GRIPS is given. Initial activities include an assessment of the performance of middle atmosphere climate models, and preliminary results from this evaluation are presented here. It is shown that although all 13 models evaluated represent most major features of the mean atmospheric state, there are deficiencies in the magnitude and location of the features, which cannot easily be traced to the formulation (resolution or the parameterizations included) of the models. Most models show a cold bias in all locations, apart from the tropical tropopause region where they can be either too warm or too cold. The strengths and locations of the major jets are often misrepresented in the models. Looking at three-dimensional fields reveals, for some models, more severe deficiencies in the magnitude and positioning of the dominant structures (such as the Aleutian high in the stratosphere), although undersampling might explain some of these differences from observations. All the models have shortcomings in their simulations of the present-day climate, which might limit the accuracy of predictions of the climate response to ozone change and other anomalous forcing.

We have compared a diurnal photochemical model of ozone with nighttime data from the limb infrared monitor of the stratosphere (LIMS) and ground‐based microwave observations. Consistent with previous studies, the model underpredicts the observations by about 10–30%. This agreement is strong confirmation that the model ozone deficit is not simply an artifact of observational error since it is unlikely to occur for two completely different ozone data sets. We have also examined the seasonal, altitudinal, and diurnal morphology of the ozone deficit. Both comparisons show a deficit that peaks in the upper stratosphere (2–3 mbar) and goes through a minimum in the lower mesosphere from 1.0 to 0.4 mbar. At lower pressures (<0.2 mbar) the deficit appears to increase again. The seasonal variation of the deficit is less consistent. The deficit with respect to the LIMS data is least in winter while with respect to the microwave data, the deficit shows little seasonal variation. Finally, the night‐to‐day ratio in our model is in generally good agreement with that seen in the microwave experiment. Increasing the rate coefficient for the reaction O + O2 + M → O3 + M improves the fit, while a very large (50%) decrease in the HOx catalytic cycle is not consistent with our observations. Increasing the atomic oxygen recombination rate also improves the overall agreement with both data sets; however, a residual discrepancy still remains. There appears to be no single chemical parameter which, when modified, can simultaneously resolve both the stratospheric and mesospheric ozone deficits.

The Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment III on the International Space Station (SAGE III/ISS) mission will provide the science community with high-vertical resolution and nearly global observations of ozone, aerosols, water vapor, nitrogen dioxide, and other trace gas species in the stratosphere and upper-troposphere. SAGE III/ISS measurements will extend the long-term Stratospheric Aerosol Measurement (SAM) and SAGE data record begun in the 1970s. The multi-decadal SAGE ozone and aerosol data sets have undergone intense scrutiny and are considered the international standard for accuracy and stability. SAGE data have been used to monitor the effectiveness of the Montreal Protocol. Key objectives of the mission are to assess the state of the recovery in the distribution of ozone, to re-establish the aerosol measurements needed by both climate and ozone models, and to gain further insight into key processes contributing to ozone and aerosol variability. The space station mid-inclination orbit allows for a large range in latitude sampling and nearly continuous communications with payloads.The SAGE III instrument is the fifth in a series of instruments developed for monitoring atmospheric constituents with high vertical resolution. The SAGE III instrument is a moderate resolution spectrometer covering wavelengths from 290 nm to 1550 nm. Science data is collected in solar occultation mode, lunar occultation mode, and limb scatter measurement mode.A SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle will provide access to space. Mounted in the unpressurized section of the Dragon trunk, SAGE III will be robotically removed from the Dragon and installed on the space station. SAGE III/ISS will be mounted to the ExPRESS Logistics Carrier-4 (ELC-4) location on the starboard side of the station. To facilitate a nadir view from this location, a Nadir Viewing Platform (NVP) payload was developed which mounts between the carrier and the SAGE III Instrument Payload (IP).

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Ozone observations in the mesosphere obtained by the near infrared and ultraviolet spectrometers onboard the Solar Mesosphere Explorer (SME) satellite are compared to two dimensional model calculations for the month of January. In general, the model calculated abundances are somewhat smaller than those measured, but exhibit similar trends with respect to altitude and latitude. The possible causes of discrepancies include the mesospheric H2O content and photochemical reaction rates, particularly the rate of O2 photolysis.