Climatological characteristics of the tropical tropopause as revealed by radiosondes

Seidel, Dian J.; Ross, Rebecca J.; Angell, J. K.; Reid, George C.

doi:10.1029/2000jd900837

Cited by 298 publications

(370 citation statements)

References 48 publications

(36 reference statements)

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“…They are separated by the tropopause, which, according to the World Meteorological Organization, is defined as the lowest level at which the temperature lapse rate decreases to 2 K km À1 or less, and the lapse rate averaged between this level and any level within the next 2 km does not exceed 2 K km À1 [World Meteorological Organization (WMO), 1986;Hoinka, 1997]. In the tropics, the tropopause roughly coincides with the 380 K potential temperature surface at a height of 15 -18 km Highwood and Hoskins, 1998;Seidel et al, 2001]. It slopes downwards toward the poles, where it may be as low as 6 -8 km at a potential temperature of 290-320 K.…”

Section: Tropopausementioning

confidence: 99%

“…[4] There exist several climatologies of global tropopause heights [e.g., Hoinka, 1998;Nielsen-Gammon, 2001] and of parameters at the tropopause [Hoinka, 1999;Seidel et al, 2001] based on different data sets and using different tropopause definitions. However, substantial difficulties remain in determining the height of the tropopause, particularly at polar latitudes [Highwood et al, 2000;Zängl and Hoinka, 2001].…”

Section: Tropopausementioning

confidence: 99%

“…[10] The tropopause is highest and temperatures at the tropopause are lowest in the tropics [Highwood and Hoskins, 1998;Seidel et al, 2001]. Air rises in the Hadley cell from the surface to the upper troposphere.…”

Section: Ste In the Tropicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Stratosphere‐troposphere exchange: A review, and what we have learned from STACCATO

et al. 2003

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[1] This paper provides a review of stratosphere-troposphere exchange (STE), with a focus on processes in the extratropics. It also addresses the relevance of STE for tropospheric chemistry, particularly its influence on the oxidative capacity of the troposphere. After summarizing the current state of knowledge, the objectives of the project Influence of Stratosphere-Troposphere Exchange in a Changing Climate on Atmospheric Transport and Oxidation Capacity (STACCATO), recently funded by the European Union, are outlined. Several papers in this Journal of Geophysical ResearchAtmospheres special section present the results of this project, of which this paper gives an overview. STACCATO developed a new concept of STE in the extratropics, explored the capacities of different types of methods and models to diagnose STE, and identified their various strengths and shortcomings. Extensive measurements were made in central Europe, including the first monitoring over an extended period of time of beryllium-10 ( 10 Be), to provide a suitable database for case studies of stratospheric intrusions and for model validation. Photochemical models were used to examine the impact of STE on tropospheric ozone and the oxidizing capacity of the troposphere. Studies of the present interannual variability of STE and projections into the future were made using reanalysis data and climate models.

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Section: Tropopausementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Tropopausementioning

confidence: 99%

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Stratosphere‐troposphere exchange: A review, and what we have learned from STACCATO

et al. 2003

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“…Sherwood and Dessler, 2000]. In fact, where the troposphere ends and the stratosphere begins is somewhat ambiguous in tropical latitudes since there is an extensive layer of nearly constant temperature rather than a sharp transition from negative to positive lapse rate with height [e.g., Seidel et al, 2001]. This region is referred to as the tropical tropopause layer (TTL) and its structure may result, in part, from the vertical variation of mixing induced by penetrating convection [Dessler, 2002].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

22‐Year survey of tropical convection penetrating into the lower stratosphere

Rossow¹,

Pearl²

2007

Geophysical Research Letters

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[1] A 22-year survey of tropical convection penetrating into the stratosphere has been conducted using special subsets of the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project cloud data set. In addition to refined information about the geographic distribution of penetrating convective systems, these results show that penetrating convection occurs predominantly in the larger, organized, mesoscale convective systems, whereas smaller, unorganized convective systems rarely penetrate. Durations of penetrating events are longest for the largest systems, hurricanes and typhoons, generally exceeding one day.

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“…At Thiruvananthapuram (station 43371; 8 ∘ 28 ′ 48 ′′ N, 76 ∘ 56 ′ 60 ′′ E) the distribution is unimodal irrespective of the inclusion of double LRT events, suggesting single LRTs are by far most frequent at lower latitudes. Unimodality may also be due partly to the inability of the WMO definition to capture the intricate structures of multiple tropopauses in the Tropics (Mehta et al, 2011) and partly due to early balloon bursts before reaching the second tropopause (Seidel et al, 2001;Yuchechen et al, 2010). Separately, LRTM height, pressure and temperature were obtained from mandatory levels (Appendix S1).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A comparison between thermal tropopauses derived from mandatory and significant levels for the Indian subcontinent upper‐air network

Yuchechen

Canziani

2017

Atmospheric Science Letters

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Differences between lapse rate tropopauses (LRTs) and LRT-like tropopauses retrieved from mandatory levels (LRTMs) were studied for height, pressure and temperature at 37 locations of the Indian subcontinent on a long-term annual, summer and winter basis covering the period 1973-2015. LRTM is usually found below LRT and statistical distinctions hinder the use of the former tropopause as a replacement for the latter one, yet significant positive Spearman's correlations show a relationship through a monotonic increasing function that enable the estimation of LRT variables from the corresponding LRTM ones. The slope and the intercept for a linear function relating corresponding variables were obtained at each location.

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Climatological characteristics of the tropical tropopause as revealed by radiosondes

Cited by 298 publications

References 48 publications

Stratosphere‐troposphere exchange: A review, and what we have learned from STACCATO

Stratosphere‐troposphere exchange: A review, and what we have learned from STACCATO

22‐Year survey of tropical convection penetrating into the lower stratosphere

A comparison between thermal tropopauses derived from mandatory and significant levels for the Indian subcontinent upper‐air network

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