Effect of the Quasi‐Biennial Oscillation on Carbon Monoxide in the Stratosphere

Abstract

The interannual variability of tropical carbon monoxide from the Microwave Limb Sounder over 2004–2018 period is dominated by the quasi‐biennial oscillation (QBO). We simulate the carbon monoxide variability over this period using the 2‐D Caltech/JPL chemistry‐transport model. The chemistry‐transport model includes the photochemical sources and sinks and transport driven by a stream function and eddy diffusivity derived from the assimilated winds of National Centers for Environmental Prediction Reanalysis 2. The results show good agreement between model and Microwave Limb Sounder observations. We also investigate the anomalous period 2015–2016, when the QBO winds deviated significantly from their climatological values. The model simulations could capture the QBO features in agreement with observations for the anomalous period.

Toward Network‐Based Planetary Biosignatures: Atmospheric Chemistry as Unipartite, Unweighted, Undirected Networks

“…This state‐of‐the‐art model has been well‐validated against decades of planetary data and has also been used to predict the photochemistry of ancient Solar System bodies (Wong et al., 2015; Wong, Charnay, et al., 2017) and exoplanetary atmospheres (Gao et al., 2015; Line et al., 2011). We compare the atmospheric networks of Venus (Zhang et al., 2012), Modern Earth (Yung et al., 1980, 2019), Mars (Nair et al., 1994), early Mars/Earth (Adams et al., 2021), Jupiter (Moses et al., 2005), Titan (Willacy et al., 2016), and Pluto (Wong, Fan, et al., 2017). All these planetary networks have been well validated against Solar System data, save for the early Mars/Earth network, for which we have no direct observations and is therefore a geochemically informed theoretical representation of CO 2 ‐N 2 ‐H 2 O‐dominated secondary atmospheres on young terrestrial bodies.…”