scholarly journals A globally balanced two-dimensional middle atmosphere model: Dynamical studies of mesopause meridional circulation and stratosphere-mesosphere exchange

1997 ◽  
Vol 102 (D11) ◽  
pp. 13095-13112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xun Zhu ◽  
P. K. Swaminathan ◽  
J. H. Yee ◽  
D. F. Strobel ◽  
D. Anderson
Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 133
Author(s):  
Ji-Hee Lee ◽  
Geonhwa Jee ◽  
Young-Sil Kwak ◽  
Heejin Hwang ◽  
Annika Seppälä ◽  
...  

Energetic particle precipitation (EPP) is known to be an important source of chemical changes in the polar middle atmosphere in winter. Recent modeling studies further suggest that chemical changes induced by EPP can also cause dynamic changes in the middle atmosphere. In this study, we investigated the atmospheric responses to the precipitation of medium-to-high energy electrons (MEEs) over the period 2005–2013 using the Specific Dynamics Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (SD-WACCM). Our results show that the MEE precipitation significantly increases the amounts of NOx and HOx, resulting in mesospheric and stratospheric ozone losses by up to 60% and 25% respectively during polar winter. The MEE-induced ozone loss generally increases the temperature in the lower mesosphere but decreases the temperature in the upper mesosphere with large year-to-year variability, not only by radiative effects but also by adiabatic effects. The adiabatic effects by meridional circulation changes may be dominant for the mesospheric temperature changes. In particular, the meridional circulation changes occasionally act in opposite ways to vary the temperature in terms of height variations, especially at around the solar minimum period with low geomagnetic activity, which cancels out the temperature changes to make the average small in the polar mesosphere for the 9-year period.


2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 11621-11646 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. M. L. Melo ◽  
R. Blatherwick ◽  
J. Davies ◽  
P. Fogal ◽  
J. de Grandpré ◽  
...  

Abstract. In this paper we report on a study conducted using the Middle Atmospheric Nitrogen TRend Assessment (MANTRA) balloon measurements of stratospheric constituents and temperature and the Canadian Middle Atmosphere Model (CMAM) in order to evaluate the ability of the model to reproduce the measured fields and to thereby test our ability to describe mid-latitude summertime stratospheric processes. The MANTRA measurements used here are vertical profiles of ozone, temperature, N2O, CH4, HNO3, and HCl obtained during four campaigns, involving the launch of both ozonesondes and large balloons from Vanscoy, Saskatchewan, Canada (52° N, 107° W). The campaigns were conducted in August and September 1998, 2000, 2002 and 2004. During late summer at mid-latitudes, the stratosphere is close to photochemical control, providing an ideal scenario for the study reported here. From this analysis we found that: (1) reducing the value for the vertical diffusion coefficient in CMAM to a more physically reasonable value results in the model better reproducing the measured profiles of long-lived species; (2) the existence of compact correlations among the constituents, as expected from independent measurements in the literature and from models, confirms the self-consistency of the MANTRA measurements; and (3) the 1998 ozone measurements show a narrow layer of low ozone centered near 25 km that is consistent with fossil debris from the polar vortex, suggesting that localized springtime ozone anomalies can persist through summer, affecting ozone levels at mid-latitudes.


2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (21) ◽  
pp. 6505-6525 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. J. Punge ◽  
M. A. Giorgetta

Abstract. The quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) of zonal wind is a prominent mode of variability in the tropical stratosphere. It affects not only the meridional circulation and temperature over a wide latitude range but also the transport and chemistry of trace gases such as ozone. Compared to a QBO less circulation, the long-term climatological means of these quantities are also different. These climatological net effects of the QBO can be studied in general circulation models that extend into the middle atmosphere and have a chemistry and transport component, so-called Chemistry Climate Models (CCMs). In this work we show that the CCM MAECHAM4-CHEM can reproduce the observed QBO variations in temperature and ozone mole fractions when nudged towards observed winds. In particular, it is shown that the QBO signal in transport of nitrogen oxides NOx plays an important role in reproducing the observed ozone QBO, which features a phase reversal slightly below the level of maximum of the ozone mole fraction in the tropics. We then compare two 20-year experiments with the MAECHAM4-CHEM model that differ by including or not including the QBO. The mean wind fields differ between the two model runs, especially during summer and fall seasons in both hemispheres. The differences in the wind field lead to differences in the meridional circulation, by the same mechanism that causes the QBO's secondary meridional circulation, and thereby affect mean temperatures and the mean transport of tracers. In the tropics, the net effect on ozone is mostly due to net differences in upwelling and, higher up, the associated temperature change. We show that a net surplus of up to 15% in NOx in the tropics above 10 hPa in the experiment that includes the QBO does not lead to significantly different volume mixing ratios of ozone. We also note a slight increase in the southern vortex strength as well as earlier vortex formation in northern winter. Polar temperatures differ accordingly. Differences in the strength of the Brewer-Dobson circulation and in further trace gas concentrations are analysed. Our findings underline the importance of a representation of the QBO in CCMs.


2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
pp. 2057-2071 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. M. L. Melo ◽  
R. Blatherwick ◽  
J. Davies ◽  
P. Fogal ◽  
J. de Grandpré ◽  
...  

Abstract. In this paper we report on a study conducted using the Middle Atmospheric Nitrogen TRend Assessment (MANTRA) balloon measurements of stratospheric constituents and temperature and the Canadian Middle Atmosphere Model (CMAM). Three different kinds of data are used to assess the inter-consistency of the combined dataset: single profiles of long-lived species from MANTRA 1998, sparse climatologies from the ozonesonde measurements during the four MANTRA campaigns and from HALOE satellite measurements, and the CMAM climatology. In doing so, we evaluate the ability of the model to reproduce the measured fields and to thereby test our ability to describe mid-latitude summertime stratospheric processes. The MANTRA campaigns were conducted at Vanscoy, Saskatchewan, Canada (52° N, 107° W) in late August and early September of 1998, 2000, 2002 and 2004. During late summer at mid-latitudes, the stratosphere is close to photochemical control, providing an ideal scenario for the study reported here. From this analysis we find that: (1) reducing the value for the vertical diffusion coefficient in CMAM to a more physically reasonable value results in the model better reproducing the measured profiles of long-lived species; (2) the existence of compact correlations among the constituents, as expected from independent measurements in the literature and from models, confirms the self-consistency of the MANTRA measurements; and (3) the 1998 measurements show structures in the chemical species profiles that can be associated with transport, adding to the growing evidence that the summertime stratosphere can be much more disturbed than anticipated. The mechanisms responsible for such disturbances need to be understood in order to assess the representativeness of the measurements and to isolate long-term trends.


1993 ◽  
Vol 98 (D11) ◽  
pp. 20429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malcolm K. W. Ko ◽  
Hans R. Schneider ◽  
Run-Lie Shia ◽  
Debra K. Weisenstein ◽  
Nien-Dak Sze

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