Stratosphere-troposphere exchange in the vicinity of a tropopause fold

Abstract

Transport of air masses from the stratosphere to the troposphere along tropopause folds can lead to peaked ozone concentrations at ground level and hereby influence the long-term trend of tropospheric ozone. To improve the understanding of responsible processes and preferred regions of exchange, transient and reversible exchange processes in the vicinity of a tropopause fold are analysed on the basis of a case study. The global and regional atmospheric chemistry model system MECO(n), which couples the limited-area atmospheric chemistry and climate model COSMO-CLM/MESSy to the global model ECHAM5/MESSy for Atmospheric Chemistry (EMAC) is applied. Using similar process parametrisations in both model instances, the system allows for very consistent, simultaneous simulations at different spatial resolutions. Simulated ozone enhancements at ground level, caused by descending stratospheric air masses, are evaluated with observational data. Because of the coarse resolution of the global model, the observed ozone enhancements are not captured by the global model instance. However, the results of the finer resolved, regional model instance coincide well with the measurements. Based on the combination of Eulerian and Lagrangian analysis methods it is shown that stratosphere-troposphere-exchange (STE) in the vicintity of the tropopause fold occurs in regions of turbulence and diabatic processes. Within the framework of a Lagrangian study the efficiency of mixing along a tropopause fold is quantified, showing that almost all (97%) of the air masses originating in the tropopause fold are transported into the troposphere during the following two days.