Stratosphere-to-troposphere transport revealed by ground-based lidar and ozonesonde at a midlatitude site

Abstract

This paper presents ozone structures measured by a ground-based ozone lidar and ozonesonde at Huntsville, Alabama, on 27-29 April 2010 originating from a stratosphere-to-troposphere transport event associated with a cutoff cyclone and tropopause fold. In this case, the tropopause reached 6 km and the stratospheric intrusion resulted in a 2-km thick elevated ozone layer with values between 70 and 85 ppbv descending from the ̃306-K to 298-K isentropic surface at a rate of ̃5 km day -1. The potential temperature was provided by a collocated microwave profiling radiometer. We examine the corresponding meteorological fields and potential vorticity (PV) structures derived from the analysis data from the North American Mesoscale model. The 2-PVU (PV unit) surface, defined as the dynamic tropopause, is able to capture the variations of the ozone tropopause estimated from the ozonesonde and lidar measurements. The estimated ozone/PV ratio, from the measured ozone and model derived PV, for the mixing layer between the troposphere and stratosphere is ̃41 ppbv/PVU with an uncertainty of ̃33%. Within two days, the estimated mass of ozone irreversibly transported from the stratospheric into the troposphere is between 0.07 Tg (0.9 * 10 33 molecules) and 0.11 Tg (1.3 * 10 33 molecules) with an estimated uncertainty of 59%. Tropospheric ozone exhibited enormous variability due to the complicated mixing processes. Low ozone and large variability were observed in the mid-troposphere after the stratospheric intrusion due to the westerly advection including the transition from a cyclonic system to an anticyclonic system. This study using high temporal and vertical-resolution measurements suggests that, in this case, stratospheric air quickly lost its stratospheric characteristics once it is irreversibly mixed down into the troposphere. copyright © Published in 2012 by the American Geophysical Union.