Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net 1680-7367 1680-7375 4 5 2004 10.5194/acpd-4-6789-2004 http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/4/6789/2004/ http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/4/6789/2004/acpd-4-6789-2004.html http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/4/6789/2004/acpd-4-6789-2004.pdf 6789 6822 2004-10-22 Climatological features of stratospheric streamers in the FUB-CMAM with increased horizontal resolution K. Krüger kkrueger@awi-potsdam.de U. Langematz J. L. Grenfell K. Labitzke Institut für Meteorologie, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany now at: Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Potsdam, Germany The purpose of this study is to investigate horizontal transport processes in the winter stratosphere using data with a high spatial and temporal resolution. For this reason the Freie Universit&#228;t Berlin Climate Middle Atmosphere Model (FUB-CMAM) with its model top at 83 km altitude, increased horizontal resolution T42 and the semi-Lagrangian transport scheme for advecting passive tracers is used. <br><br> A new result of this paper is the classification of specific transport phenomena within the stratosphere into tropical-subtropical streamer (e.g. Offermann et al., 1999) and polar vortex extrusions hereafter called polar vortex streamers. To investigate the role played by these large-scale structures on the inter-annual and seasonal variability of the observed negative ozone trend in northern mid-latitudes, the global occurrence of such streamers were calculated based on a 10-year model climatology, concentrating on the existence of the Arctic polar vortex. For the identification and counting of streamers, the new method of zonal anomaly was chosen, which in comparison to other methods produced the best result in this study. The analysis of the months October&ndash;May yielded a maximum occurrence of tropical-subtropical streamers during Arctic winter and spring in the middle and upper stratosphere. Synoptic maps revealed highest intensities in the subtropics over East Asia with a secondary maximum over the Atlantic in the northern hemisphere. Furthermore, tropical-subtropical streamers exhibited about a four times higher occurrence than polar vortex streamers, indicating that the subtropical barrier is more permeable than the polar vortex barrier (edge) in the model, which is in good correspondence with observations (e.g. Plumb, 2002; Neu et al., 2003). Interesting for the total ozone loss in mid-latitudes is the consideration of the lower stratosphere, where strongest ozone depletion is observed at polar latitudes (WMO, 2003). In this particular region the FUB-CMAM simulated a climatological maximum of 10% occurrence of tropical-subtropical streamers over East-Asia/West Pacific and the Atlantic during early- and mid-winter. <br><br> The results of this paper demonstrate that the regular occurrence of stratospheric streamers e.g., large-scale mixing processes of tropical-subtropical and polar vortex air masses into mid-latitudes, could play a significant role on the strength and variability of the observed total ozone decrease at mid-latitudes and should not be neglected in future climate change studies.