Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions
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10.5194/acpd-7-11621-2007
http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/7/11621/2007/
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http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/7/11621/2007/acpd-7-11621-2007.pdf
11621
11646
2007-08-08
Summertime stratospheric processes at northern mid-latitudes: comparisons between MANTRA balloon measurements and the Canadian Middle Atmosphere Model
S. M. L. Melo
stella.melo@space.gc.ca
R. Blatherwick
J. Davies
P. Fogal
J. de Grandpré
J. McConnell
C. T. McElroy
C. McLandress
F. J. Murcray
J. R. Olson
K. Semeniuk
T. G. Shepherd
K. Strong
D. Tarasick
B. J. Williams-Rioux
Canadian Space Agency, St-Hubert, Quebec, Canada
Department of Physics, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Department of Earth and Space Science and Engineering, York University, Ontario, Canada
Environment Canada, Canada
Department of Atmosphere and Ocean, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Denver, CO, USA
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, N<sub>2</sub>O, CH<sub>4</sub>, HNO<sub>3</sub>, 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.
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