Ozone profiles obtained by near-daily ozonesonde observations during campaigns at several sites in the North Atlantic are used to construct time-height cross sections of ozone concentration through the troposphere. Strong day-to-day ozone variability on the scale of synoptic meteorological disturbances is found both in the spring and in the summer throughout much of the troposphere. Layers of h...

[1] We examine the differences between observed stratospheric vertical wave reflection and wave absorption events, which differ in that the wave-induced deceleration remains confined to upper levels in the former. The two types of events signify two types of stratospheric winter dynamics, associated with different downward coupling to the troposphere. Using time-lagged composites, we find that ...

An exceptionally strong stratospheric sudden warming (SSW) that spontaneously occurs in a very simple stratosphere–troposphere AGCM is discussed. The model is a dry, hydrostatic, primitive equation model without planetary stationary waves. Transient baroclinic wave–wave interaction in the troposphere thus provides the only source of upward-propagating wave activity into the stratosphere. The mo...

Carbon monoxide is a common pollutant in the troposphere. Produced mainly by incomplete combustion and industrial activity, it has a concentration within the (normal) range of ~50-200ppbv throughout the troposphere. The major sink is its reaction with the hydroxyl (OH) radical. The lifetime of CO is ~20-30days in the troposphere. The fairly long lifetime and the reaction with OH makes CO an int...

A diagnostic framework is introduced in which anomalous zonally-averaged Rossby wave-activity injection into the stratosphere is decomposed into a contribution solely from zonally-confined upward-propagating Rossby wave packets and another from interaction of the wave packets with the climatological stratospheric planetary waves. To pinpoint the tropospheric sources of the wave packets, a parti...

[1] The IMPACT global chemistry and transport model has been updated to include an aerosol dynamics module. Here it is used to simulate the dynamics of sulfate aerosol and its interaction with nonsulfate aerosol components: carbonaceous aerosol (organic matter (OM) and black carbon (BC)), dust, and sea salt. The sulfate aerosol dynamics is based on the method of modes and moments. In the curren...

The extratropical eddy momentum flux (EMF) is controlled by generation, propagation, and dissipation of large-scale eddies and is concentrated in Earth’s upper troposphere. An idealized GCM is used to investigate how this EMF structure arises. In simulations in which the poles are heated more strongly than the equator, EMF is concentrated near the surface, demonstrating that surface drag genera...

The abundance of gas phase nitric acid in the upper troposphere is overestimated by global chemistry-transport models, especially during the spring and summer seasons. Recent aircraft data obtained over the central US show that mineral aerosols were abundant in the upper troposphere during spring. Chemical reactions on mineral dust may provide an important sink for nitric acid. In regions where...