Transport Processes in the Middle Atmosphere

NATO ASI Series Advanced Science Institutes Series

A series presenting the results of activities sponsored by the NATO Science Committee, which aims at the dissemination of advanced scientific and technological knowledge, with a view to strengthening links between scientific communities.

The series is published by an international board of publishers in conjunction with the NATO Scientific Affairs Division

A Life Sciences Plenum Publishing Corporation B Physics London and New York

C Mathematical D. Reidel Publishing Company and Physical Sciences Dordrecht, Boston, Lancaster and Tokyo

D Behavioural and Social Sciences Martinus Nijhoff Publishers E Applied Sciences Dordrecht, Boston, Lancaster

F Computer and Systems Sciences Springer Verlag G Ecological Sciences Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, London, H Cell Biology Paris, and Tokyo

Series C: Mathematical and Physical Sciences Vol. 213

NATO ASI Series Advanced Science Institutes Series

A series presenting the results of activities sponsored by the NATO Science Committee, which aims at the dissemination of advanced scientific and technological knowledge, with a view to strengthening links between scientific communities.

The series is published by an international board of publishers in conjunction with the NATO Scientific Affairs Division

A Life Sciences Plenum Publishing Corporation B Physics London and New York

C Mathematical D. Reidel Publishing Company and Physical Sciences Dordrecht, Boston, Lancaster and Tokyo

D Behavioural and Social Sciences Martinus Nijhoff Publishers E Applied Sciences Dordrecht, Boston, Lancaster

F Computer and Systems Sciences Springer Verlag G Ecological Sciences Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, London, H Cell Biology Paris, and Tokyo

Series C: Mathematical and Physical Sciences Vol. 213

Transport Processes in the Middle Atmosphere

edited by

Guido Visconti Department of Physics, University of L'Aquila, Italy

Co-editor

Rolando Garcia National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, U.S.A.

D. Reidel Publishing Company

Dordrecht / Boston / Lancaster / Tokyo

Published in cooperation with NATO Scientific Affairs Division

Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Transport Processes in the Middle Atmosphere Erice. ltaly November 2 3-27. 1986

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

NATO Advanced Research WorKshop on Transport Processes in the Middle Atmosphere (1986: Erice, Sicily)

Transport processes in the middle atmosphere I edited by Guido Visconti; co-editor, Rolando Garcia.

p. em - (NATO ASI series. Series C, Mathematical and physical sciences; vol. 213) "Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Transport Processes in the

Middle Atmosphere. Erica, Italy, November 23-27. 1986"-T.p. verso. "Published in cooperation with NATO Scientific Affairs Division." Includes index. ISBN· 13: 978-94-0 10·8262·4 c:·ISBN-13: 978·94·009·3973·8 DOl: 10.1007/978-94·009-3973·8 1. Middla atmosphere. 2. Dynamic meteorology. I. Visconti. Guido. It. Garcia,

Rolando Victor, 191~ . III. Title. IV. Series: NATO ASI series. Series C, Math-ematical and physical sciences; no. 213. QC881.2.M53N38 1986 551.5' 153-<1cI9

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE ................. .

1. DYNAMICAL CLIMATOLOGY OF THE MIDDLE ATMOSPHERE

Troposphere-stratosphere general circulation statistics /M.A. GELLER and M.F. WU ....... .

A review of observations of the quasi-biennial and semiannual oscillations of wind and temperature in the tropical middle atmosphere/K. HAMILTON . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Recent progress in gravity wave saturation studies/D.C. FRITTS

Radar observations of gravity waves in the mesosphere/R.A. VINCENT . . . . . . . . . . . .

The seasonal evolution of the stratosphere in the northern hemisphere/ A. O'NEILL and V.D. POPE . .

2. OBSERVATIONS AND ANALYSIS OF CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS

Distributions of ozone and nitric acid measured by the Limb Infrared Monitor of the Stratosphere (LIMS)/J.C. GILLE

The near global distributions of middle atmospheric H 2 0 and N0 2 measured by the NIMBUS 7 LIMS experiment/E.E. REMSBERG

vii

3

19

31

47

57

73

and J.M. RUSSELL III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Satellite measurements of stratospheric aerosols/M.P. McCORMICK and P.H. WANG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

Evidence for planetary wave breaking from satellite data: The relative roles of diabatic effects and irreversible mixing/No BUTCHART . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

Seasonal variation in the variance of stratospheric ozone and potential temperature over Hohenpeissenberg, F.R.G./E.P. ROTH and D.H. EHHALT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137

Satellite observations of the Antarctic ozone depletion/M.R. SCHOEBERL . . . . .

3. TRANSPORT IN THE MIDDLE ATMOSPHERE: THEORY AND MODELING

Transport mechanisms in the middle atmosphere: An introductory survey /D.G. ANDREWS

153

169

vi

A coupled model of zonally averaged dynamics, radiation and chemistry /K.K. TUNG ........ .

The influence of the semi-annual and quasi-biennial oscillations on equatorial tracer distributions /L.J. GRAY and J.A. PYLE ........ .

The effect of breaking gravity waves on the distribution of trace species in the middle atmosphere/G. BRASSEUR and M. HITCHMAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Modeling the transport of chemically active constituents in the stratosphere/W.L. GROSE, J.E. NEALY, R.E. TURNER and W.T. BLACKSHEAR ............... .

Comprehensive modeling of the middle atmosphere: The influence of horizontal resolution/J.D. MAHLMAN and L.J. UMSCHEID

Dynamics and tracer transport in the middle atmosphere: An overview of some recent developments/M.E. MciNTYRE

Evidence of planetary wave breaking in the stratosphere using a photochemical model along air parcel trajectories/J. AUSTIN

The production of temporal variability in trace constituents concentrations/J.R. HOLTON ........... .

Parcel dispersion in stratospheric models/R.A. PLUMB . .

Diffusion coefficients calculated from satellite data/L.V. LYJAK

Vacillations induced by interference of stationary and traveling planetary waves/M.L. SALBY and R.R. GARCIA

4. RADIATIVE PROCESSES AND TRANSPORT

Response of the middle atmosphere to changing 0 3 and CO 2-

A speculative tutorial/S.B. FELS .......... .

The residual circulation: Interhemispheric differences and heating and eddy components/S.R. BEAGLEY and R.S. HARWOOD

Analysis of the mean meridional circulation using satellite data/E.R. REMSBERG . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

5. OBSERVATIONAL TECHNIQUES

Irregular and diurnal variability in asynoptic measurements of

TABLE OF CONTENTS

183

199

215

229

251

267

297

313

327

343

353

371

387

401

stratospheric trace species/M.L. SALBY ........ 423

Contribution of radar observations of winds, waves, turbulence and composition to study transport processes in the middle atmosphere/ J. ROTTGER ........... 439

Lidar sounding of the structure and dynamics of the middle atmosphere: A review of recent results relevant to transport processes /M.L. CHANIN and A. HAUCHECORNE . . . . . . . 459

ALPHABETICAL INDEX OF THE AUTHORS 479

SUBJECT INDEX 481

PREFACE

The NATO Advanced Research Workshop on "Transport Processes in the Middle Atmosphere" was held in Erice, Sicily, from November 23 through November 27, 1986. In addition to NATO, the workshop was supported by the International School of Atmospheric Physics of the Ettore Majorana Center for Scientific Culture, and by the National Research Council of Italy. The Organizing Committee was fortunate to enlist the participation of many of the experts in the field, and this book is an account of their contributions. In order to expedite publication and keep the results "as fresh as possible" , it was decided to forego formal review of the papers; instead, the authors were asked to solicit internal reviews from their colleagues. Further, each paper was thoroughly discussed and criticized during the meeting, and those discussions have been taken into account in the preparation of the final version of the manuscripts. Occasional short presentations were made by some of the Workshop participants who wished to provide information complementary to that given in the invited talks. These presentations are not included in this book, which contains only the invited papers.

The book is organized into five chapters corresponding to the different topics cov­ered by the Workshop. The first two chapters contain general reviews of the dynamical climatology of the middle atmosphere and of the growing body of data available on the dis­tribution of chemical constituents. The chapter on dynamical climatology places particular emphasis on gravity waves, and the quasi-biennial and semiannual oscillations (see, e.g., the papers by Hamilton and Fritts). Gravity waves are increasingly recognized as crucially important in the dynamics of the mesosphere and lower thermosphere, while consideration of the QBO and SAO is essential for a meaningful explanation of tracer distributions at low latitudes. The role of planetary scale waves is examined in the paper by O'Neill and Pope, who use Ertel's potential vorticity to study meridional transport by large amplitude waves.

The observations and analyses of chemical constituents presented in the second chap­ter are based mostly on satellite data. Nevertheless, recent balloon-sonde observations of the variance of ozone and other chemical constituents described by Roth and Ehhalt demonstrate once again the advantages of a combination of measuring techniques for ob­taining a complete description of constituent distributions. A possible interpretation of the observed variance is given by Holton in Chapter 3. Problems associated with measuring techniques are reported in the last chapter. At the time of the Workshop, initial results from the u.S. National Ozone Expedition were becoming available, and a discussion of the Antarctic "ozone hole" phenomenon was unavoidable. Although this topic was not part of the original agenda, an entire afternoon was devoted to it and a review by Schoeberl of certain observations relating to ozone and temperature changes is included in Chapter 2.

Interpretation of climatology and other data is the aim of physical theory and nu­merical modeling. These aspects are the subject of the third and fourth chapters of this volume. Comprehensive reviews on the different aspects of the transport problem by Andrews, Mcintyre and Plumb are included, together with recent developments in the

viii PREFACE

interpretation of some specific features. The review papers emphasize the importance of such concepts as planetary wave breaking and the Eliassen-Palm flux divergence for un­derstanding large scale transport in the stratosphere. A parameterization of the EP flux in terms of mean quantities is suggested by Tung as a way to solve in a self-consistent man­ner the transport problem in two-dimensional models. The papers by Lyjak and Austin show how calculation of parcel trajectories can be applied to estimate eddy diffusivities and to test the accuracy of chemical schemes, respectively. Applications of some of these ideas to two-dimensional modeling are described by Brasseur and Hitchman. Recent ad­vances in three-dimensional dynamical/chemical modeling are presented by Mahlman and Umscheid, and Grose et al.

The fourth chapter also deals with data interpretation and modeling but with special emphasis on radiative processes. The introduction of the Lagrangian and residual Eule­rian mean circulations has simplified the description of transport in the meridional plane, although in most two-dimensional models a "diabatic" circulation is used instead. The accuracy and the problems related to this approximation are discussed in the papers by Beagley and Harwood, and Remsberg. Fels offers a very clear and simple summary of the basic concepts developed in the chapter.

The final chapter is devoted to measurement techniques and contains reviews of satel­lite and ground based methods. The paper by Salby explores the information content and limitations of satellite measurements which are intrinsically asynoptic. Rottger and Chanin and Hauchecorne give general reviews on the results obtained both with MST and lidar techniques that have contributed so much in the last few years to the understanding of the upper atmosphere. One wishes only that more stations using such instrumentation could be built and operated as a network.

The organization of the meeting and the publication of the book required the efforts of many people. G. Fiocco and J. Pyle, members of the Organizing Committee, worked hard to help prepare a comprehensive program. The generosity of the Ettore Majorana Center and of its President, Prof. A. Zichichi, must be acknowledged especially because this Workshop marked the renaissance of the dormant School on Atmospheric Physics. On the part of NATO the kindness and support of L. Da Cunha, director of the Scientific Affairs Division, has been essential. We are especially grateful to R. Cicerone, director of the Atmospheric Chemistry Division, for his hospitality during the stay of G.V. at NCAR in the summer of 1986, and to Donna Sanerib, whose assistance with typing, correspondence and other logistical details was invaluable. In Italy, Gianna Vittorini helped on a part time but enthusiastic basis. Without their help and the support and understanding of our families the Workshop could not have been possible. Finally, one of us (G. V.) wishes to give special thanks to all the Workshop participants who came to Erice even after asking themselves "Who is this guy and what does he want from me?"

Boulder, Colorado August 3, 1987

Guido Visconti Rolando R. Garcia