Articles | Volume 17, issue 5
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-3445-2017
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-3445-2017
Research article
 | 
10 Mar 2017
Research article |  | 10 Mar 2017

An Atlantic streamer in stratospheric ozone observations and SD-WACCM simulation data

Klemens Hocke, Franziska Schranz, Eliane Maillard Barras, Lorena Moreira, and Niklaus Kämpfer

Abstract. Observation and simulation of individual ozone streamers are important for the description and understanding of non-linear transport processes in the middle atmosphere. A sudden increase in mid-stratospheric ozone occurred above central Europe on 4 December 2015. The GROund-based Millimeter-wave Ozone Spectrometer (GROMOS) and the Stratospheric Ozone MOnitoring RAdiometer (SOMORA) in Switzerland measured an ozone enhancement of about 30 % at 34 km altitude (8.3 hPa) from 1 to 4 December. A similar ozone increase is simulated by the Specified Dynamics Whole Atmosphere Community Climate (SD-WACCM) model. Further, the global ozone fields at 34 km altitude (8.3 hPa) from SD-WACCM and the satellite experiment Aura/MLS show a remarkable agreement for the location and timing of an ozone streamer (large-scale tongue-like structure) extending from the subtropics in northern America over the Atlantic to central Europe. This agreement indicates that SD-WACCM can inform us about the wind inside the Atlantic ozone streamer. SD-WACCM shows an eastward wind of about 100 m s−1 inside the Atlantic streamer in the mid-stratosphere. SD-WACCM shows that the Atlantic streamer flows along the edge of the polar vortex. The Atlantic streamer turns southward at an erosion region of the polar vortex located above the Caspian Sea. The spatial distribution of stratospheric water vapour indicates a filament outgoing from this erosion region. The Atlantic streamer, the polar vortex erosion region and the water vapour filament belong to the process of planetary wave breaking in the so-called surf zone of the northern midlatitude winter stratosphere.

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Short summary
Observation and simulation show an Atlantic ozone streamer along the edge region of the polar vortex in the northern middle stratosphere during winter. The Atlantic streamer has wind speeds of about 100 m/s and turns equatorward at a vortex erosion region. We compare the fields of stratospheric ozone and water vapour from ground- and space-based microwave radiometry and SD-WACCM simulations for a better understanding of non-linear transport processes in the middle atmosphere.
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