References

ACP

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics

ACP

1680-7324

Copernicus GmbH

Göttingen, Germany

10.5194/acp-7-3989-2007

The CO2 tracer clock for the Tropical Tropopause Layer

Park

¹ Jiménez

¹ Daube

B. C.

¹ Pfister

² Conway

T. J.

³ Gottlieb

E. W.

¹ Chow

V. Y.

¹ Curran

D. J.

¹ Matross

D. M.

¹ ⁷ Bright

¹ Atlas

E. L.

⁴ Bui

T. P.

² Gao

R.-S.

⁵ Twohy

C. H.

⁶ Wofsy

S. C.

Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and the Division of Engineering and Applies Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA

NASA, Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California 94035, USA

NOAA, Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, Colorado 80305, USA

University of Miami, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, Miami, Florida 33149, USA

NOAA Aeronomy Laboratory, Boulder, Colorado 80303, USA

Oregon State University, College of Oceanic and Atmospheric Science, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, USA

now at: Department of Environmental Science Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA

27 07 2007

7 14 3989 4000

This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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Observations of CO2 were made in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere in the deep tropics in order to determine the patterns of large-scale vertical transport and age of air in the Tropical Tropopause Layer (TTL). Flights aboard the NASA WB-57F aircraft over Central America and adjacent ocean areas took place in January and February, 2004 (Pre-AURA Validation Experiment, Pre-AVE) and 2006 (Costa Rice AVE, CR-AVE), and for the same flight dates of 2006, aboard the Proteus aircraft from the surface to 15 km over Darwin, Australia (Tropical Warm Pool International Cloud Experiment, TWP-ICE). The data demonstrate that the TTL is composed of two layers with distinctive features: (1) the lower TTL, 350–360 K (potential temperature(θ); approximately 12–14 km), is subject to inputs of convective outflows, as indicated by layers of variable CO2 concentrations, with air parcels of zero age distributed throughout the layer; (2) the upper TTL, from θ=~360 K to ~390 K (14–18 km), ascends slowly and ages uniformly, as shown by a linear decline in CO2 mixing ratio tightly correlated with altitude, associated with increasing age. This division is confirmed by ensemble trajectory analysis. The CO2 concentration at the level of 360 K was 380.0(±0.2) ppmv, indistinguishable from surface site values in the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) for the flight dates. Values declined with altitude to 379.2(±0.2) ppmv at 390 K, implying that air in the upper TTL monotonically ages while ascending. In combination with the winter slope of the CO2 seasonal cycle (+10.8±0.4 ppmv/yr), the vertical gradient of –0.78 (±0.09) ppmv gives a mean age of 26(±3) days for the air at 390 K and a mean ascent rate of 1.5(±0.3) mm s−1. The TTL near 360 K in the Southern Hemisphere over Australia is very close in CO2 composition to the TTL in the Northern Hemisphere over Costa Rica, with strong contrasts emerging at lower altitudes (<360 K). Both Pre-AVE and CR-AVE CO2 observed unexpected input from deep convection over Amazônia deep into the TTL. The CO2 data confirm the operation of a highly accurate tracer clock in the TTL that provides a direct measure of the ascent rate of the TTL and of the age of air entering the stratosphere.

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