Composition and Chemistry

An aircraft-based upper troposphere lower stratosphere O3, CO, and H2O climatology for the Northern Hemisphere

  1. S. Tilmes1,
  2. L. L. Pan1,
  3. P. Hoor2,
  4. E. Atlas3,
  5. M. A. Avery4,
  6. T. Campos1,
  7. L. E. Christensen5,
  8. G. S. Diskin4,
  9. R.-S. Gao6,
  10. R. L. Herman5,
  11. E. J. Hintsa7,8,
  12. M. Loewenstein4,
  13. J. Lopez4,
  14. M. E. Paige9,
  15. J. V. Pittman1,
  16. J. R. Podolske4,
  17. M. R. Proffitt10,
  18. G. W. Sachse4,
  19. C. Schiller11,
  20. H. Schlager12,
  21. J. Smith7,
  22. N. Spelten11,
  23. C. Webster5,
  24. A. Weinheimer1,
  25. M. A. Zondlo13

Article first published online: 22 JUL 2010

DOI: 10.1029/2009JD012731

Issue

Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres (1984–2012)

Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres (1984–2012)

Additional Information

How to Cite

Tilmes, S., et al. (2010), An aircraft-based upper troposphere lower stratosphere O3, CO, and H2O climatology for the Northern Hemisphere, J. Geophys. Res., 115, D14303, doi:10.1029/2009JD012731.

Author Information

  1. 1

    Atmospheric Chemistry Division, National Center of Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA

  2. 2

    Institute for Atmospheric Physics, University Mainz, Mainz, Germany

  3. 3

    Department of Marine and Atmospheric Chemistry, RSMAS, University of Miami, Miami, Florida, USA

  4. 4

    NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California, USA

  5. 5

    Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, USA

  6. 6

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

  7. 7

    Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

  8. 8

    Global Monitoring Division, NOAA, Boulder, Colorado, USA

  9. 9

    Southwest Sciences, Inc., Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA

  10. 10

    Proffitt Instruments, Austin, Texas, USA

  11. 11

    ICG-1, Research Center Jülich, Jülich, Germany

  12. 12

    Institute for Physics of the Atmosphere, Wessling, Germany

  13. 13

    Center for Mid-Infrared Technologies for Health and the Environment, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 22 JUL 2010
  2. Article first published online: 22 JUL 2010
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 11 MAR 2010
  4. Manuscript Revised: 24 FEB 2010
  5. Manuscript Received: 26 JUN 2009
Corrected by:

Composition and Chemistry: Correction to “An aircraft-based upper troposphere lower stratosphere O3, CO, and H2O climatology for the Northern Hemisphere”

Vol. 115, Issue D18, Article first published online: 23 SEP 2010

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Keywords:

  • UTLS;
  • aircraft climatology;
  • tracer-tracer correlations

[1] We present a climatology of O3, CO, and H2O for the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS), based on a large collection of high-resolution research aircraft data taken between 1995 and 2008. To group aircraft observations with sparse horizontal coverage, the UTLS is divided into three regimes: the tropics, subtropics, and the polar region. These regimes are defined using a set of simple criteria based on tropopause height and multiple tropopause conditions. Tropopause-referenced tracer profiles and tracer-tracer correlations show distinct characteristics for each regime, which reflect the underlying transport processes. The UTLS climatology derived here shows many features of earlier climatologies. In addition, mixed air masses in the subtropics, identified by O3-CO correlations, show two characteristic modes in the tracer-tracer space that are a result of mixed air masses in layers above and below the tropopause (TP). A thin layer of mixed air (1–2 km around the tropopause) is identified for all regions and seasons, where tracer gradients across the TP are largest. The most pronounced influence of mixing between the tropical transition layer and the subtropics was found in spring and summer in the region above 380 K potential temperature. The vertical extent of mixed air masses between UT and LS reaches up to 5 km above the TP. The tracer correlations and distributions in the UTLS derived here can serve as a reference for model and satellite data evaluation.

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