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Detailed Reference Information |
Cho, J.Y.N., Newell, R.E., Bui, T.P., Browell, E.V., Fenn, M.A., Mahoney, M.J., Gregory, G.L., Sachse, G.W., Vay, S.A., Kucsera, T.L. and Thompson, A.M. (1999). Observations of convective and dynamical instabilities in tropopause folds and their contribution to stratosphere-troposphere exchange. Journal of Geophysical Research 104: doi: 10.1029/1999JD900430. issn: 0148-0227. |
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With aircraft-mounted in situ and remote sensing instruments for dynamical, thermal, and chemical measurements we studied two cases of tropopause folding. In both folds we found Kelvin-Helmholtz billows with horizontal wavelength of ~900 m and thickness of ~120 m. In one case the instability was effectively mixing the bottomside of the fold, leading to the transfer of stratospheric air into the troposphere. Also, we discovered in both cases small-scale secondary ozone maxima shortly after the aircraft ascended past the topside of the fold that corresponded to regions of convective instability. We interpreted this phenomenon as convectively breaking gravity waves. Therefore we posit that convectively breaking gravity waves acting on tropopause folds must be added to the list of important irreversible mixing mechanisms leading to stratosphere-troposphere exchange. ¿ 1999 American Geophysical Union |
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Abstract |
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Keywords
Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics, Convective processes, Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics, Stratosphere/troposphere interactions, Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics, Turbulence, Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics, Waves and tides, Atmospheric Composition and Structure, Cloud physics and chemistry, Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics, Polar meteorology, Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics, Precipitation |
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Publisher
American Geophysical Union 2000 Florida Avenue N.W. Washington, D.C. 20009-1277 USA 1-202-462-6900 1-202-328-0566 service@agu.org |
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