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Hegglin et al. 2005
Hegglin, M.I., Brunner, D., Peter, T., Staehelin, J., Wirth, V., Hoor, P. and Fischer, H. (2005). Determination of eddy diffusivity in the lowermost stratosphere. Geophysical Research Letters 32: doi: 10.1029/2005GL022495. issn: 0094-8276.

We present a 2D-advection-diffusion model that simulates the main transport pathways influencing tracer distributions in the lowermost stratosphere (LMS). The model describes slow diabatic descent of aged stratospheric air, vertical (cross-isentropic) and horizontal (along isentropes) diffusion within the LMS and across the tropopause using equivalent latitude and potential temperature coordinates. Eddy diffusion coefficients parameterize the integral effect of dynamical processes leading to small scale turbulence and mixing. They were specified by matching model simulations to observed CO distributions. Interestingly, the model suggests mixing across isentropes to be more important than horizontal mixing across surfaces of constant equivalent latitude, shining new light on the interplay between various transport mechanisms in the LMS. The model achieves a good description of the small scale tracer features at the tropopause with squared correlation coefficients R2 = 0.72…0.94.

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Abstract

Keywords
Atmospheric Composition and Structure, Middle atmosphere, constituent transport and chemistry, Atmospheric Composition and Structure, Middle atmosphere, composition and chemistry, Atmospheric Composition and Structure, Middle atmosphere, energy deposition, Atmospheric Composition and Structure, Evolution of the atmosphere (1610, 8125), Atmospheric Composition and Structure, General or miscellaneous
Journal
Geophysical Research Letters
http://www.agu.org/journals/gl/
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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