A modeling study of an East Asian convective complex during March 2001

• Published in: Journal of Geophysical Research. D. Atmospheres 2004-08, Vol.109 (D15), p.D15S14.1-n/a
• Main Authors: Hitchman, Matthew H., Buker, Marcus L., Tripoli, Gregory J., Pierce, R. B., Al-Saadi, J. A., Browell, E. V., Avery, Melody A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Earth, ocean, space; Exact sciences and technology; ozone transport; stratosphere-troposphere exchange
• ISSN: 0148-0227; 2156-2202
• DOI: 10.1029/2003JD004312

During March–April 2001 the University of Wisconsin Nonhydrostatic Modeling System (UWNMS) was used to provide flight planning and estimation of ozone flux into the troposphere over East Asia in support of the Transport and Chemical Evolution over the Pacific (TRACE‐P) mission. On 24 March a convective complex developed in eastern China and propagated eastward over the Pacific south of Japan. Aircraft and satellite observations, together with the UWNMS simulations, captured this convective event, which first entrained urban boundary layer air over Asia and then marine boundary layer air over the Pacific. The convective updraft split the subtropical westerly jet, deformed the tropopause upward, radiated gravity waves into the stratosphere, and induced a ring of stratospheric ozone to descend around its periphery into the middle troposphere. The DC‐8 observations and UWNMS show a vault of moderate ozone (∼65 ppbv) in the 8–12 km layer within the convection, with high stratospheric values (∼100 ppbv) subsiding around the periphery into the troposphere near 6.5 km. A new two‐scale method for diagnosing cross‐tropopause ozone flux is compared with an annular volume estimate. During this 24 hour convective event, ∼0.8 Tg ozone entered the troposphere from the stratosphere, comparable in magnitude to ozone fluxes in midlatitude cyclones.