The Interaction of Horizontal Transport and Photochemistry in the Stratosphere

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This project represents an interdisciplinary, collaborative effort between the principal investigator and scientists at NOAA's Aeronomy Laboratory and the National Center for Atmospheric Research. It consists of a study of the stratosphere involving elements of dynamics, transport, and chemistry. In order to understand distributions of ozone and other chemical species, the dynamical processes responsible for mixing and transport must be understood. Of particular interest is the role of transient eddies in the transport of chemical species form the equatorial to polar regions. The evolution of the stratospheric flow is quite complex: the periodic displacement and distortion of the polar vortex results in very small-scale, asymmetric distributions of chemical species that cannot be adequately resolved temporally or spatially by existing observing systems. The goal of this project is to develop a high (horizontal) resolution numerical model to further investigate this phenomenon and to identify the physical mechanisms involved. Because the stratosphere is characterized by flows of deep vertical extent, the co- investigators will employ a two-dimensional model to look at the interaction between eddy transport and photochemistry. In addition, they will explore the role of polar stratospheric clouds in altering the photochemistry of the stratosphere. This results of this research will have important implications for understanding of both atmospheric dynamics and atmospheric chemistry.