CAREER: Multiscale Dynamics of the Tropical Upper Troposphere and Lower Stratosphere

这是一个学院早期职业发展(Career)项目，旨在支持一名初级教师发展和实施大气科学研究和教育的综合5年计划。研究部分是对控制热带对流层顶层(TTL)、对流层上层和平流层下层在约200毫巴(大致相当于热带对流流出水平)至70毫巴之间温度结构的机制的研究。TTL在科学上很有趣，因为它包含对流层和平流层之间的界面，包括冷点对流层顶(约100毫巴)，TTL中的条件控制着大气示踪剂进入平流层，包括水蒸气。水蒸气因其强烈的辐射效应和平流层云在形成臭氧层空洞中的作用而特别令人感兴趣。进入平流层的水蒸气的量反过来又强烈地依赖于TTL中的温度，而温度是由从单个对流羽流到行星尺度环流的各种机制决定的。该项目使用一系列数值模式探索各种机制，包括单柱辐射-对流模式、具有泛热带区域的云解析模式和综合化学-气候模式。该项目将试图了解为什么对流云顶和冷点对流层顶之间的温度持续下降，以及驱动TTL内温度变化的过程。该项目的教育部分试图通过“伟大发现的故事”向学生和普通公众介绍大气科学。该活动的目标是从历史的角度教授科学，强调科学是发生在特定历史背景下的人类和社会努力。这种方法已经被用来向普通观众教授物理，研究表明，历史方法可以使物理对非专业人士更容易接近。但是，尽管这种方法在物理学上取得了成功，但它以前并没有发展成大气科学。通过这一奖项，国际和平研究所将与大气过程多尺度模拟中心(CMMAP)的推广计划合作，展示几个发现的故事，包括发现对流层顶和平流层、发现布鲁尔-多布森环流、发现准两年一次的振荡和发现臭氧层空洞。

This is a Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) project to support a junior faculty member in developing and conducting an integrated 5-year program of research and education in atmospheric science. The research component is a study of the mechanisms which govern the temperature structure of the Tropical Tropopause Layer (TTL), the layer of the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere between about 200mb (roughly the level of tropical convective outflow) and 70mb. The TTL is scientifically interesting because it contains the interface between the troposphere and stratosphere, including the cold point tropopause (around 100mb), and conditions in the TTL control the entry of atmospheric tracers into the stratosphere, including water vapor. Water vapor is of particular interest due to its strong radiative effects, and because of the role of stratospheric clouds in the formation of the ozone hole. The amount of water vapor entering the stratosphere in turn depends strongly on temperature in the TTL, and temperature is determined by a variety of mechanisms from individual convective plumes to planetary-scale circulations. This project explores the full range of mechanisms using a hierarchy of numerical models, including single-column radiative-convective model, a cloud resolving model with a pan-tropical domain, and a comprehensive chemistry-climate model. The project will attempt to understand why temperature continues to decrease with height between the convective cloud tops and the cold point tropopause, and the processes which drive temperature variability within the TTL.The educational component of the project seeks to introduce students and the general public to atmospheric science through "tales of great discoveries". The goal of the activity is to teach science from a historical perspective, emphasizing science as a human and social endeavor that occurs within a particular historical context. This approach has been used to teach physics to general audiences, and studies show that the historical approach can make physics more approachable for non-specialists. But despite the success of this approach for physics it has not been developed previously atmospheric science. Through this award the PI will work with the outreach program at the Center for Multiscale Modeling of Atmospheric Processes (CMMAP) to present several tales of discovery, including the discovery of the tropopause and stratosphere, the discovery of the Brewer-Dobson circulation, the discovery of the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation, and the discovery of the ozone hole.