Upper troposphere and lower stratosphere transport pathways of aerosol and tracers associated with the Asian monsoon circulation (AeroTrac)

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The Asian summer monsoon (ASM) is the governing circulation pattern in the Northern Hemisphere during boreal summer. Studies investigating aerosol and tracer distributions show that the ASM effectively uplifts tropospheric air and pollutants, forms an apparently stable reservoir in the lowermost stratosphere, and releases air into the lower stratosphere via multiple pathways. Our project will address two open key questions: "How permeable is the transport barrier associated with the ASM?" and "How does the ASM circulation control troposphere-stratosphere exchange?" These questions will be addressed by making use of comprehensive observations and Lagrangian transport analyses. The measurement data sets contributed by the partners comprise global satellite measurements, ground-based remote sensing and in-situ balloon measurements within the ASM anticyclone, and in-situ aircraft measurements outside of the ASM anticyclone. In this project we will use two Lagrangian transport models, the global chemistry-transport model CLaMS and the Lagrangian particle dispersion model MPTRAC. The main objectives of the project are i) to compile comprehensive observational data for transport studies regarding the ASM, ii) to create new emission inventories for carbon monoxide from anthropogenic and natural sources as well as sulfur dioxide of volcanic origin, and iii) to analyze transport pathways in the troposphere and lower stratosphere connected with the ASM circulation in detail. Atmospheric scientist and computer scientists at the University of Mainz and the Jülich Supercomputing Centre in Germany and at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of Guangzhou in China will work together to address these questions and objectives in the framework of the project proposed to the 2018 bilateral Joint Sino-German Research Projects call.