The Relationship between Age of Air and the Diabatic Circulation of the Stratosphere
The strength of the Brewer–Dobson circulation is difficult to estimate using observations. Trends in the age of stratospheric air, deduced from observations of transient tracers, have been used to identify trends in the circulation, but there are ambiguities in the relationship between age and the s...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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American Meteorological Society
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/109919 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3241-5062 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6716-1576 |
| _version_ | 1811090382537097216 |
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| author | Gerber, Edwin P. Sheshadri, Aditi Linz, Marianna Katherine Plumb, Raymond Alan |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Gerber, Edwin P. Sheshadri, Aditi Linz, Marianna Katherine Plumb, Raymond Alan |
| author_sort | Gerber, Edwin P. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | The strength of the Brewer–Dobson circulation is difficult to estimate using observations. Trends in the age of stratospheric air, deduced from observations of transient tracers, have been used to identify trends in the circulation, but there are ambiguities in the relationship between age and the strength of the circulation. This paper presents a steady-state theory and a time-dependent extension to relate age of air directly to the diabatic circulation of the stratosphere. In steady state, it is the difference between the age of upwelling and downwelling air through an isentrope and not the absolute value of age that is a measure of the strength of the diabatic circulation through that isentrope. For the time-varying case, expressions for other terms that contribute to the age budget are derived. An idealized atmospheric general circulation model with and without a seasonal cycle is used to test the time-dependent theory and to find that these additional terms are small upon annual averaging. The steady-state theory holds as well for annual averages of a seasonally varying model as for a perpetual-solstice model. These results are a step toward using data to quantify the strength of the diabatic circulation. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:44:43Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/109919 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:44:43Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | American Meteorological Society |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1099192022-09-29T10:19:25Z The Relationship between Age of Air and the Diabatic Circulation of the Stratosphere Gerber, Edwin P. Sheshadri, Aditi Linz, Marianna Katherine Plumb, Raymond Alan Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Linz, Marianna Katherine Plumb, Raymond Alan The strength of the Brewer–Dobson circulation is difficult to estimate using observations. Trends in the age of stratospheric air, deduced from observations of transient tracers, have been used to identify trends in the circulation, but there are ambiguities in the relationship between age and the strength of the circulation. This paper presents a steady-state theory and a time-dependent extension to relate age of air directly to the diabatic circulation of the stratosphere. In steady state, it is the difference between the age of upwelling and downwelling air through an isentrope and not the absolute value of age that is a measure of the strength of the diabatic circulation through that isentrope. For the time-varying case, expressions for other terms that contribute to the age budget are derived. An idealized atmospheric general circulation model with and without a seasonal cycle is used to test the time-dependent theory and to find that these additional terms are small upon annual averaging. The steady-state theory holds as well for annual averages of a seasonally varying model as for a perpetual-solstice model. These results are a step toward using data to quantify the strength of the diabatic circulation. National Science Foundation (U.S.) (AGS-1547733) 2017-06-15T20:05:51Z 2017-06-15T20:05:51Z 2016-10 2016-04 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0022-4928 1520-0469 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/109919 Linz, Marianna; Plumb, R. Alan; Gerber, Edwin P. and Sheshadri, Aditi. “The Relationship Between Age of Air and the Diabatic Circulation of the Stratosphere.” Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences 73, no. 11 (November 2016): 4507–4518 © 2016 American Meteorological Society https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3241-5062 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6716-1576 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/jas-d-16-0125.1 Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf American Meteorological Society American Meteorological Society |
| spellingShingle | Gerber, Edwin P. Sheshadri, Aditi Linz, Marianna Katherine Plumb, Raymond Alan The Relationship between Age of Air and the Diabatic Circulation of the Stratosphere |
| title | The Relationship between Age of Air and the Diabatic Circulation of the Stratosphere |
| title_full | The Relationship between Age of Air and the Diabatic Circulation of the Stratosphere |
| title_fullStr | The Relationship between Age of Air and the Diabatic Circulation of the Stratosphere |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Relationship between Age of Air and the Diabatic Circulation of the Stratosphere |
| title_short | The Relationship between Age of Air and the Diabatic Circulation of the Stratosphere |
| title_sort | relationship between age of air and the diabatic circulation of the stratosphere |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/109919 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3241-5062 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6716-1576 |
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