Observations of convective and dynamical instabilities in tropopause folds and their contribution to stratosphere-troposphere exchange

With aircraft-mounted in situ and remote sensing instruments for dynamical, thermal, and chemical measurements we studied two cases of tropopause folding. In both folds we found Kelvin-Helmholtz billows with horizontal wavelength of ∼900 m and thickness of ∼120 m. In one case the instability was eff...

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Main Authors: Cho, John Y. N., Newell, Reginald E., Bui, T. Paul, Browell, Edward V., Fenn, Marta A., Mahoney, Michael J., Gregory, Gerald L., Sachse, Glen W., Vay, Stephanie A., Kucsera, Tom L., Thompson, Anne M.
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: American Geophysical Union (AGU) 2017
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/111136
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author Cho, John Y. N.
Newell, Reginald E.
Bui, T. Paul
Browell, Edward V.
Fenn, Marta A.
Mahoney, Michael J.
Gregory, Gerald L.
Sachse, Glen W.
Vay, Stephanie A.
Kucsera, Tom L.
Thompson, Anne M.
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
Cho, John Y. N.
Newell, Reginald E.
Bui, T. Paul
Browell, Edward V.
Fenn, Marta A.
Mahoney, Michael J.
Gregory, Gerald L.
Sachse, Glen W.
Vay, Stephanie A.
Kucsera, Tom L.
Thompson, Anne M.
author_sort Cho, John Y. N.
collection MIT
description With aircraft-mounted in situ and remote sensing instruments for dynamical, thermal, and chemical measurements we studied two cases of tropopause folding. In both folds we found Kelvin-Helmholtz billows with horizontal wavelength of ∼900 m and thickness of ∼120 m. In one case the instability was effectively mixing the bottomside of the fold, leading to the transfer of stratospheric air into the troposphere. Also, we discovered in both cases small-scale secondary ozone maxima shortly after the aircraft ascended past the topside of the fold that corresponded to regions of convective instability. We interpreted this phenomenon as convectively breaking gravity waves. Therefore we posit that convectively breaking gravity waves acting on tropopause folds must be added to the list of important irreversible mixing mechanisms leading to stratosphere-troposphere exchange.
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spelling mit-1721.1/1111362022-09-28T17:09:17Z Observations of convective and dynamical instabilities in tropopause folds and their contribution to stratosphere-troposphere exchange Cho, John Y. N. Newell, Reginald E. Bui, T. Paul Browell, Edward V. Fenn, Marta A. Mahoney, Michael J. Gregory, Gerald L. Sachse, Glen W. Vay, Stephanie A. Kucsera, Tom L. Thompson, Anne M. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Cho, John, Y. N. Cho, John Y. N. Newell, Reginald E. With aircraft-mounted in situ and remote sensing instruments for dynamical, thermal, and chemical measurements we studied two cases of tropopause folding. In both folds we found Kelvin-Helmholtz billows with horizontal wavelength of ∼900 m and thickness of ∼120 m. In one case the instability was effectively mixing the bottomside of the fold, leading to the transfer of stratospheric air into the troposphere. Also, we discovered in both cases small-scale secondary ozone maxima shortly after the aircraft ascended past the topside of the fold that corresponded to regions of convective instability. We interpreted this phenomenon as convectively breaking gravity waves. Therefore we posit that convectively breaking gravity waves acting on tropopause folds must be added to the list of important irreversible mixing mechanisms leading to stratosphere-troposphere exchange. United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant NAG2-1105) United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant NAGl-1758) United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant NAGl-1901) 2017-09-06T15:59:38Z 2017-09-06T15:59:38Z 1999-09 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2169-8996 2169-897X http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/111136 Cho, John Y. N. et al. “Observations of Convective and Dynamical Instabilities in Tropopause Folds and Their Contribution to Stratosphere-Troposphere Exchange.” Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 104, D17 (September 1999): 21549–21568 © 1999 American Geophysical Union (AGU) en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/1999JD900430 Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres 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 Geophysical Union (AGU) John Cho
spellingShingle Cho, John Y. N.
Newell, Reginald E.
Bui, T. Paul
Browell, Edward V.
Fenn, Marta A.
Mahoney, Michael J.
Gregory, Gerald L.
Sachse, Glen W.
Vay, Stephanie A.
Kucsera, Tom L.
Thompson, Anne M.
Observations of convective and dynamical instabilities in tropopause folds and their contribution to stratosphere-troposphere exchange
title Observations of convective and dynamical instabilities in tropopause folds and their contribution to stratosphere-troposphere exchange
title_full Observations of convective and dynamical instabilities in tropopause folds and their contribution to stratosphere-troposphere exchange
title_fullStr Observations of convective and dynamical instabilities in tropopause folds and their contribution to stratosphere-troposphere exchange
title_full_unstemmed Observations of convective and dynamical instabilities in tropopause folds and their contribution to stratosphere-troposphere exchange
title_short Observations of convective and dynamical instabilities in tropopause folds and their contribution to stratosphere-troposphere exchange
title_sort observations of convective and dynamical instabilities in tropopause folds and their contribution to stratosphere troposphere exchange
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/111136
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