Identification

Title

Variability of stratospheric reactive nitrogen and ozone related to the QBO

Abstract

The stratospheric quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) dominates interannual variability of dynamical variables and trace constituents in the tropical stratosphere and provides a natural experiment to test circulation-chemistry interactions. This work quantifies the relationships among ozone (O-3), reactive nitrogen (NOy), and source gas N2O, and their links to the QBO, based on satellite constituent measurements and meteorological data spanning 2005-2014 (over four QBO cycles). Data include O-3, HNO3, and N2O from the Aura Microwave Limb Sounder and an NOx proxy derived from Optical Spectrograph and Infrared Imager System NO2 measurements combined with a photochemical box model (= NOx*). Results are compared to simulations from the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model, version 4 incorporating a QBO circulation nudged to assimilated winds. Cross correlations and composites with respect to the QBO phase show coherent 180 degrees out-of-phase relationships between NOy and N2O throughout the stratosphere, with the NOx/HNO3 ratio increasing with altitude. The anomalies in NOy species propagate coherently downward with the QBO. Ozone is anticorrelated with reactive nitrogen in the middle stratosphere above similar to 28 km due to NOx control of ozone catalytic loss cycles. Quantitative comparisons of nitrogen partitioning and O-3 sensitivity to NOx show good overall agreement between satellite observations and model results (suggesting closure of the NOy budget), although the model results show larger (up to similar to 20%) N2O, NOx, and O-3 variations near similar to 35 km compared to observations. These analyses serve to assess the consistency of diverse satellite-based data sets and also to evaluate nitrogen partitioning and NOx-dependent ozone chemistry in the global model.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7r49tb5

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2017-09-27T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

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name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact