A case study of transport of tropical marine boundary layer and lower tropospheric air masses to the northern midlatitude upper troposphere

Authors

William B. Grant
Edward V. Browell
Carolyn F. Butler
Marta A. Fenn
Marian B. Clayton
John R. Hannan
Henry E. Fuelberg
Donald R. Blake
Nicola J. Blake
Gerald L. Gregory
Brian G. Heikes, University of Rhode IslandFollow
Glen W. Sachse
Hanwant B. Singh
Julie Snow, University of Rhode Island
Robert W. Talbot

Document Type

Article

Date of Original Version

2000

Department

Oceanography

Abstract

Low‐ozone (ppbv) air masses were observed in the upper troposphere in northern midlatitudes over the eastern United States and the North Atlantic Ocean on several occasions in October 1997 during the NASA Subsonic Assessment, Ozone and Nitrogen Oxide Experiment (SONEX) mission. Three cases of low‐ozone air masses were shown to have originated in the tropical Pacific marine boundary layer or lower troposphere and advected poleward along a warm conveyor belt during a synoptic‐scale disturbance. The tropopause was elevated in the region with the low‐ozone air mass. Stratospheric intrusions accompanied the disturbances. On the basis of storm track and stratospheric intrusion climatologies, such events appear to be more frequent from September through March than the rest of the year.

Citation/Publisher Attribution

Grant, W. B., et al. (2000), A case study of transport of tropical marine boundary layer and lower tropospheric air masses to the northern midlatitude upper troposphere, J. Geophys. Res., 105(D3), 3757–3769, doi: 10.1029/1999JD901022.

Available at: https://doi.org/10.1029/1999JD901022