Backtrajectory reconstruction of water vapour and ozone in-situ observations in the TTL

Author： Ploeger F. Konopka P. Müller R. Günther G. Grooss J.-U. Schiller C. Ravegnani F. Ulanovski A. Riese M.

Publisher： E. Schweizerbart'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung

ISSN： 0941-2948

Source： Meteorologische Zeitschrift, Vol.21, Iss.3, 2012-06, pp. : 239-244

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Abstract

Water vapour and ozone in-situ observations in the tropical tropopause layer (TTL) during the three tropical campaigns SCOUT-O3, AMMA and TroCCiNOx are reconstructed from diabatic and kinematic backtrajectories, with the reconstruction method for the tracer fields based on freeze-drying and photochemichal ozone production. The results using diabatic trajectories show that both water vapour and ozone in-situ observations can be well reconstructed from trajectories. Consequentially, in-situ observations agree with the assumption of freeze-drying due to the large-scale temperature field as the main control mechanism for water vapour and photochemical production and transport as main control mechanisms for tropical ozone. The kinematic ozone reconstruction, however, shows a large high-bias during SCOUT-O3 and a too strong variability during all campaigns, due to excessive transport of stratospheric ozone into the TTL. We conclude that kinematic reconstructions of in-situ observations are less reliable than diabatic, due to unrealistic inhomogeneities in the velocity field.