Ea. Ray et al., Transport into the Northern Hemisphere lowermost stratosphere revealed by in situ tracer measurements, J GEO RES-A, 104(D21), 1999, pp. 26565-26580
The Lightweight Airborne Chromatograph Experiment (LACE) has made in situ m
easurements of several long-lived trace gases in the upper troposphere and
lower to middle stratosphere as part of the Observations of the Middle Stra
tosphere (OMS) balloon program. The tracers measured by LACE include severa
l photolytic species (CFC-11, CFC-12, and halon-1211) as well as SF6. LACE
measurements of these long-lived tracers as well as nearly simultaneous mea
surements of water vapor and CO2 are used to investigate transport into the
lowermost stratosphere, a region where few in situ measurements exist. The
measured photolytic species and water vapor are used in a simple mass bala
nce calculation to estimate the mixture of tropospheric and overworld (thet
a > 380 K) air in the lowermost stratosphere. In the northern midlatitudes
during September 1996, most of the air in the lowermost stratosphere sample
d at the flight location (34.5 degrees N) was transported quasi-isentropica
lly from the troposphere. Measurements from both a May 1998 midlatitude fli
ght and a June 1997 high-latitude flight (64.5 degrees N) revealed the air
sampled in the lowermost stratosphere to be dominated by downward advection
from the overworld. Atmospheric SF6 and CO2 can uniquely reveal timescales
and spatial scales of transport due to these species' large growth rates a
nd subsequent latitudinal surface and free tropospheric gradients. Measurem
ents in the lowermost stratosphere from the September northern midlatitude
flight coupled with surface measurements of these species revealed a transp
ort timescale of no more than 1.5 months from the surface to the lowermost
stratosphere. The SF6 and CO2 mixing ratios were also consistent with mostl
y Northern Hemisphere tropospheric air in the lowermost stratosphere. These
results point out the usefulness of high-resolution in situ measurements o
f long-lived tracers to help determine timescales and spatial scales of tra
nsport in the region of the upper troposphere and lowermost stratosphere.