STRATAQ: a three-dimensional chemical transport model of the stratosphere

• Main Authors: B. Grassi, G. Redaelli, G. Visconti
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arctic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.371.4623; http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/31/70/41/PDF/angeo-20-847-2002.pdf

Abstract. A three-dimensional (3-D) Chemical Transport Model (CTM) of the stratosphere has been developed and used for a test study of the evolution of chemical species in the arctic lower stratosphere during winter 1996/97. This particular winter has been chosen for testing the model’s capabilities for its remarkable dynamical situation (very cold and strong polar vortex) along with the availability of sparse chlorine, HNO3 and O3 data, showing also very low O3 values in late March/April. Due to those unusual features, the winter 1996/97 can be considered an excellent example of the impact of both dynamics and heterogeneous reactions on the chemistry of the stratosphere. Model integration has been performed from January to March 1997 and the resulting long-lived and short-lived tracer fields compared with available measurements. The model includes a detailed gas