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Vaughan Phillips

Research in the Area of Clouds, Aerosols and Climate

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Cloud system resolving model study of the roles of deep convection for photo-chemistry in the TOGA COARE/CEPEX region

Author

  • M. Salzmann
  • M. G. Lawrence
  • Vaughan Phillips
  • L. J. Donner

Summary, in English

A cloud system resolving model including photo-chemistry (CSRMC) has been developed based on a prototype version of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model and is used to study influences of deep convection on chemistry in the TOGA COARE/CEPEX region. Lateral boundary conditions for trace gases are prescribed from global chemistry-transport simulations, and the vertical advection of trace gases by large scale dynamics, which is not reproduced in a limited area cloud system resolving model, is taken into account. The influences of deep convective transport and of lightning on NO(x), O(3), and HO(x)(=HO(2)+OH), in the vicinity of the deep convective systems are investigated in a 7-day 3-D 248x248 km(2) horizontal domain simulation and several 2-D sensitivity runs with a 500 km horizontal domain. Mid-tropospheric entrainment is more important on average for the upward transport of O(3) in the 3-D run than in the 2-D runs, but at the same time undiluted O(3)-poor air from the marine boundary layer reaches the upper troposphere more frequently in the 3-D run than in the 2-D runs, indicating the presence of undiluted convective cores. In all runs, in situ lightning is found to have only minor impacts on the local O(3) budget. Near zero O(3) volume mixing ratios due to the reaction with lightning-produced NO are only simulated in a 2-D sensitivity run with an extremely high number of NO molecules per flash, which is outside the range of current estimates. The fraction of NO(x) chemically lost within the domain varies between 20 and 24% in the 2-D runs, but is negligible in the 3-D run, in agreement with a lower average NO(x) concentration in the 3-D run despite a greater number of flashes. Stratosphere to troposphere transport of O(3) is simulated to occur episodically in thin filaments in the 2-D runs, but on average net upward transport of O(3) from below similar to 16 km is simulated in association with mean large scale ascent in the region. Ozone profiles in the TOGA COARE/CEPEX region are suggested to be strongly influenced by the intra-seasonal (Madden-Julian) oscillation.

Publishing year

2008

Language

English

Pages

2741-2757

Publication/Series

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics

Volume

8

Issue

10

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Copernicus GmbH

Topic

  • Physical Geography

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1680-7324