Stratospheric circulation features deduced from SAMS constituent data

Abstract

Further analyses of three years of SAMS data are used to investigate stratospheric circulation. Eddy effects on constituent transport are examined with two transport formulations - the transformed Eulerian mean formulation and the effective transport formulation. The transformed Eulerian mean formulation, together with calculated residual mean winds, is employed to delineate regions, or times, of significant eddy contributions to constituent transport. The effective transport formulation, which involves individual calculations of the effective-transport velocity for both CH4 and N2O, is used. Both gases reveal a descent in the tropics during northern spring and upwelling in the summer tropics of the stratosphere during solstice. The Northern Hemisphere upwelling appears to cause larger CH4 increases than corresponding Southern Hemisphere summer tropical upwelling.