Microphysical studies of mesospheric sulfate aerosol as PMC nuclei in WACCM3

Details Microphysical studies of mesospheric sulfate aerosol as PMC nuclei in WACCM3 Microphysical studies of mesospheric sulfate aerosol as PMC nuclei in WACCM3

Dec 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008agufmsa43a1557m&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2008, abstract #SA43A-1557

Physics

0305 Aerosols And Particles (0345, 4801, 4906), 0340 Middle Atmosphere: Composition And Chemistry, 0370 Volcanic Effects (8409), 3332 Mesospheric Dynamics, 3334 Middle Atmosphere Dynamics (0341, 0342)

Scientific paper

We present new three-dimensional calculations of the mesospheric sulfate layer, a class of particles which have been suggested as a source of nuclei for polar mesospheric clouds (PMCs). Recent modeling studies have raised questions about whether sufficient number densities of meteoritic dust particles large enough to nucleate PMCs can exist in PMC nucleation regions. By contrast, our calculations show that sulfates should grow on the smaller dust particles in these cold regions, creating nuclei of sufficient size and number density to account for observed PMCs. We have incorporated sulfur chemistry and aerosol microphysics into the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model 3 (WACCM3), a comprehensive model that spans the range of altitude from the Earth's surface to the thermosphere. We have tuned the gravity wave parameterization in WACCM3 to reproduce well observed temperatures in the mesopause region that are critical to PMC and sulfate formation, and present sensitivity studies for such tunings. Our calculations show that where temperatures are coldest and meteoritic dust is present, sulfates will grow on them. We discuss the feasibility of observing mesospheric sulfates containing dust cores with the Solar Occultation For Ice Experiment (SOFIE) on board NASA's current Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) experiment. To date, AIM has provided nearly two years of observations of PMCs.

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