Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
Dec 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufmsa23b..06s&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #SA23B-06
Mathematics
Logic
[0340] Atmospheric Composition And Structure / Middle Atmosphere: Composition And Chemistry, [0341] Atmospheric Composition And Structure / Middle Atmosphere: Constituent Transport And Chemistry, [3334] Atmospheric Processes / Middle Atmosphere Dynamics
Scientific paper
It has long been recognized that there are two main sources of atmospheric odd nitrogen (NOx)- one in the thermosphere and one in the troposphere and stratosphere. Normally they are separated by a deep mesospheric minimum which results from the photolysis of NO. However, under conditions of polar winter this photolysis is weak or absent and strong downwelling is known to occur. This means that understanding the dynamics of the high latitude winter mesosphere is crucial towards understanding the coupling of atmospheric odd nitrogen. For much of the last decade, it was believed that significant coupling only occurred during the SH winter and spring when the relative absence of planetary waves allowed significant NOx to descend in a well defined polar vortex that remained isolated from UV sunlight. By contrast, in the NH, planetary wave mixing precluded the buildup of NOx in the polar night. However, recent results have shown that the morphology of polar mesospheric winter weather and climate is far more complicated than first thought. First in 2004, then again in 2006 and 2009, dramatic and prolonged stratospheric warmings were seen to correlate with enhanced descent of high altitude NOx. The reasons for this are discussed in the context of gravity wave driven descent. In addition to these important interannual meteorological variations, longer term changes in middle atmospheric circulation driven by changes in atmospheric composition such as increasing CO2 could impact odd nitrogen coupling in future years.
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