Convective Transport of Trace Gases from Near the Surface to the Upper Troposphere - a Case Study
Tomas Mikoviny1, Jennifer Richardson Olson2, Simone Tanelli3, Thomas B Ryerson4, Ilana B Pollack5,6, Jeff Peischl7,8, Paul O Wennberg9, John D Crounse10, Jason Michael St Clair10, Alan Fried11, Dirk Richter12, Thomas F Hanisco13, Glenn Wolfe13,14 and Armin Wisthaler1,15, (1)University of Oslo, Department of Chemistry, Oslo, Norway, (2)NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, United States, (3)Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States, (4)NOAA Earth System Research Lab, Chemical Sciences Division, Boulder, CO, United States, (5)NOAA ESRL Chemical Sciences Division, Boulder, CO, United States, (6)Colorado State University, Department of Atmospheric Science, Fort Collins, United States, (7)CIRES, Boulder, CO, United States, (8)NOAA Earth System Research Lab, Boulder, CO, United States, (9)California Institute of Technology, Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, Pasadena, United States, (10)California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, United States, (11)Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, United States, (12)University of Colorado at Boulder, Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, Boulder, United States, (13)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (14)University of Maryland Baltimore County, Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology, Baltimore, MD, United States, (15)University of Innsbruck, Institute of Ion Physics and Applied Physics, Innsbruck, Austria
Abstract:
Deep convection transports chemically reactive trace gases from near the Earth’s surface to the upper troposphere (UT). Short-lived compounds which are usually only present close to their sources on the ground are rapidly injected into the upper troposphere where they alter the chemical equilibria typical of that region of the Earth’s atmosphere. One important consequence is, for example, the formation of ozone which acts as a greenhouse gas in the UT.
NASA’s SEAC4RS mission took advantage of the heavily instrumented DC-8 aircraft to study convective events in the South Eastern and South Central US. Here we will show a detailed experimental and modeling analysis of a convective event sampled on September 11, 2013 over Arkansas. Insoluble species such as isoprene were strongly elevated in the UT while soluble species had been removed by strong precipitation. Ozone was formed in the presence of lightning NOx. The textbook-like example is shown to discuss chemical and physical processes affecting trace gas composition in a convective updraft event.
