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At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2011

Comparison of Four Mixed Layer Mesoscale Parameterizations and the Equation for an Arbitrary Tracer

In this paper we discuss two issues, the inter-comparison of four mixed layer mesoscale parameterizations and the search for the eddy induced velocity for an arbitrary tracer. It must be stressed that our analysis is limited to mixed layer mesoscales since we do not treat sub-mesoscales and small turbulent mixing. As for the first item, since three of the four parameterizations are expressed in terms of a stream function and a residual flux of the RMT formalism (residual mean theory), while the fourth is expressed in terms of vertical and horizontal fluxes, we needed a formalism to connect the two formulations. The standard RMT representation developed for the deep ocean cannot be extended to the mixed layer since its stream function does not vanish at the ocean's surface. We develop a new RMT representation that satisfies the surface boundary condition. As for the general form of the eddy induced velocity for an arbitrary tracer, thus far, it has been assumed that there is only the one that originates from the curl of the stream function. This is because it was assumed that the tracer residual flux is purely diffusive. On the other hand, we show that in the case of an arbitrary tracer, the residual flux has also a skew component that gives rise to an additional bolus velocity. Therefore, instead of only one bolus velocity, there are now two, one coming from the curl of the stream function and other from the skew part of the residual flux. In the buoyancy case, only one bolus velocity contributes to the mean buoyancy equation since the residual flux is indeed only diffusive.

Canuto, V. M.↗
NASA NTRS2000

Sensitivity of Age-of-Air Calculations to the Choice of Advection Scheme

The age of air has recently emerged as a diagnostic of atmospheric transport unaffected by chemical parameterizations, and the features in the age distributions computed in models have been interpreted in terms of the models' large-scale circulation field. This study shows, however, that in addition to the simulated large-scale circulation, three-dimensional age calculations can also be affected by the choice of advection scheme employed in solving the tracer continuity equation, Specifically, using the 3.0deg latitude X 3.6deg longitude and 40 vertical level version of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory SKYHI GCM and six online transport schemes ranging from Eulerian through semi-Lagrangian to fully Lagrangian, it will be demonstrated that the oldest ages are obtained using the nondiffusive centered-difference schemes while the youngest ages are computed with a semi-Lagrangian transport (SLT) scheme. The centered- difference schemes are capable of producing ages older than 10 years in the mesosphere, thus eliminating the "young bias" found in previous age-of-air calculations. At this stage, only limited intuitive explanations can be advanced for this sensitivity of age-of-air calculations to the choice of advection scheme, In particular, age distributions computed online with the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Climate Model (MACCM3) using different varieties of the SLT scheme are substantially older than the SKYHI SLT distribution. The different varieties, including a noninterpolating-in-the-vertical version (which is essentially centered-difference in the vertical), also produce a narrower range of age distributions than the suite of advection schemes employed in the SKYHI model. While additional MACCM3 experiments with a wider range of schemes would be necessary to provide more definitive insights, the older and less variable MACCM3 age distributions can plausibly be interpreted as being due to the semi-implicit semi-Lagrangian dynamics employed in the MACCM3. This type of dynamical core (employed with a 60-min time step) is likely to reduce SLT's interpolation errors that are compounded by the short-term variability characteristic of the explicit centered-difference dynamics employed in the SKYHI model (time step of 3 min). In the extreme case of a very slowly varying circulation, the choice of advection scheme has no effect on two-dimensional (latitude-height) age-of-air calculations, owing to the smooth nature of the transport circulation in 2D models. These results suggest that nondiffusive schemes may be the preferred choice for multiyear simulations of tracers not overly sensitive to the requirement of monotonicity (this category includes many greenhouse gases). At the same time, age-of-air calculations offer a simple quantitative diagnostic of a scheme's long-term diffusive properties and may help in the evaluation of dynamical cores in multiyear integrations. On the other hand, the sensitivity of the computed ages to the model numerics calls for caution in using age of air as a diagnostic of a GCM's large-scale circulation field.

Eluszkiewicz, Janusz↗
NASA NTRS1988

Transport circulation deduced from SAMS trace species data

Three years of zonally averaged N2O and CH4 data from the SAMS instrument on Nimbus 7 are utilized to investigate the annual and semiannual cycles in long-lived tracer mixing ratios. The annual and semiannual variations are shown to be approximately antisymmetric and symmetric about the equator, respectively. Using the first three components of the annual cycle to estimate the time tendency, the tracer continuity equation is solved diagnostically to obtain the effective transport velocity (i.e., the meridional circulation that can produce the observed seasonal variations in the tracer fields). The resulting circulation is qualitatively in agreement with the diabatic circulations computed by other workers, but with equinoctial subsidence in the equatorial upper stratosphere.

Holton, J. R.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Sea Surface Salinity Variability from Simulations and Observations: Preparing for Aquarius

Oceanic fresh water transport has been shown to play an important role in the global hydrological cycle. Sea surface salinity (SSS) is representative of the surface fresh water fluxes and the upcoming Aquarius mission scheduled to be launched in December 2010 will provide excellent spatial and temporal SSS coverage to better estimate the net exchange. In most ocean general circulation models, SSS is relaxed to climatology to prevent model drift. While SST remains a well observed variable, relaxing to SST reduces the range of SSS variability in the simulations (Fig.1). The main objective of the present study is to simulate surface tracers using a primitive equation ocean model for multiple forcing data sets to identify and establish a baseline SSS variability. The simulated variability scales are compared to those from near-surface argo salinity measurements.

Jacob, S. Daniel↗
NASA NTRS2018

Parameterization of Mixed Layer and Deep-Ocean Mesoscales Including Nonlinearity

In 2011, Chelton et al. carried out a comprehensive census of mesoscales using altimetry data and reached the following conclusions: "essentially all of the observed mesoscale features are nonlinear" and "mesoscales do not move with the mean velocity but with their own drift velocity," which is "the most germane of all the nonlinear metrics." Accounting for these results in a mesoscale parameterization presents conceptual and practical challenges since linear analysis is no longer usable and one needs a model of nonlinearity. A mesoscale parameterization is presented that has the following features: 1) it is based on the solutions of the nonlinear mesoscale dynamical equations, 2) it describes arbitrary tracers, 3) it includes adiabatic (A) and diabatic (D) regimes, 4) the eddy-induced velocity is the sum of a Gent and McWilliams (GM) term plus a new term representing the difference between drift and mean velocities, 5) the new term lowers the transfer of mean potential energy to mesoscales, 6) the isopycnal slopes are not as flat as in the GM case, 7) deep-ocean stratification is enhanced compared to previous parameterizations where being more weakly stratified allowed a large heat uptake that is not observed, 8) the strength of the Deacon cell is reduced. The numerical results are from a stand-alone ocean code with Coordinated Ocean-Ice Reference Experiment I (CORE-I) normal-year forcing.

Baroclinic flows; Mesoscale processes; Mixing; Sub↗
NASA NTRSDate not supplied

Time-History Statistics of Soot Formation in A Model Gas Turbine Combustor

Soot formation is a complex dynamic and intermittent process determined by properties of the fuel, combustor design, and combustor operation. Although the major steps in soot formation (i.e., formation of precursors, inception, growth and evolution) are similar for a variety of carbonaceous fuels, applications, and operating conditions, it remains unclear when the temporal transition between these steps occurs. An engineering prediction tool coupled with computational fluid physics (CFD), therefore needs to accurately model all these complex steps. To develop such a model, we propose the time-history concept for understanding the time dependency of soot formation as a function of local properties (i.e., temperature, velocity, local fuel air ratio, etc.). We continue our previous work with modeling the DLR aero-combustor [1] with our updated in-house CFD code, Open National Combustion Code (OpenNCC), that now includes a Multiple Time-Scale Flamelet Progress Variable approach and a the semi-empirical two-equation soot model. We injected massless tracer particles upstream of the injector region of the combustor to collect time-history statistics of the solution variables. The correlations between the collected statistics with respect to the experimental soot volume fraction data showed that time-history effect of certain flow variables, including turbulent kinetic energy (TKE), and multiple species is indeed important for soot formation. We then conducted a time-history based correlation analysis to determine the key species and the concentration ranges critical for soot formation (C6H5-based nucleation, acetylene-based surface growth, and oxidation with OH and O2). Based on the time-history correlation coefficient (THCC) analysis, we propose possible modifications to improve the current two-equation model.

LES↗
NASA NTRS2017

Multi-Model Impacts of Climate Change on Pollution Transport from Global Emission Source Regions

The impacts of climate change on tropospheric transport, diagnosed from a carbon monoxide (CO)-like tracer species emitted from global CO sources, are evaluated from an ensemble of four chemistry-climate model (CCMs) contributing to the Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate Model Intercomparison Project (ACCMIP). Model time-slice simulations for present-day and end of the 21st century conditions were performed under the Representative Concentrations Pathways (RCP) climate scenario RCP 8.5. All simulations reveal a strong seasonality in transport, especially over the tropics. The highest CO-tracer mixing ratios aloft occur during boreal winter when strong vertical transport is co-located with biomass burning emission source regions. A consistent and robust decrease in future CO-tracer mixing ratios throughout most of the troposphere, especially in the tropics, and an increase around the tropopause is found across the four CCMs in both winter and summer. Decreases in CO-tracer mixing ratios in the tropical troposphere are associated with reduced convective mass fluxes in this region, which in turn may reflect a weaker Hadley Cell circulation in the future climate. Increases in CO-tracer mixing ratios near the tropopause are largely attributable to a rise in tropopause height, although a poleward shift in the midlatitude jets may also play an important role in the extra-tropical upper troposphere. An increase in CO-tracer mixing ratios also occurs near the Equator, centred over EquatorialCentral Africa, extending from the surface to the mid troposphere which is most likely related to localised decreases in convection in the vicinity of the Intertropical Convergence Zone, resulting in larger CO-tracer mixing ratios over biomass burning regions and smaller mixing ratios downwind.

Tropospheric Transport↗
NASA NTRS1987

A model for the harmonic of compressional Pc 5 waves

Compressional Pc 5 magnetic waves in the magnetosphere are a unique phenomenon showing a nonsinusoidal waveform in spite of a well-defined period. Although the waveform can be Fourier-decomposed into the fundamental and the second harmonics, the phase between the two is kept constant from event to event, implying that the waveform is not the result of a chance superposition of two magnetospheric eigenmodes. A phenomenological explanation to this waveform is offered using a field-line configuration model that is a modified version of a previously proposed antisymmetric standing wave. In this model, the location of the equatorial node of field-line displacement is assumed to oscillate with the wave, with a peak-to-peak amplitude greater than 10 percent of the wavelength of the standing wave. The predicted waveform at various magnetic latitudes is found to be in excellent agreement with an observation taken near the magnetic equator by the Active Magnetospheric Particle Tracer Explorers/Charge Composition Explorer spacecraft.

Takahashi, K.↗
NASA NTRS1993

Airborne observations of the composition of the 1992 tropical stratosphere by FTIR solar absorption spectrometry

Vertical column measurements of the gaseous composition of the tropical stratosphere were made from the NASA DC-8 aircraft early in 1992. As anticipated, the burdens of the stratospheric source gases (e.g., O3, HF, HCl, ClNO3, HNO3) were reduced from their mid-latitude values due to increased uplift and photolysis. The tracers revealed considerably more uplift near the equator than the sub-tropics. For example, the HF burdens at +/- 20 deg latitude were nearly double those at 5 deg N. This, together with results obtained from other long-lived gases (e.g. N2O, CH4, CF2Cl2) indicates that volume mixing ratios found at 22 km altitude at mid-latitudes occurred at 26 km in the sub-tropics and at 30 km in the equatorial zone. This zone of uplift was symmetrical about the equator even though the sun was overhead at 20 deg S.

Toon, G. C.↗
NASA NTRS1997

A Three-Wave Model of the Stratosphere with Coupled Dynamics, Radiation and Photochemistry

A zonal mean chemistry transport model (2-D CTM) coupled with a semi-spectral dynamical model is used to simulate the distributions of trace gases in the present day atmosphere. The zonal-mean and eddy equations for the velocity and the geopotential height are solved in the semi-spectral dynamical model. The residual mean circulation is derived from these dynamical variables and used to advect the chemical species in the 2- D CTM. Based on a linearized wave transport equation, the eddy diffusion coefficients for chemical tracers are expressed in terms of the amplitude, frequency and growth rate of dynamical waves; local chemical loss rates; and a time constant parameterizing small scale mixing. The contributions to eddy flux are from the time varying wave amplitude (transient eddy), chemical reactions (chemical eddy) and small scale mixing. In spite of the high truncation in the dynamical module (only three longest waves are resolved), the model has simulated many observed characteristics of stratospheric dynamics and distribution of chemical species including ozone. Compared with the values commonly used in 2-D CTMs, the eddy diffusion coefficients for chemical species calculated in this model are smaller, especially in the subtropics. It is also found that the chemical eddy diffusion has only a small effects in determining the distribution of most slow species, including ozone in the stratosphere.

Shia, Run-Lie↗
NASA NTRS1993

Airborne Observations of the Composition of the 1992 Tropical Stratosphere by FTIR Solar Absorption Spectrometry

Vertical column measurements of the gaseous composition of the tropical stratosphere were made from the NASA DC-8 aircraft early in 1992. As anticipated, the burdens of the stratospheric source gases were reduced from their mid-latitude values due to increased uplift and photolysis. The tracers revealed considerably more uplift near the equator than the sub-tropics.

tropical↗
NASA NTRS1983

On the maintenance of the Marine boundary layer-free tropospheric gradient of transient tracers

A simple model of the marine boundary layer is used to arrive at a steady-state budget for trace gases in this layer. Five processes maintain the tracer balance in the layer. The first is a large-scale horizontal convergence of the tracer; the second is the pumping by clouds of the tracer out of the boundary layer into the free troposphere; the third is penetration by the tracer from the free troposphere into the marine boundary from compensating subsidence in the cloud-free air surrounding cumulus clouds; the fourth is sea surface emission or deposition of the tracer; and the fifth is in situ photochemical production or loss of the tracer within the marine boundary layer. The budget equation is used in deriving an expression for the mixing ratio difference between the two regions. A scale analysis suggests that the mixing ratio difference between the marine boundary layer and the free troposphere can be an order of magnitude smaller in disturbed weather conditions than in suppressed conditions, showing that the difference in chemical concentrations between the free troposphere and the marine boundary layer cannot be rationalized solely on the basis of chemical measurements.

Gidel, L. T.↗
NASA NTRS1989

A perspective of Middle-Atmosphere Dynamics (MAD) studies at the New International Equatorial Observatory (NIEO)

The equatorial region has attracted many MAD studies mainly based on data of limited locations and resolutions. Established at NIEO are: (1) Climatology of the equatorial middle atmosphere (all of the mean zonal flow, the meridional and/or east-west circulations and the planetary/gravity waves are described based on massive, reliable data statistics); (2) Troposphere-stratosphere coupling at the equator (the candidate location of NIEO is just at the stratospheric fountain area where the tracers and waves are pumped up into the middle atmosphere); and (3) Mesosphere-thermosphere coupling at the equator; thermospheric superrotation, which may be caused either by ion drag or by tidal breaking, is examined in detail by observations covering a wide altitude range from the mesosphere through the thermosphere.

Yamanaka, M. D.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Transport of atmospheric tracers by planetary waves during a winter stratospheric warming event - A three-dimensional model simulation

In a simple three-dimensional primitive equation model, a wave number 1 major stratospheric warming is simulated. With the aid of two idealized tracers it is shown that the transport during a major warming event is characterized by a small, well-organized tongue of subtropical air flowing around the displaced winter vortex into the polar cap and by a wide area with strong quasi-horizontal mixing (surf zone). The description of these dynamical processes requires a full three-dimensional space resolution.

Kouker, W.↗
NASA NTRS1999

Investigation of Tropical Transport with UARS Data

Measurements of trace constituents obtained by instruments aboard the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) have been used to study transport processes associated with the quasi-biennial oscillation, laterally propagating Rossby waves, and upward propagating Kelvin waves in the tropical and subtropical upper troposphere and stratosphere. Mean vertical motions, vertical diffusivities and in-mixing rates were inferred from observations of the 'tape recorder' signal in near-equatorial stratospheric water vapor. The effect of the quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) on tracer distributions in the upper half of the stratosphere was seen in a spectacular 'staircase' pattern, predominantly in the winter hemisphere, revealing the latitudinally asymmetric nature of QBO transport due to induced mean meridional circulations and modulation of lateral mixing associated with planetary Rossby waves. The propagation of Rossby waves across the equator in the westerly phase of the QBO was seen in tracer fields and corroborating United Kingdom Meteorological Office (UKMO) analyses; a modeling study of the effect of these waves on typical QBO wind profiles was performed. Water vapor in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere was found to exhibit signatures of the tropical intraseasonal oscillation (TIO) and faster Kelvin waves in the two regions, respectively.

Dunkerton, Timothy J.↗
NASA NTRS1985

A comparison of two- and three-dimensional tracer transport within a stratospheric circulation model

Use of the residual circulation for stratospheric tracer transport has been compared to a fully three-dimensional calculation. The wind fields used in this study were obtained from a global, semispectral, primitive equation model, extending from 10 to 100 km in altitude. Comparisons were done with a passive tracer and an ozone-like substance over a two-month period corresponding to a Northern Hemisphere winter. It was found that the use of the residual circulation can lead to errors in the tracer concentrations of about a factor of 2. The error is made up of two components. One is fluctuating with a period of approximately one month and reflects directly the wave transience that occurs on that time-scale. The second part is increasing steadily over the integration period and results from an overestimate of the vertical transport by the residual circulation. Furthermore, the equatorward and upward mixing that occurs with transport by the three-dimensional circulation at low latitudes is not well reproduced when the residual circulation is used.

Schneider, H.-R.↗
NASA NTRS2003

A Wavelet based Suboptimal Kalman Filter for Assimilation of Stratospheric Chemical Tracer Observations

A suboptimal Kalman filter system which evolves error covariances in terms of a truncated set of wavelet coefficients has been developed for the assimilation of chemical tracer observations of CH4. This scheme projects the discretized covariance propagation equations and covariance matrix onto an orthogonal set of compactly supported wavelets. Wavelet representation is localized in both location and scale, which allows for efficient representation of the inherently anisotropic structure of the error covariances. The truncation is carried out in such a way that the resolution of the error covariance is reduced only in the zonal direction, where gradients are smaller. Assimilation experiments which last 24 days, and used different degrees of truncation were carried out. These reduced the covariance size by 90, 97 and 99 % and the computational cost of covariance propagation by 80, 93 and 96 % respectively. The difference in both error covariance and the tracer field between the truncated and full systems over this period were found to be not growing in the first case, and growing relatively slowly in the later two cases. The largest errors in the tracer fields were found to occur in regions of largest zonal gradients in the constituent field. This results indicate that propagation of error covariances for a global two-dimensional data assimilation system are currently feasible. Recommendations for further reduction in computational cost are made with the goal of extending this technique to three-dimensional global assimilation systems.

Tangborn, Andrew↗