Multimodel assessment of the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere: Extratropics

A multimodel assessment of the performance of chemistry-climate models (CCMs) in the extratropical upper troposphere/lower stratosphere (UTLS) is conducted for the first time. Process-oriented diagnostics are used to validate dynamical and transport characteristics of 18 CCMs using meteorological analyses and aircraft and satellite observations. The main dynamical and chemical climatological characteristics of the extratropical UTLS are generally well represented by the models, despite the limited horizontal and vertical resolution. The seasonal cycle of lowermost stratospheric mass is realistic, however with a wide spread in its mean value. A tropopause inversion layer is present in most models, although the maximum in static stability is located too high above the tropopause and is somewhat too weak, as expected from limited model resolution. Similar comments apply to the extratropical tropopause transition layer. The seasonality in lower stratospheric chemical tracers is consistent with the seasonality in the Brewer-Dobson circulation. Both vertical and meridional tracer gradients are of similar strength to those found in observations. Models that perform less well tend to use a semi-Lagrangian transport scheme and/or have a very low resolution. Two models, and the multimodel mean, score consistently well on all diagnostics, while seven other models score well on all diagnostics except the seasonal cycle of water vapor. Only four of the models are consistently below average. The lack of tropospheric chemistry in most models limits their evaluation in the upper troposphere. Finally, the UTLS is relatively sparsely sampled by observations, limiting our ability to quantitatively evaluate many aspects of model performance.

To Access Resource:

Questions? Email Resource Support Contact:

  • opensky@ucar.edu
    UCAR/NCAR - Library

Resource Type publication
Temporal Range Begin N/A
Temporal Range End N/A
Temporal Resolution N/A
Bounding Box North Lat N/A
Bounding Box South Lat N/A
Bounding Box West Long N/A
Bounding Box East Long N/A
Spatial Representation N/A
Spatial Resolution N/A
Related Links N/A
Additional Information N/A
Resource Format PDF
Standardized Resource Format PDF
Asset Size N/A
Legal Constraints

An edited version of this paper was published by AGU. Copyright 2010 American Geophysical Union.
Access Constraints None
Software Implementation Language N/A

Resource Support Name N/A
Resource Support Email opensky@ucar.edu
Resource Support Organization UCAR/NCAR - Library
Distributor N/A
Metadata Contact Name N/A
Metadata Contact Email opensky@ucar.edu
Metadata Contact Organization UCAR/NCAR - Library

Author Hegglin, M.
Gettelman, Andrew
Hoor, P.
Krichevsky, R.
Manney, G.
Pan, Laura
Son, S.
Stiller, G.
Tilmes, Simone
Walker, K.
Eyring, V.
Shepherd, T.
Waugh, D.
Akiyoshi, H.
Añel, J.
Austin, J.
Baumgaertner, A.
Bekki, S.
Braesicke, P.
Brühl, C.
Butchart, N.
Chipperfield, M.
Dameris, M.
Dhomse, S.
Frith, S.
Garny, H.
Hardiman, S.
Jöckel, P.
Kinnison, Douglas
Lamarque, Jean-Francois
Mancini, E.
Michou, M.
Morgenstern, O.
Nakamura, T.
Olivié, D.
Pawson, S.
Pitari, G.
Plummer, D.
Pyle, J.
Rozanov, E.
Scinocca, J.
Shibata, K.
Smale, D.
Teyssèdre, H.
Tian, W.
Yamashita, Y.
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2010-10-23T00:00:00
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) Not Assigned
Alternate Identifier N/A
Resource Version N/A
Topic Category geoscientificInformation
Progress N/A
Metadata Date 2023-08-18T18:44:45.653327
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:10490
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Hegglin, M., Gettelman, Andrew, Hoor, P., Krichevsky, R., Manney, G., Pan, Laura, Son, S., Stiller, G., Tilmes, Simone, Walker, K., Eyring, V., Shepherd, T., Waugh, D., Akiyoshi, H., Añel, J., Austin, J., Baumgaertner, A., Bekki, S., Braesicke, P., Brühl, C., Butchart, N., Chipperfield, M., Dameris, M., Dhomse, S., Frith, S., Garny, H., Hardiman, S., Jöckel, P., Kinnison, Douglas, Lamarque, Jean-Francois, Mancini, E., Michou, M., Morgenstern, O., Nakamura, T., Olivié, D., Pawson, S., Pitari, G., Plummer, D., Pyle, J., Rozanov, E., Scinocca, J., Shibata, K., Smale, D., Teyssèdre, H., Tian, W., Yamashita, Y.. (2010). Multimodel assessment of the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere: Extratropics. UCAR/NCAR - Library. http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7qr4xm0. Accessed 22 February 2025.

Harvest Source