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gfdl's home page > gfdl on-line bibliography > 2000: Journal of Geophysical Research, 105(D16), 20,581-20,587

Effects of the stratospheric quasi-biennial oscillation on long-lived greenhouse gases in the troposphere

Hamilton, K., and S-M. Fan, 2000: Effects of the stratospheric quasi-biennial oscillation on long-lived greenhouse gases in the troposphere. Journal of Geophysical Research, 105(D16), 20,581-20,587.
Abstract: An analysis is presented of results of an extended integration with a global general circulation model that includes treatment of a long-lived tropospheric trace constituent as well as a momentum source that forces a realistic stratospheric quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO). It is shown that the dynamical QBO may modulate stratosphere-troposphere exchange in such a manner as to produce a QBO in global-mean tropospheric tracer mixing ratio. For the growth rate of tropospheric methane this transport-induced QBO is expected to have a peak-to-peak amplitude of 1-2 ppbv yr-1, which, while modest compared with the full range of observed variability in growth rate, is still significant. The observed methane growth rate time series during 1983-1999 is shown to be consistent with the predicted QBO effect, although the record is definitely dominated by other interannual variations.
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last modified: March 22 2004.