A Climatology of a Newly-Defined Tropopause Using Simultaneous Ozone-Temperature Profiles.
Abstract
A physical distinction between stratosphere and troposphere can be made in terms of potential vorticity or ozone. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) tropopause, based only on thermal stability, does not always separate the different physical properties of the two regions. It is the purpose of this paper to show that the altitude in a vertical ozone profile at which ozone, and therefore potential vorticity, begins to increase rapidly is determinable from the temperature profile alone. The tropopause definition developed here reduces the WMO temperature gradient and thickness criteria and relies on the relative change of temperature lapse rate. The new definition determines heights of the tropopause that are in excellent agreement with ozone profile information. The proposed tropopause definition was applied to an archived ten-year global radiosonde data set to prepare a climatology. The definition was also applied to an archived set of several thousand ozonesonde temperature profiles to prepare a climatology of vertical ozone gradient at the tropopause. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 1981
- Accession Number
- ADA106399
Entities
People
- J. M. Roe
Organizations
- Control Data Corporation