Global distributions of CO2, trace gases and potential temperature in HIPPO: lessons about global rates of tracer transport and inverse modeling.
Abstract
Global cross-sectional distributions of CO2, other trace gases and potential temperature were measured 10 times between 2009 and 2011, spanning the seasons and altitudes from 150 m to 14 km. Measured concentrations of CO2 and other tracers are compared to CarbonTracker, GEOS-CHEM, the Community Earth System Model, ACTM, and other Earth System models. We find that a number of global models generate simulated distributions that are too uniform ("well mixed") vertically, especially in Northern summer and in the Arctic. The implications for analysis of trace gas sources and sinks may be significant: models are often adjusted to match meridional gradients measured at surface stations, thus model bias in the vertical may lead to errors in global budget, seasonal cycles, source attribution, etc. The model errors may indicate inadequate representation of fundamental global transport processes and misallocation of global emissions.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2012
- Bibcode:
- 2012AGUFM.A33O..01W
- Keywords:
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- 0312 ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE / Air/sea constituent fluxes;
- 0315 ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE / Biosphere/atmosphere interactions;
- 0330 ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE / Geochemical cycles;
- 0365 ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE / Troposphere: composition and chemistry