Irregular and diurnal variability in asynoptic measurements of stratospheric trace species

The consequences of irregular and diurnal variability on the interpretation of asynoptic measurements of stratospheric trace species are explored. In particular, the fidelity with which the continuous behavior may be recovered from discrete asynoptic measurements is examined. Dynamically created tracer variability in the form of an advected space-time random process is discussed. Diagnostics such as power spectra and time-mean fields are derived asynoptically and compared with the true behavior. Diurnal variations of a photochemically active species are considered, describing variability in terms of a solar waveform which propagates through a latitudinal envelope. Several diagnostics of the behavior are derived asynoptically and compared with the true variability.