Analysis of troposphere-stratosphere exchange

The overall goal is to improve our understanding of stratosphere-troposphere exchange processes in the tropics and midlatitudes. Specifically, modeling and analysis are performed using aircraft, radiosonde, and satellite data from the 1980 and 1987 NASA tropical field experiments in Panama and Australia, respectively, and the 1986 NASA jet stream field experiment in California. The objectives are to: (1) examine the structure of ozone, temperature, horizontal winds, tropospheric tracers, water and ice particles, and water vapor within, around, and above cumulus anvils in the tropics and jet streams in midlatitudes; (2) establish the presence, during each of the experimental periods, of various potential mechanisms of exchange, such as direct injection by cumulus, gravity wave fluxes, turbulent fluxes, and radiative heating; and (3) evaluate quantitatively, if possible, the mass of air transferred by these mechanisms during specific transport events.