Age-of-Air, Tape Recorder, and Vertical Transport Schemes

A numerical-analytic investigation of the impacts of vertical transport schemes on the model simulated age-of-air and the so-called 'tape recorder' will be presented using an idealized 1-D column transport model as well as a more realistic 3-D dynamical model. By comparing to the 'exact' solutions of 'age-of-air' and the 'tape recorder' obtainable in the 1-D setting, useful insight is gained on the impacts of numerical diffusion and dispersion of numerical schemes used in global models. Advantages and disadvantages of Eulerian, semi-Lagrangian, and Lagrangian transport schemes will be discussed. Vertical resolution requirement for numerical schemes as well as observing systems for capturing the fine details of the 'tape recorder' or any upward propagating wave-like structures can potentially be derived from the 1-D analytic model.