Authors

Neal Butchart, Met Office Hadley Centre, Exeter, United Kingdom
I. Cionni, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
V. Eyring, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
T. G. Shepherd, University of Toronto
D. W. Waugh, Johns Hopkins University
H. Akiyoshi, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, Japan
J. Austin, Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Princeton, New Jersey
C. Brühl, Max Planck Institut für Chemie, Mainz, Germany
M. P. Chipperfield, University of Leeds, United Kingdom
Eugene C. Cordero, San Jose State UniversityFollow
M. Dameris, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
R. Deckert, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
S. Dhomse, University of Leeds, United Kingdom
S. M. Frith, Science Systems and Applications, Inc., Lanham, Maryland
R. R. Garcia, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
A. Gettelman, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
M. A. Giorgetta, Max Planck Institut für Meteorologie, Hamburg, Germany
D. E. Kinnison, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
F. Li, University of Maryland - Baltimore County
E. Mancini, Università L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy
S. Pawson, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland
G. Pitari, Università L’Aquila, L’Aquila, Italy
D. A. Plummer, Environment Canada, Toronto
E. Rozanov, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland
F. Sassi, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C
J. F. Scinocca, Meteorological Service of Canada
K. Shibata, Meteorological Research Institute, Tsukuba, Japan
B. Steil, Max Planck Institut für Chemie, Mainz, Germany
W. Tian, University of Leeds, United Kingdom

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

October 2010

Publication Title

Journal of Climate

First Page

5349

Last Page

5374

DOI

10.1175/2010JCLI3404.1

Keywords

Chemistry, Atmospheric, Climate Models, Stratosphere, Greenhouse Gases, Ozone

Disciplines

Atmospheric Sciences | Climate | Meteorology

Abstract

The response of stratospheric climate and circulation to increasing amounts of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and ozone recovery in the twenty-first century is analyzed in simulations of 11 chemistry–climate models using near-identical forcings and experimental setup. In addition to an overall global cooling of the stratosphere in the simulations (0.59 ± 0.07 K decade−1 at 10 hPa), ozone recovery causes a warming of the Southern Hemisphere polar lower stratosphere in summer with enhanced cooling above. The rate of warming correlates with the rate of ozone recovery projected by the models and, on average, changes from 0.8 to 0.48 K decade−1 at 100 hPa as the rate of recovery declines from the first to the second half of the century. In the winter northern polar lower stratosphere the increased radiative cooling from the growing abundance of GHGs is, in most models, balanced by adiabatic warming from stronger polar downwelling. In the Antarctic lower stratosphere the models simulate an increase in low temperature extremes required for polar stratospheric cloud (PSC) formation, but the positive trend is decreasing over the twenty-first century in all models. In the Arctic, none of the models simulates a statistically significant increase in Arctic PSCs throughout the twenty-first century. The subtropical jets accelerate in response to climate change and the ozone recovery produces a westward acceleration of the lower-stratospheric wind over the Antarctic during summer, though this response is sensitive to the rate of recovery projected by the models. There is a strengthening of the Brewer–Dobson circulation throughout the depth of the stratosphere, which reduces the mean age of air nearly everywhere at a rate of about 0.05 yr decade−1 in those models with this diagnostic. On average, the annual mean tropical upwelling in the lower stratosphere (∼70 hPa) increases by almost 2% decade−1, with 59% of this trend forced by the parameterized orographic gravity wave drag in the models. This is a consequence of the eastward acceleration of the subtropical jets, which increases the upward flux of (parameterized) momentum reaching the lower stratosphere in these latitudes.

Comments

© Copyright 2010 American Meteorological Society (AMS). Permission to use figures, tables, and brief excerpts from this work in scientific and educational works is hereby granted provided that the source is acknowledged. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be “fair use” under Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act September 2010 Page 2 or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Act (17 USC §108, as revised by P.L. 94-553) does not require the AMS’s permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form, such as on a web site or in a searchable database, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statement, requires written permission or a license from the AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policy, available on the AMS Web site located at (http://www.ametsoc.org/) or from the AMS at 617-227-2425 or copyrights@ametsoc.org.

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