edu.ucar.opensky::articles:6196 UCAR/NCAR - Library OpenSky Support PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 opensky@ucar.edu http://opensky.ucar.edu/ homepage pointOfContact 2025-12-26T15:13:50.935494 ISO 19115-2 Geographic Information - Metadata - Part 2: Extensions for Imagery and Gridded Data ISO 19115-2:2009(E) https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7t72hm1 Observationally derived and GCM simulated tropical stratospheric upward mass fluxes 2008-10-30T00:00:00Z publication https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7t72hm1 https://doi.org/10.1029/2008JD009945 Yang, Q. author Fu, Q. author Austin, J. author Gettelman, Andrew author Li, F. author Vömel, H. author UCAR/NCAR - Library publisher We quantify the vertical velocity and upward mass flux in the tropical lower stratosphere on the basis of accurate radiative heating rate calculations using 8-year Southern Hemisphere Additional Ozonesondes balloon-borne measurements of temperature and ozone and cryogenic frost-point hygrometer measured water vapor in the tropics (15°S—10°N). The impact of tropospheric clouds on the stratospheric heating rates is considered using cloud distributions from the International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project. We find a nearly constant annual mean upward mass flux in the tropical lower stratosphere above the top of the tropical tropopause layer (i.e., ∼70 hPa), which is 1.13 ± 0.40 kgm⁻²d⁻¹ for the 40- to 30-hPa layer, and 0.89 ± 0.48 kgm#8315;²d⁻¹ for the 70- to 50-hPa layer. A strong seasonal cycle exists in the upward mass flux and it is found that the mass flux below ∼70 hPa is decoupled from that above in the Northern Hemisphere summer. Simulations of the tropical lower stratosphere from two stratospheric General Circulation Models (GCMs) are compared with observations. The annual mean upward mass fluxes from both GCMs for the 40- to 30-hPa layer agree well with observations, while the simulated mass fluxes for the 70- to 50-hPa layer are twice as large. Both GCMs also simulate seasonal variation of the mass flux reasonably well but are incapable of simulating the observed interannual variability of the upward mass flux, which is closely correlated with the quasi-biennial oscillations. UCAR/NCAR - Library OpenSky Support PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 opensky@ucar.edu http://opensky.ucar.edu/ homepage pointOfContact PDF Text theme Resource Type 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z publication An edited version of this paper was published by AGU. Copyright 2008] American Geophysical Union. None eng geoscientificInformation