The prevalence of meteoric-sulphuric particles within the stratospheric aerosol layer
- 1University of Leeds, Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science, School of Earth and Environment, LEEDS, United Kingdom of Great Britain – England, Scotland, Wales (gmann@env.leeds.ac.uk)
- 2University of Leeds, School of Chemistry, LEEDS, United Kingdom of Great Britain - England, Scotland, Wales (J.M.C.Plane@leeds.ac.uk)
- 3University of Cambridge, Department of Chemistry, Cambridge, United Kingdom of Great Britain - England, Scotland, Wales (lrm49@cam.ac.uk)
- 4National Centre for Earth Observation, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom of Great Britain - England, Scotland, Wales (S.S.Dhomse@leeds.ac.uk)
- 5National Centre for Atmospheric Science -- Climate, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom of Great Britain - England, Scotland, Wales (W.Feng@leeds.ac.uk)
- 6National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, United States (bardeenc@ucar.edu)
- 7University of Reading, Dept of Meteorology, Reading, United Kingdom of Great Britain - England, Scotland, Wales (n.bellouin@reading.ac.uk)
- 8UK Meteorological Office, Exeter, United Kingdom of Great Britain - England, Scotland, Wales (Colin.johnson@metoffice.gov.uk)
- 9National Centre for Atmospheric Science -- Climate, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom of Great Britain - England, Scotland, Wales (Luke.Abraham@atm.ch.cam.ac.uk)
- 10HYGEOS research consultancy, Lille, France (sr@hygeos.com)
- 11Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, De Bilt, Netherlands (Vincent.Huijnen@knmi.nl)
- 12Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy, Brussels, Belgium (Simon.Chabrillat@aeronomie.be)
- 13European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, Reading, United Kingdom (Zak.kipling@ecmwf.int)
- 14University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY, United States (deshler@uwyo.edu)
- 15NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, United States (L.W.Thomason@nasa.gov)
The widespread presence of meteoric smoke particles (MSPs) within a distinct class of stratospheric aerosol particles has become clear from in-situ measurements in the Arctic, Antarctic and at mid-latitudes.
We apply an adapted version of the interactive stratosphere aerosol configuration of the composition-climate model UM-UKCA, to predict the global distribution of meteoric-sulphuric particles nucleated heterogeneously on MSP cores. We compare the UM-UKCA results to new MSP-sulphuric simulations with the European stratosphere-troposphere chemistry-aerosol modelling system IFS-CB05-BASCOE-GLOMAP.
The simulations show a strong seasonal cycle in meteoric-sulphuric particle abundance results from the winter-time source of MSPs transported down into the stratosphere in the polar vortex. Coagulation during downward transport sees high latitude MSP concentrations reduce from ~500 per cm3 at 40km to ~20 per cm3 at 25km, the uppermost extent of the stratospheric aerosol particle layer (the Junge layer).
Once within the Junge layer's supersaturated environment, meteoric-sulphuric particles form readily on the MSP cores, growing to 50-70nm dry-diameter (Dp) at 20-25km. Further inter-particle coagulation between these non-volatile particles reduces their number to 1-5 per cc at 15-20km, particle sizes there larger, at Dp ~100nm.
The model predicts meteoric-sulphurics in high-latitude winter comprise >90% of Dp>10nm particles above 25km, reducing to ~40% at 20km, and ~10% at 15km.
These non-volatile particle fractions are slightly less than measured from high-altitude aircraft in the lowermost Arctic stratosphere (Curtius et al., 2005; Weigel et al., 2014), and consistent with mid-latitude aircraft measurements of lower stratospheric aerosol composition (Murphy et al., 1998), total particle concentrations also matching in-situ balloon measurements from Wyoming (Campbell and Deshler, 2014).
The MSP-sulphuric interactions also improve agreement with SAGE-II observed stratospheric aerosol extinction in the quiescent 1998-2002 period.
Simulations with a factor-8-elevated MSP input form more Dp>10nm meteoric-sulphurics, but the increased number sees fewer growing to Dp ~100nm, the increased MSPs reducing the stratospheric aerosol layer’s light extinction.
How to cite: Mann, G., Brooke, J., Sengupta, K., Marshall, L., Dhomse, S., Feng, W., Carslaw, K., Bardeen, C., Bellouin, N., Dalvi, M., Johnson, C., Abraham, L., Remy, S., Huijnen, V., Chabrillat, S., Kipling, Z., Deshler, T., and Thomason, L.: The prevalence of meteoric-sulphuric particles within the stratospheric aerosol layer, EGU General Assembly 2021, online, 19–30 Apr 2021, EGU21-15390, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu21-15390, 2021.
