ACP Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics ACP Atmos. Chem. Phys. 1680-7324 Copernicus Publications Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/acp-12-3261-2012 CO at 40–80 km above Kiruna observed by the ground-based microwave radiometer KIMRA and simulated by the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model Hoffmann C. G. 1 Kinnison D. E. 2 Garcia R. R. 2 Palm M. 1 Notholt J. 1 Raffalski U. 3 Hochschild G. 4 Institute of Environmental Physics, University Bremen, Germany National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Kiruna, Sweden Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany 04 04 2012 12 7 3261 3271 Copyright: © 2012 C. G. Hoffmann et al. 2012 This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This article is available from https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/12/3261/2012/acp-12-3261-2012.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/12/3261/2012/acp-12-3261-2012.pdf

This study compares CO in the Arctic stratosphere and mesosphere measured by ground-based microwave radiometry with simulations made with the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model driven with specified dynamical fields (SD-WACCM4) for the Arctic winters 2008/2009 and 2009/2010. CO is a tracer for polar winter middle atmosphere dynamics, hence the representation of polar dynamics in the model is examined indirectly. Measurements were taken with the KIruna Microwave RAdiometer (KIMRA). The instrument, which is located in Kiruna, Northern Sweden (67.8&deg; N, 20.4&deg; E), provides CO profiles between 40 and 80 km altitude. <br><br> The present comparison, which is one of the first between SD-WACCM4 and measurements, is performed on the smallest space and time scales currently simulated by the model; the global model is evaluated daily at the particular model grid-point closest to Kiruna. As a guide to what can generally be expected from such a comparison, the same analysis is repeated for observations of CO from the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS), a microwave radiometer onboard NASA's Aura satellite, which has global coverage. First, time-mean profiles of CO are compared, revealing that the profile shape of KIMRA deviates from SD-WACCM4 and MLS, especially in the upper mesosphere. SD-WACCM4 and MLS are mostly consistent throughout the range of altitude considered; however, SD-WACCM4 shows slightly lower values in the upper mesosphere. Second, the time evolution is compared for the complete time series, as well as for the slowly and rapidly evolving parts alone. Overall, the agreement among the datasets is very good and the model is almost as consistent with the measurements as the measurements are with each other. Mutual correlation coefficients of the slowly varying part of the CO time series are ≥0.9 over a wide altitude range. This demonstrates that the polar winter middle atmosphere dynamics is very well represented in SD-WACCM4 and that the relaxation to analyzed meteorological fields below 50 km constrains the behavior of the simulation sufficiently, even at higher altitudes, such that the simulation above 50 km is close to the measurements. However, above 50 km, the model-measurement correlation for the rapidly varying part of the CO time series is lower (0.3) than the measurement-measurement correlation (0.6). This is attributed to the fact that the gravity wave parametrization in WACCM is based on a generic gravity wave spectrum and cannot be expected to capture the instantaneous behavior of the actual gravity wave field present in the atmosphere.

 References Borsdorff,&nbsp;T. and Sussmann,&nbsp;R.: On seasonality of stratomesospheric CO above midlatitudes: New insight from solar FTIR spectrometry at Zugspitze and Garmisch, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L21804, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2009GL040056">https://doi.org/10.1029/2009GL040056</a>, 2009. Emmons,&nbsp;L.&nbsp;K., Walters,&nbsp;S., Hess,&nbsp;P.&nbsp;G., Lamarque,&nbsp;J.-F., Pfister,&nbsp;G.&nbsp;G., Fillmore,&nbsp;D., Granier,&nbsp;C., Guenther,&nbsp;A., Kinnison,&nbsp;D., Laepple,&nbsp;T., Orlando,&nbsp;J., Tie,&nbsp;X., Tyndall,&nbsp;G., Wiedinmyer,&nbsp;C., Baughcum,&nbsp;S.&nbsp;L., and Kloster,&nbsp;S.: Description and evaluation of the Model for Ozone and Related chemical Tracers, version 4 (MOZART-4), Geosci. Model Dev., 3, 43–67, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/gmd-3-43-2010">https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-3-43-2010</a>, 2010. Forkman,&nbsp;P., Eriksson,&nbsp;P., Winnberg,&nbsp;A., Garcia,&nbsp;R.&nbsp;R., and Kinnison,&nbsp;D.: Longest continuous ground-based measurements of mesospheric CO, Geophys. Res. Lett., 30, 1532, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2003GL016931">https://doi.org/10.1029/2003GL016931</a>, 2003. Fritts,&nbsp;D.&nbsp;C., Vadas,&nbsp;S.&nbsp;L., Wan,&nbsp;K., and Werne,&nbsp;J.&nbsp;A.: Mean and variable forcing of the middle atmosphere by gravity waves,&nbsp;J. Atmos. Sol.-Terr. Phy., 68, 247–265, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jastp.2005.04.010">https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jastp.2005.04.010</a>, 2006. Funke,&nbsp;B., Baumgaertner,&nbsp;A., Calisto,&nbsp;M., Egorova,&nbsp;T., Jackman,&nbsp;C.&nbsp;H., Kieser,&nbsp;J., Krivolutsky,&nbsp;A., López-Puertas,&nbsp;M., Marsh,&nbsp;D.&nbsp;R., Reddmann,&nbsp;T., Rozanov,&nbsp;E., Salmi,&nbsp;S.-M., Sinnhuber,&nbsp;M., Stiller,&nbsp;G.&nbsp;P., Verronen,&nbsp;P.&nbsp;T., Versick,&nbsp;S., von&nbsp;Clarmann,&nbsp;T., Vyushkova,&nbsp;T.&nbsp;Y., Wieters,&nbsp;N., and Wissing,&nbsp;J.&nbsp;M.: Composition changes after the "Halloween" solar proton event: the High Energy Particle Precipitation in the Atmosphere (HEPPA) model versus MIPAS data intercomparison study, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 9089–9139, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/acp-11-9089-2011">https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-11-9089-2011</a>, 2011. Garcia,&nbsp;R.&nbsp;R. and Solomon,&nbsp;S.: The effect of breaking gravity waves on the dynamics and chemical composition of the mesosphere and lower thermosphere,&nbsp;J. Geophys. Res., 90, 3850–3868, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/JD090iD02p03850">https://doi.org/10.1029/JD090iD02p03850</a>, 1985. Garcia,&nbsp;R.&nbsp;R., Marsh,&nbsp;D.&nbsp;R., Kinnison,&nbsp;D.&nbsp;E., Boville,&nbsp;B.&nbsp;A., and Sassi,&nbsp;F.: Simulation of secular trends in the middle atmosphere, 1950–2003,&nbsp;J. Geophys. Res., 112, D09301, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2006JD007485">https://doi.org/10.1029/2006JD007485</a>, 2007. Hoffmann,&nbsp;C.&nbsp;G., Raffalski,&nbsp;U., Palm,&nbsp;M., Funke,&nbsp;B., Golchert,&nbsp;S.&nbsp;H.&nbsp;W., Hochschild,&nbsp;G., and Notholt,&nbsp;J.: Observation of strato-mesospheric CO above Kiruna with ground-based microwave radiometry – retrieval and satellite comparison, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 4, 2389–2408, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/amt-4-2389-2011">https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-4-2389-2011</a>, 2011. Kinnison,&nbsp;D.&nbsp;E., Brasseur,&nbsp;G.&nbsp;P., Walters,&nbsp;S., Garcia,&nbsp;R.&nbsp;R., Marsh,&nbsp;D.&nbsp;R., Sassi,&nbsp;F., Harvey,&nbsp;V.&nbsp;L., Randall,&nbsp;C.&nbsp;E., Emmons,&nbsp;L., Lamarque,&nbsp;J.&nbsp;F., Hess,&nbsp;P., Orlando,&nbsp;J.&nbsp;J., Tie,&nbsp;X.&nbsp;X., Randel,&nbsp;W., Pan,&nbsp;L.&nbsp;L., Gettelman,&nbsp;A., Granier,&nbsp;C., Diehl,&nbsp;T., Niemeier,&nbsp;U., and Simmons,&nbsp;A.&nbsp;J.: Sensitivity of chemical tracers to meteorological parameters in the MOZART-3 chemical transport model,&nbsp;J. Geophys. Res., 112, D20302, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2006JD007879">https://doi.org/10.1029/2006JD007879</a>, 2007. Labitzke,&nbsp;K. and Kunze,&nbsp;M.: On the remarkable Arctic winter in 2008/2009,&nbsp;J. Geophys. Res., 114, D00I02, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2009JD012273">https://doi.org/10.1029/2009JD012273</a>, 2009. Lamarque,&nbsp;J.-F., Emmons,&nbsp;L.&nbsp;K., Hess,&nbsp;P.&nbsp;G., Kinnison,&nbsp;D.&nbsp;E., Tilmes,&nbsp;S., Vitt,&nbsp;F., Heald,&nbsp;C.&nbsp;L., Holland,&nbsp;E.&nbsp;A., Lauritzen,&nbsp;P.&nbsp;H., Neu,&nbsp;J., Orlando,&nbsp;J.&nbsp;J., Rasch,&nbsp;P., and Tyndall,&nbsp;G.: CAM-chem: description and evaluation of interactive atmospheric chemistry in CESM, Geosci. Model Dev. Discuss., 4, 2199–2278, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/gmdd-4-2199-2011">https://doi.org/10.5194/gmdd-4-2199-2011</a>, 2011. Lindzen,&nbsp;R.&nbsp;S.: Turbulence and stress owing to gravity wave and tidal breakdown, J. Geophys. Res., 86, 9707–9714, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/JC086iC10p09707">https://doi.org/10.1029/JC086iC10p09707</a>, 1981. Liu,&nbsp;H., Foster,&nbsp;B.&nbsp;T., Hagan,&nbsp;M.&nbsp;E., McInerney,&nbsp;J.&nbsp;M., Maute,&nbsp;A., Qian,&nbsp;L., Richmond,&nbsp;A.&nbsp;D., Roble,&nbsp;R.&nbsp;G., Solomon,&nbsp;S.&nbsp;C., Garcia,&nbsp;R.&nbsp;R., Kinnison,&nbsp;D., Marsh,&nbsp;D.&nbsp;R., Smith,&nbsp;A.&nbsp;K., Richter,&nbsp;J., Sassi,&nbsp;F., and Oberheide,&nbsp;J.: Thermosphere extension of the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model,&nbsp;J. Geophys. Res., 115, A12302, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2010JA015586">https://doi.org/10.1029/2010JA015586</a>, 2010. Livesey,&nbsp;N., Read,&nbsp;W., Froidevaux,&nbsp;L., Lambert,&nbsp;A., Manney,&nbsp;G., Pumphrey,&nbsp;H., Santee,&nbsp;M., Schwartz,&nbsp;M., Wang,&nbsp;S., Cofield,&nbsp;R., Cuddy,&nbsp;D., Fuller,&nbsp;R., Jarnot,&nbsp;R., Jiang,&nbsp;J., Knosp,&nbsp;B., Stek,&nbsp;P., Wagner,&nbsp;P., and Wu,&nbsp;D.: Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) –- Version 3.3 Level 2 data quality and description document., Tech. rep., Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, available at: <a href="http://mls.jpl.nasa.gov/data/v3-3_data_quality_document.pdf">http://mls.jpl.nasa.gov/data/v3-3_data_quality_document.pdf</a>, last access: 26 August 2011. Manney,&nbsp;G.&nbsp;L., Schwartz,&nbsp;M.&nbsp;J., Kr{ü}ger,&nbsp;K., Santee,&nbsp;M.&nbsp;L., Pawson,&nbsp;S., Lee,&nbsp;J.&nbsp;N., Daffer,&nbsp;W.&nbsp;H., Fuller,&nbsp;R.&nbsp;A., and Livesey,&nbsp;N.&nbsp;J.: Aura microwave limb sounder observations of dynamics and transport during the record-breaking 2009 Arctic stratospheric major warming, Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, L12815, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2009GL038586">https://doi.org/10.1029/2009GL038586</a>, 2009. Manney,&nbsp;G.&nbsp;L., Santee,&nbsp;M.&nbsp;L., Rex,&nbsp;M., Livesey,&nbsp;N.&nbsp;J., Pitts,&nbsp;M.&nbsp;C., Veefkind,&nbsp;P., Nash,&nbsp;E.&nbsp;R., Wohltmann,&nbsp;I., Lehmann,&nbsp;R., Froidevaux,&nbsp;L., Poole,&nbsp;L.&nbsp;R., Schoeberl,&nbsp;M.&nbsp;R., Haffner,&nbsp;D.&nbsp;P., Davies,&nbsp;J., Dorokhov,&nbsp;V., Gernandt,&nbsp;H., Johnson,&nbsp;B., Kivi,&nbsp;R., Kyro,&nbsp;E., Larsen,&nbsp;N., Levelt,&nbsp;P.&nbsp;F., Makshtas,&nbsp;A., McElroy,&nbsp;C.&nbsp;T., Nakajima,&nbsp;H., Parrondo,&nbsp;M.&nbsp;C., Tarasick,&nbsp;D.&nbsp;W., von&nbsp;der Gathen,&nbsp;P., Walker,&nbsp;K.&nbsp;A., and Zinoviev,&nbsp;N.&nbsp;S.: Unprecedented Arctic ozone loss in 2011, Nature, 478, 469–475, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature10556">https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10556</a>, 2011. Marsh,&nbsp;D.: Chemical-dynamical coupling in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere, in: Aeronomy of the Earth's Atmosphere and Ionosphere, IAGA Special Sopron Book Series, vol.&nbsp;2, 1st Edn., Springer, Dordrecht, 3–17, 2011. Minschwaner,&nbsp;K., Manney,&nbsp;G.&nbsp;L., Livesey,&nbsp;N.&nbsp;J., Pumphrey,&nbsp;H.&nbsp;C., Pickett,&nbsp;H.&nbsp;M., Froidevaux,&nbsp;L., Lambert,&nbsp;A., Schwartz,&nbsp;M.&nbsp;J., Bernath,&nbsp;P.&nbsp;F., Walker,&nbsp;K.&nbsp;A., and Boone,&nbsp;C.&nbsp;D.: The photochemistry of carbon monoxide in the stratosphere and mesosphere evaluated from observations by the microwave limb sounder on the aura satellite,&nbsp;J. Geophys. Res., 115, D13303, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2009JD012654">https://doi.org/10.1029/2009JD012654</a>, 2010. Pumphrey,&nbsp;H.&nbsp;C., Filipiak,&nbsp;M.&nbsp;J., Livesey,&nbsp;N.&nbsp;J., Schwartz,&nbsp;M.&nbsp;J., Boone,&nbsp;C., Walker,&nbsp;K.&nbsp;A., Bernath,&nbsp;P., Ricaud,&nbsp;P., Barret,&nbsp;B., Clerbaux,&nbsp;C., Jarnot,&nbsp;R.&nbsp;F., Manney,&nbsp;G.&nbsp;L., and Waters,&nbsp;J.&nbsp;W.: Validation of middle-atmosphere carbon monoxide retrievals from the microwave limb sounder on aura,&nbsp;J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 112, D24S38, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2007JD008723">https://doi.org/10.1029/2007JD008723</a>, 2007. Richter,&nbsp;J.&nbsp;H., Sassi,&nbsp;F., and Garcia,&nbsp;R.&nbsp;R.: Toward a&nbsp;Physically Based Gravity Wave Source Parameterization in a&nbsp;General Circulation Model,&nbsp;J. Atmos. Sci., 67, 136–156, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/2009JAS3112.1">https://doi.org/10.1175/2009JAS3112.1</a>, 2010. Rodgers,&nbsp;C.&nbsp;D.: Inverse Methods for Atmospheric Sounding, World Scientific Publishing, London, 2000. Shepherd,&nbsp;T.&nbsp;G.: Transport in the Middle Atmosphere,&nbsp;J. Meteorol. Soc. Jpn. B, 85, 165–191, 2007. Solomon,&nbsp;S., Garcia,&nbsp;R.&nbsp;R., Olivero,&nbsp;J.&nbsp;J., Bevilacqua,&nbsp;R.&nbsp;M., Schwartz,&nbsp;P.&nbsp;R., Clancy,&nbsp;R.&nbsp;T., and Muhleman,&nbsp;D.&nbsp;O.: Photochemistry and transport of carbon monoxide in the middle atmosphere,&nbsp;J. Atmos. Sci., 42, 1072–1083, 1985. Waters,&nbsp;J., Froidevaux,&nbsp;L., Harwood,&nbsp;R., Jarnot,&nbsp;R., Pickett,&nbsp;H., Read,&nbsp;W., Siegel,&nbsp;P., Cofield,&nbsp;R., Filipiak,&nbsp;M., Flower,&nbsp;D., Holden,&nbsp;J., Lau,&nbsp;G., Livesey,&nbsp;N., Manney,&nbsp;G., Pumphrey,&nbsp;H., Santee,&nbsp;M., Wu,&nbsp;D., Cuddy,&nbsp;D., Lay,&nbsp;R., Loo,&nbsp;M., Perun,&nbsp;V., Schwartz,&nbsp;M., Stek,&nbsp;P., Thurstans,&nbsp;R., Boyles,&nbsp;M., Chandra,&nbsp;K., Chavez,&nbsp;M., Chen,&nbsp;G., Chudasama,&nbsp;B., Dodge,&nbsp;R., Fuller,&nbsp;R., Girard,&nbsp;M., Jiang,&nbsp;J., Jiang,&nbsp;Y., Knosp,&nbsp;B., LaBelle,&nbsp;R., Lam,&nbsp;J., Lee,&nbsp;K., Miller,&nbsp;D., Oswald,&nbsp;J., Patel,&nbsp;N., Pukala,&nbsp;D., Quintero,&nbsp;O., Scaff,&nbsp;D., Snyder,&nbsp;W.&nbsp;V., Tope,&nbsp;M., Wagner,&nbsp;P., and Walch,&nbsp;M.: The Earth observing system microwave limb sounder (EOS MLS) on the aura Satellite, IEEE T. Geosci. Remote Sens., 44, 1075–1092, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2006.873771">https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2006.873771</a>, 2006.