Shift of subtropical transport barriers explains observed hemispheric asymmetry of decadal trends of age of air

Stiller, Gabriele P.; Fierli, Federico; Ploeger, Felix; Cagnazzo, Chiara; Funke, Bernd; Haenel, Florian J.; Reddmann, Thomas; Riese, Martin; von Clarmann, Thomas

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-11177-2017

Articles | Volume 17, issue 18

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-11177-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-11177-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 17, issue 18

Research article

|

21 Sep 2017

Research article |

| 21 Sep 2017

Shift of subtropical transport barriers explains observed hemispheric asymmetry of decadal trends of age of air

Gabriele P. Stiller, Federico Fierli, Felix Ploeger, Chiara Cagnazzo, Bernd Funke, Florian J. Haenel, Thomas Reddmann, Martin Riese, and Thomas von Clarmann

Data sets

Access to IMK/IAA generated MIPAS/Envisat data IMK-ASF http://www.imk-asf.kit.edu/english/308.php

Short summary

The discrepancy between modelled and observed 25-year trends of the strength of the stratospheric Brewer–Dobson circulation (BDC) is still not resolved. With our paper we trace the observed hemispheric dipole structure of age of air trends back to natural variability in shorter-term (decadal) time frames. Beyond this we demonstrate that after correction for the decadal natural variability the remaining trend for the first decade of the 21st century is consistent with model simulations.