Articles | Volume 22, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-1175-2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-1175-2022
Research article
 | 
24 Jan 2022
Research article |  | 24 Jan 2022

The impact of sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) sinks on age of air climatologies and trends

Sheena Loeffel, Roland Eichinger, Hella Garny, Thomas Reddmann, Frauke Fritsch, Stefan Versick, Gabriele Stiller, and Florian Haenel

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This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Weather and Climate Dynamics (WCD).
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Cited articles

Adcock, K. E., Fraser, P. J., Hall, B. D., Langenfelds, R. L., Lee, G., Montzka, S. A., Oram, D. E., Röckmann, T., Stroh, F., Sturges, W. T., Vogel, B., and Laube, J. C.: Aircraft-Based Observations of Ozone-Depleting Substances in the Upper Troposphere and Lower Stratosphere in and Above the Asian Summer Monsoon, J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos., 126, e2020JD033137, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020JD033137, 2021. a
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Arfeuille, F., Luo, B. P., Heckendorn, P., Weisenstein, D., Sheng, J. X., Rozanov, E., Schraner, M., Brönnimann, S., Thomason, L. W., and Peter, T.: Modeling the stratospheric warming following the Mt. Pinatubo eruption: uncertainties in aerosol extinctions, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 11221–11234, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-11221-2013, 2013. a
Birner, T. and Bönisch, H.: Residual circulation trajectories and transit times into the extratropical lowermost stratosphere, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 817–827, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-11-817-2011, 2011. a
Bönisch, H., Engel, A., Birner, Th., Hoor, P., Tarasick, D. W., and Ray, E. A.: On the structural changes in the Brewer-Dobson circulation after 2000, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 3937–3948, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-11-3937-2011, 2011. a
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SF6-derived trends of stratospheric AoA from observations and model simulations disagree in sign. SF6 experiences chemical degradation, which we explicitly integrate in a global climate model. In our simulations, the AoA trend changes sign when SF6 sinks are considered; thus, the process has the potential to reconcile simulated with observed AoA trends. We show that the positive AoA trend is due to the SF6 sinks themselves and provide a first approach for a correction to account for SF6 loss.
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