Articles | Volume 24, issue 23
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13653-2024
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13653-2024
Research article
 | 
11 Dec 2024
Research article |  | 11 Dec 2024

Variability and trends in the potential vorticity (PV)-gradient dynamical tropopause

Katharina Turhal, Felix Plöger, Jan Clemens, Thomas Birner, Franziska Weyland, Paul Konopka, and Peter Hoor

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Cited articles

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Brönnimann, S., Fischer, A. M., Rozanov, E., Poli, P., Compo, G. P., and Sardeshmukh, P. D.: Southward shift of the northern tropical belt from 1945 to 1980, Nat. Geosci., 8, 969–974, https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2568, 2015. a
Butchart, N. and Remsberg, E. E.: The area of the stratospheric polar vortex as a diagnostic for tracer transport on an isentropic surface, J. Atmos. Sci., 43, 1319–1339, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1986)043<1319:taotsp>2.0.co;2, 1986. a, b
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The tropopause separates the troposphere, where many greenhouse gases originate, from the stratosphere. This study examines a tropopause defined by potential vorticity – an analogue for angular momentum that changes sharply in the subtropics, creating a transport barrier. Between 1980 and 2017, this tropopause shifted poleward at lower altitudes and equatorward above, suggesting height-dependent changes in atmospheric circulation that may affect greenhouse gas distribution and global warming.
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