Open AccessIntegrating chemistry into 3D climate models: Detailed kinetics in the troposphere and stratosphere of a global climate model
Author(s) -
C.Y.J. Kao,
Scott Elliott,
R. P. Turco,
Xin Zhao
Publication year - 1997
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Reports
DOI - 10.2172/548668
Subject(s) - stratosphere , atmospheric chemistry , troposphere , atmospheric sciences , trace gas , climate model , environmental science , tropospheric ozone , biomass burning , gcm transcription factors , climatology , greenhouse gas , meteorology , ozone , climate change , general circulation model , aerosol , physics , geology , oceanography
This is the final report of a three-year, Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) project at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). The motivation for the project is to create the first complete, three-dimensional climate model that enfolds atmospheric photochemistry. The LANL chemical global climate model (GCM) not only distributes the trace greenhouse gases and modifies their concentrations within the detailed photochemical web, but also permits them to influence the radiation field and so force their own transport. Both atmospheric chemistry and fluid dynamics are nonlinear and zonally asymmetric phenomena. They can only be adequately modeled in three dimensions on the global grid. The kinetics-augmented GCM is the only program within the atmospheric community capable of investigating interaction involving chemistry and transport. The authors have conducted case studies of timely three-dimensional chemistry issues. Examples include ozone production from biomass burning plumes, kinetic feedbacks in zonally asymmetric transport phenomena with month- to year-long time scales, and volcano sulfate aerosols with respect to their potential effects on tropospheric ozone depletion