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Intercomparison and evaluation of atmospheric transport in a Lagrangian model (STOCHEM), and an Eulerian model (UM), using 222 Rn as a short‐lived tracer
Author(s) -
Stevenson D. S.,
Collins W. J.,
Johnson C. E.,
Derwent R. G.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
quarterly journal of the royal meteorological society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.744
H-Index - 143
eISSN - 1477-870X
pISSN - 0035-9009
DOI - 10.1002/qj.49712455115
Subject(s) - downscaling , lagrangian , meteorology , scale (ratio) , grid , eulerian path , convection , environmental science , general circulation model , atmospheric model , atmospheric sciences , climatology , precipitation , mathematics , physics , geology , climate change , geometry , oceanography , quantum mechanics
Transport of the short‐lived (half‐life 3.83 days) isotope 222 Rn, which is emitted from unfrozen soils, is used to compare transport in several versions of the UK Meteorological Office Lagrangian chemistry‐transport model and in the Unified Model, the UK Meteorological Office general circulation model. The same 222 Rn experiment is repeated for all the model versions, illustrating the impact on global transport of various model improvements: adding boundary‐layer schemes, including sub‐grid scale convection, increasing model spatial resolution, and increasing the temporal resolution of the meteorological fields used for driving the off‐line model. Results from all model versions are compared with a limited observational data set, and also with results from the same 222 Rn simulations carried out with several global atmospheric transport models as part of the World Climate Research Program in December 1993 (Jacob et al. 1997). Versions of the Lagrangian chemistry‐transport model that include sub‐grid scale convection, transport 222 Rn in a manner that is similar to the Unified Model and most general circulation models, supporting the simple and computationally inexpensive Lagrangian approach taken.