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Advective‐diffusive mass flux and implications for stratosphere‐troposphere exchange
Author(s) -
Hall Timothy M.,
Holzer Mark
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2002gl016419
Subject(s) - tropopause , stratosphere , troposphere , mass flux , advection , flux (metallurgy) , atmospheric sciences , context (archaeology) , physics , environmental science , mechanics , geology , chemistry , organic chemistry , paleontology , thermodynamics
We show that the flux of mass crossing in one direction (the “gross” flux) through any specified surface S that divides anadvective‐diffusive flow in a closed domain is infinite. That is, the flux, (τ), through S of the fluid mass that spent at least time τ on one side of S diverges like τ −1/2 as τ → 0, in the continuum limit. The gross flux is completely dominated by fluid elements residing infinitesimally short times on one side of S before re‐crossing to the other side. This general result puts into context the widely varying estimates of gross mass flux across the midlatitude tropopause. Such estimates are dominated by the smallest resolved scales, leading us to conclude that gross mass flux is not a useful diagnostic of stratosphere‐troposphere exchange. The function (τ), however, provides important information on transport across the tropopause.