Observation of pollution plume capping by a tropopause fold

• Main Authors: Browell, Edward V. (Author), Grant, William B. (Author), Butler, Carolyn F. (Author), Fenn, Marta A. (Author), Cho, John Y. N. (Contributor), Newell, Reginald E. (Contributor)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Geophysical Union (AGU), 2017-08-18T15:10:19Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

Airborne lidar measurements reveal a case in which a layer of high-ozone air extruding from a tropopause fold appears to cap a pollution plume and force it to spread out in the lower troposphere. The morphology of the high-ozone layer resembles a three-dimensional model of tropopause fold evolution that produces a low-altitude potential vorticity tube. This is a mechanism that can complete the irreversible transfer of air from the stratosphere, and can also affect pollution levels at the surface if the capping layer reaches the top of the boundary layer.
United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant NAG1-2306)