Hunt, B. G., and S. Manabe, 1968: Experiments with a stratospheric general circulation model: II. Large-scale
diffusion of tracers in the stratosphere. Monthly Weather Review, 96 (8), 503-539.
Abstract: The 18-level primitive equation, general circulation model described in
Part I was usted to study the diffusion of two idealized tracers in the
stratosphere. One tracer was designed to simulate broadly the behavior of
the radioactive tungsten which escaped into the stratosphere following nulcear
tests in the Tropics, the other was taken as a photochemical ozone distribution.
Both the meridional circulation and the large-scale eddies were of primary
importance for the polewards transport of the tracers in middle and high
latitudes, but the supply of tracer for these eddies was principally maintained
from the higher levels by the downward branches of the meridional circulation.
Two meridional cells were found to occur in the stratosphere, a tropical
direct cell and a higher latitude indirect cell, and these provided a natural
explanation for many of the observed features of the tracer distributions
in the actual atmosphere. The only major tropospheric-stratospheric exchange
took place in the subtropics through the tropopause gap, the vertical eddies
and the meridional circulation being of comparable magnitude for this exchange.
The synoptic situation in the atmosphere was found to be of fundamental
importance for the large-scale diffusion of the tracers in middle latitudes,
and the downgradient transport of tracers in the lower stratosphere was
primarily accomplished by the upper level troughs of the planetary scale
wave system.
Although the model used in this investigation was based on radiative conditions
corresponding to annual mean insolation it appeared to be representative
of winter conditions, and was in agreement with many observational features.
Schematic diagrams illustrating the principal features of the large-scale
diffusion of the two tracers are given in figures 12 and 24.