Stratospheric effects of Mount Pinatubo aerosol studied with a coupled two-dimensional model

A new interactive radiative-dynamical-chemical zonally averaged two-dimensional model has been developed at Goddard Space Flight Center. The model includes a linear planetary wave parameterization featuring wave-mean flow interaction and the direct calculation of eddy mixing from planetary wave dissipation. It utilizes family gas phase chemistry approximations and includes heterogeneous chemistry on the surfaces of both stratospheric sulfate aerosols and polar stratospheric clouds. This model has been used to study the effects of the sulfate aerosol cloud formed by the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in June 1991 on stratospheric temperatures, dynamics, and chemistry. Aerosol extinctions and surface area densities were constrained by satellite observations and were used to compute the aerosol effects on radiative heating rates, photolysis rates, and heterogeneous chemistry. The net predicted perturbations to the column ozone amount were low-latitude depletions of 2-3% and northern and southern high-latitude depletions of 10-12%, in good agreement with observations. In the low latitudes a depletion of roughly 1-2% was due to the altered circulation (increased upwelling) resulting from the perturbation of the heating rates, with the heterogeneous chemistry and photolysis rate perturbations contributing roughly 0.5% each. In the high latitudes the computed ozone column depletions were mainly a result of heterogeneous chemistry occurring on the surfaces of the volcanic aerosol. Temperature anomalies predicted were a low-latitude warming peaking at 2.5 K in mid-1992 and high-latitude coolings of 1-2 K which were associated with the high-latitude ozone reductions. The sensitivity of the predicted perturbations to changes in the specification of the planetary wave forcings was examined. The maximum globally averaged column ozone depletions ranged from 2 to 4% for the cases studied.