Ground level Be-7-concentration measurements for many years indicate a change of atmospheric exchange processies during the last decades

An analysis covering three decades (1964-1994) of monthly Be-7 ground-level-air concentration measurements at Braunschweig shows a systematic trend of the data. This trend is related to the yearly maximum/minimum concentration ratio. The observation may be due to a continuous mitigation of exchange processes between stratosphere and troposphere. This finding is commensurate with the hypothesis that, due to the growing concentration of anthropogenic infrared active gases, the heat source distribution in the stratosphere and consequently the eddy diffusivity and exchange process between stratosphere and troposphere are altered. This results in a shorter irradiation period of stratospheric air portions by cosmic rays and consequently can lower the concentration of isotopes of stratospheric origin in ground level air.