ON THE SENSITIVITY OF A RESIDUAL CIRCULATION MODEL TO DIFFERENCES IN INPUT TEMPERATURE DATA

The residual mean circulation (RMC) formulation of zonally averaged transport in the middle atmosphere produces a circulation which depends on the distributions of net diabatic heating and temperature. We have derived such circulations from two temperature data sets, National Meteorological Center (NMC) and Limb Infrared Monitor of the Stratosphere (LIMS), using the same radiative transfer code. We have used these circulations to transport N2O in a photochemical model. The circulations and the resulting N2O distributions are notably different during the Northern Hemisphere winter, with that based on the NMC temperatures producing too much upward transport in the tropical stratosphere. -Authors