A comparison of ozone and thermal tropopause heights and the impact of tropopause definition on quantifying the ozone content of the troposphere

Abstract

A comparison has been conducted of the height and sharpness of the tropopause as revealed by temperature and ozone profiles. In the study, 628 ECC-type ozonesonde profiles from four stations in northern Europe were used. Two tropopauses were defined for each profile: a thermal tropopause and an ozone tropopause defined in terms of both mixing ratio and vertical gradient of mixing ratio. On average, the ozone tropopause lay 800 m below the thermal. Large differences in tropopause height were associated with indefinite thermal tropopauses which were, in turn, often associated with cyclonic conditions (some corresponding to profiles taken within the stratospheric polar vortex). On almost all profiles the thermal tropopause was the higher of the two, and of the 15 profiles that did not fit this pattern, two-thirds were associated with anticyclonic flow in the upper troposphere. It is also shown that the tropopause definition impacts greatly on the evaluation of the ozone content of the troposphere. Where the thermal tropopause is indefinite in character, on average 27% of the ozone found below the thermal tropopause lies above the ozone tropopause.