Age of air from ACE-FTS measurements of sulfur hexafluoride

Abstract

The Brewer-Dobson Circulation (BDC) is one of the main determinants of trace gas distributions in the atmosphere. Climate models predict that atmospheric warming will cause the BDC to accelerate, modifying where greenhouse gases are most active and impacting the radiative properties of the atmosphere, resulting in a feedback effect. This acceleration is difficult to verify with observations because the speed of the BDC cannot be measured directly. However, changes in stratospheric transport can be identified using the stratospheric age of air, defined as the time since an air parcel entered the stratosphere from the troposphere. A decrease in age of air at higher latitudes would suggest a reduction in transit times, signifying an acceleration of the BDC. Age of air can be calculated using long-lived “clock tracers” such as sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), an industrial gas that is produced in the troposphere, has a negligible seasonal cycle, and has no stratospheric sinks. Due to its small concentrations, measurements have been historically limited, but detecting changes in age of air derived from SF6 requires a long-term, and ideally consistent (i.e., measured by the same instrument), time series. The Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier Transform Spectrometer (ACE-FTS) provides the longest available vertically-resolved record of SF6, spanning 2004 to the present. This study presents a new age of air product derived from the ACE-FTS SF6 dataset using an updated version of the method used for the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) SF6 dataset, which spans the 2002-2012 period. In this presentation, the method for age of air calculation will be presented along with comparisons with other age of air profile datasets derived from MIPAS and balloon measurements. The long-term trend in age of air will be estimated using this new product with the goal of corroborating the predictions made by climate models.