Fine‐scale comparison of TOMS total ozone data with model analysis of an intense Midwestern cyclone

Abstract

High‐resolution (∼40 km) along‐track total column ozone data from the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) instrument are compared with a high‐resolution mesoscale numerical model analysis of an intense cyclone in the Midwestern United States. Total ozone increased by ∼100 DU (nearly 38%) as the TOMS instrument passed over the associated tropopause fold region. Complex structure is seen in the meteorological fields and compares well with the total ozone observations. Ozone data support the meteorological analysis showing that stratospheric descent was confined to levels above ∼600 hPa; significant positive potential vorticity at lower levels is attributable to diabatic processes. Likewise, meteorological fields show that two pronounced ozone streamers extending north and northeastward into Canada at high levels are not bands of stratospheric air feeding into the cyclone; one is a channel of exhaust downstream from the system, and the other apparently previously connected the main cyclonic circulation to a southward intrusion of polar stratospheric air and advected eastward as the cut‐off cyclone evolved. Good agreement between small‐scale features in the model output and total ozone data underscores the latter's potential usefulness in diagnosing upper‐tropospheric/lower‐stratospheric dynamics and kinematics.