Behaviour of tracer diffusion in simple atmospheric boundary layer models

1-D profiles and time series from an idealised atmospheric boundary layer model are presented, which show agreement with boundary layer measurements of polar NO x . Diffusion models are increasingly being used as the framework for studying tropospheric air chemistry dynamics. Models based on standard boundary layer diffusivity profiles have an intrinsic behaviour that is not necessarily intuitive, due to the variation of turbulent diffusivity with height. The simple model presented captures the essence of the evolution of a trace gas released at the surface, and thereby provides both a programming and a conceptual tool in the analysis of observed trace gas evolution. A time scale inherent in the model can be tuned by fitting model time series to observations. This scale is then applicable to the more physically simple but chemically complex zeroth order or box models of chemical interactions.

• Publication year

  2006

• Venue

  Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics

• Publication date

  2006-12-13

• Fields of study

  Physics, Chemistry, Environmental Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.5194/ACP-7-5147-2007
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• A role for newly forming sea ice in springtime polar tropospheric ozone loss? Observational evidence from Halley station, Antarctica

  2006cited by this paper
• Contrasts between the summertime surface energy balance and boundary layer structure at Dome C and Halley stations, Antarctica

  2006cited by this paper
• An overview of ISCAT 2000

  2004cited by this paper
• Modelling photochemical NOX production and nitrate loss in the upper snowpack of Antarctica

  2002cited by this paper
• Calculation of actinic fluxes with a coupled atmosphere-snow radiative transfer model

  2002cited by this paper
• Stratified Atmospheric Boundary Layers

  1999cited by this paper
• Modeling air movement and bubble trapping in firn

  1997cited by this paper
• Air‐snow exchange investigations at Summit, Greenland: An overview

  1997cited by this paper
• Heat and water vapour fluxes and scalar roughness lengths over an Antarctic ice shelf

  1994cited by this paper
• Optical Properties of Snow

  1982cited by this paper
• The Influence of Cloudiness on the Net Radiation Balance of a Snow Surface with High Albedo

  1974cited by this paper

• Snowpack nitrate photolysis drives the summertime atmospheric nitrous acid (HONO) budget in coastal Antarctica

  2023cites this paper
• Summer variability of the atmospheric NO2:NO ratio at Dome C, on the East Antarctic Plateau

  2021cites this paper
• A compilation of tropospheric measurements of gas-phase and aerosol chemistry in polar regions

  2012cites this paper
• Summertime NO x measurements during the CHABLIS campaign: can source and sink estimates unravel observed diurnal cycles?

  2009cites this paper
• University of Birmingham Observations of OH and HO2 radicals in coastal Antarctica

  2007cites this paper
• Interactive comment on “Observations of OH and HO 2 radicals in coastal Antarctica” by

  2007cites this paper
• Boundary Layer Physics over Snow and Ice Boundary Layer Physics over Snow and Ice Acpd Boundary Layer Physics over Snow and Ice

  year unknowncites this paper