Stirring and Mixing | Timescales and Tracers | Chemistry-Climate Models | Water Vapor | Polar Vortex Dynamics
My group's research focuses on large-scale dynamics and transport in the atmosphere and ocean, and its controls on the distribution of trace constituents in the atmosphere and ocean. This is important for several different aspects of global change, including stratospheric ozone depletion and global warming.
Stirring and Mixing | Timescales and Tracers | Chemistry-Climate Models | Water Vapor | Polar Vortex Dynamics
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Stirring and mixing
Transport and mixing play key roles in determining the distribution of important tracers in the atmosphere and oceans. For example, quantifying the mixing of different stratospheric air masses is important for understanding the observed ozone depletion, which quantifying mixing in the ocean is important for understanding ocean color. We use high-resolution simulations together with observations to quantify stirring and mixing in the stratosphere and oceans. More Waugh, D.W., E. R. Abraham, M. M. Bowen Spatial variations of stirring in the surface ocean: A case study of the Tasman Sea, J. Phys. Oceanogr., 36, 526-542, 2005. Waugh, D.W., Plumb, R.A., et al., Mixing of polar vortex air into middle latitudes as revealed by tracer-tracer scatter plots. J. Geophys. Res. 102, 13119-13134, 1997. |
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Timescales and Tracers
Quantifying the timescales for transport into and through the stratosphere, oceans, lakes and groundwater is important for understanding/modeling the flow, biochemical cycling, and distribution of constituents. Research in this area uses theory, models and observations to determine transit time distributions (TTDs) and the infiltration of tracers (e.g. ozone-depleting substances into the stratosphere, and carbon into the oceans). More Waugh, D.W., T. W. N. Haine, and Hall, T. M., Transport Times and Anthropogenic Carbon in the Subpolar North Atlantic Ocean. Deep-Sea Res., 51, 1475-1491, 2004. Waugh, D.W., &Hall, T.M., Age of stratospheric air: Theory, observations, and models Rev. Geophys., 40 (4), 10.1029/2000RG000101, 2002 |
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Chemistry-Climate Models
We are collaborating with scientists at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and other institutes in several different activities using multi-dimensional coupled chemical - physical models to understand past changes and predict future changes in stratospheric composition and global climate. Eyring V., et al., Assessment of coupled chemistry-climate models: Evaluation of dynamics, transport and ozone. J. Geophys. Res., 111, D22308, 2006. |
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Tropical Upper Troposphere Water Vapor
... under construction .... Waugh, D.W., Impact of Potential Vorticity Intrusions on Subtropical Upper Tropospheric Humidity, J. Geophys. Res., 110, D11305, 2005. |
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Polar vortex Dynamics.
... under construction ... |
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Nonlinear dynamics of Rossby waves
... under construction ... |
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Gallery of Atmospheric and Oceanic Vortices.
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