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Tropospheric ozone in CMIP6 Simulations

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Abstract

jats:pAbstract. The evolution of tropospheric ozone from 1850 to 2100 has been studied using data from Phase 6 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6). We evaluate long-term changes using coupled atmosphere-ocean chemistry-climate models, focusing on the CMIP historical and ScenarioMIP ssp370 experiments, for which detailed tropospheric ozone diagnostics were archived. The model ensemble has been evaluated against a suite of surface, sonde, and satellite observations of the past several decades, and found to reproduce well the salient spatial, seasonal and decadal variability and trends. The tropospheric ozone burden increases from 244 ± 30 Tg in 1850 to a mean value of 348 ± 15 Tg for the period 2005–2014, an increase of 40 %. Modelled present day values agree well with previous determinations (ACCENT: 336 ± 27 Tg; ACCMIP: 337 ± 23 Tg and TOAR: 340 ± 34 Tg). In the ssp370 experiments, the ozone burden reaches a maximum of 402 ± 36 Tg in 2090, before declining slightly to 396 ± 32 Tg by 2100. The ozone budget has been examined over the same period using lumped ozone production (PO3) and loss (LO3) diagnostics. There are large differences (30 %) between models in the preindustrial period, with the difference narrowing to 15 % in the present day. Both ozone production and chemical loss terms increase steadily over the period 1850 to 2100, with net chemical production (PO3-LO3) reaching a maximum around the year 2000. The residual term, which contains contributions from stratosphere-troposphere transport reaches a minimum around the same time, while dry deposition increases steadily across the experiment. Differences between the model residual terms are explained in terms of variation in tropopause height and stratospheric ozone burden. </jats:p>

Description

Keywords

37 Earth Sciences, 3701 Atmospheric Sciences, 13 Climate Action

Journal Title

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1680-7316

Volume Title

Publisher

Copernicus Publications

Rights

All rights reserved
Sponsorship
Fiona M. O’Connor and Birgit Hassler were supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation “Coordinated Research in Earth Systems and Climate: Experiments, kNowledge, Dissemination and Outreach (CRESCENDO)” project under grant agreement no. 641816. Guang Zeng was supported by the NZ Government’s Strategic Science Investment Fund (SSIF) through the NIWA programme CACV. Makoto Deushi and Naga Oshima were supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science KAKENHI (grant numbers: JP18H03363, JP18H05292 and JP20K04070), the Environment Research and Technology Development Fund (JPMEERF20172003, PMEERF20202003 and JPMEERF20205001) of the Environmental Restoration and Conservation Agency of Japan, and the Arctic Challenge for Sustainability II (ArCS II), programme grant number PMXD1420318865. We acknowledge the World Climate Research Programme, which, through its Working Group on Coupled Modelling, coordinated and promoted CMIP6. We thank the climate modelling groups for producing and making available their model output, the Earth System Grid Federation (ESGF) for archiving the data and providing access, and the multiple funding agencies who support CMIP6 and ESGF.