The eddy transport of nonconserved trace species derived from satellite data

A simple and commonly used form of representing the eddy flux is as a transport matrix multiplied by the mean gradient. Such a matrix is often called a diffusion matrix, although with off-diagonal components it can represent transport across, as well as parallel to, the mean gradient. We have computed the chemical eddy contribution to the components of the matrix from LIMS satellite observations, using specified photochemical damping time scales. The dominant (K_yy) component of the transport matrices for several winter months are given for ozone, nitric acid, and quasi-geostrophic potential vorticity (PV). The parameterized transports for these three species are compared with the 'exact' transports, computed directly from the eddy LIMS data. The results indicate that the chemical eddy effect can account for most of the observed ozone transport in early winter, decreasing to less than half in late winter. The agreement between the parameterized and observed nitric acid and PV fluxes is not as good. -from Authors