Using beryllium-7 to assess cross-tropopause transport in global models

Abstract. We use the Global Modeling Initiative (GMI) modeling framework to assess the utility of cosmogenic beryllium-7 ( 7 Be), a natural aerosol tracer, for evaluating cross-tropopause transport in global models. The GMI chemical transport model (CTM) was used to simulate atmospheric 7 Be distributions using four different meteorological data sets (GEOS1-STRAT DAS, GISS II′ GCM, fvGCM, and GEOS4-DAS), featuring significantly different stratosphere–troposphere exchange (STE) characteristics. The simulations were compared with the upper troposphere and/or lower stratosphere (UT/LS) 7 Be climatology constructed from  ∼  25 years of aircraft and balloon data, as well as climatological records of surface concentrations and deposition fluxes. Comparison of the fraction of surface air of stratospheric origin estimated from the 7 Be simulations with observationally derived estimates indicates excessive cross-tropopause transport at mid-latitudes in simulations using GEOS1-STRAT and at high latitudes using GISS II′ meteorological data. These simulations also overestimate 7 Be deposition fluxes at mid-latitudes (GEOS1-STRAT) and at high latitudes (GISS II′), respectively. We show that excessive cross-tropopause transport of 7 Be corresponds to overestimated stratospheric contribution to tropospheric ozone. Our perspectives on STE in these meteorological fields based on 7 Be simulations are consistent with previous modeling studies of tropospheric ozone using the same meteorological fields. We conclude that the observational constraints for 7 Be and observed 7 Be total deposition fluxes can be used routinely as a first-order assessment of cross-tropopause transport in global models.