Anthropogenic pollution impacts many of the Earth's natural processes. Therefore, understanding the mechanisms that transport pollutants from the surface to the free atmosphere is important for understanding the chemical composition of the atmosphere. This study quantifies the vertical transport of lower tropospheric carbon monoxide (CO) by deep convection associated with mesoscale convective systems. Three squall line simulations (C1-C3) based on different environmental wind shear profiles are made using the 2-D Goddard Cumulus Ensemble, each providing post-convection CO profiles. Then, the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) instrument's ability to resolve the convectively modified CO distribution is analyzed during one of the cases (C3) using a 'clear-sky' retrieval scheme. Results show that environmental wind shear not only impacts the structure of squall lines, but also their transport characteristics. The squall line simulation with the strongest low-level vertical wind shear is found to transport the greatest net mass of CO, with an amount of 13 421 metric tons in the low levels and 43 916 metric tons in the middle levels of the atmosphere. However, the storm with the weakest low-level vertical wind shear and weakest environmental winds aloft has a greater mass of CO transported by the updraft and the downdraft than either of the two other storms. The study finds that stronger environmental winds in the upper troposphere play an important role in the propagation speed of the squall line, which in turn impacts the horizontal distribution of convectively lofted CO. Results also show that TES has sufficient sensitivity to resolve convectively lofted CO, as long as the retrieval scene is cloud-free. TES swaths that are located downwind of squall lines are found to have the greatest chance of sensing convective transport because the impact of clouds on retrieval quality becomes less of an issue further from the squall line. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Meteorology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Summer Semester, 2007. / July 5, 2007. / GCE, Cloud Venting, Meteorology, Squall Line, MCS, Mesoscale Convective System, Pollution Transport, Carbon Monoxide, CO, TES, Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer, Goddard Cumulus Ensemble / Includes bibliographical references. / Henry E. Fuelberg, Professor Directing Thesis; Guosheng Liu, Committee Member; Robert Hart, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_182463 |
| Contributors | Halland, Jeremy Jerome (authoraut), Fuelberg, Henry E. (professor directing thesis), Liu, Guosheng (committee member), Hart, Robert (committee member), Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
Page generated in 0.0016 seconds