Review of Eigenvalue Analysis of Atmospheric Chemisty

Royal Society Talk / Preprint

M.J. Prather, Lifetimes and Time-scales in Atmospheric Chemistry, Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. A., xx, PREPRINT 2007.  (Copyright 2007. Further reproduction or electronic distribution is not permitted.)

Abstract. Atmospheric composition is controlled by the emission, photochemistry, and transport of many trace gases.  Understanding the time-scale as well as the chemical and spatial patterns of perturbations to trace gases is needed to evaluate possible environmental damage (e.g., stratospheric ozone depletion or climate change) caused by anthropogenic emissions.  This paper reviews lessons learned from treating global atmospheric chemistry as a linearized system and analyzing it in terms of eigenvalues.    The results give insight into how emissions of one trace species cause perturbations to another and how transport and chemistry can alter the time-scale of the overall perturbation.  Further, the eigenvectors describe the fundamental chemical modes, or patterns, of the atmosphere's chemical response to perturbations.

Seminar / Lecture Notes

PowerPoint seminar slides to be posted soon.