Seasonal variation of global stratosphere-troposphere mass exchange

By Wei formula in pressure coordinate, the stratosphere-troposphere mass exchange (STME) is diagnosed globally for 44 years from 1958 to 2001 using the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) reanalysis datasets. Regions of mass flux into the stratosphere are found over Indonesia, bay of Bangladesh and the mid-west coast of South Africa. Compensating mass outflow from the stratosphere appears mainly over mid-latitudes near large-scale troughs. Upward and downward transport of mass at the middle and high latitudes accompany with each other. Mass flux into troposphere is stronger in autumn and winter than in spring and summer. Strong downward mass flux into the troposphere occurs in eastern Asia the whole year with nearly stable sites. Although the area of eastern Asia accounts for only 5.6% of that of the northern hemisphere (NH), its net mass exchange reaches 15.83% of that of the NH, which means that research on STME of eastern Asia is greatly important to that of the NH and even the global areas. Air across the tropopause enters more from stratosphere to troposphere than that from troposphere to stratosphere, which is possibly related with systematic bias of the assimilated datasets and with persistent rise of the tropopause height. Contributions of the mass exchange and the mass flux exchange in the NH and southern hemisphere (SH) on their latitudes increase from equator to pole, with larger contributions in the NH. Mass exchange and mass flux exchange per areas at high latitudes are larger than that at low latitudes, which means greater mass exchange efficiency at high latitudes.