Testing convective parameterizations against tropical measurements of CO, HNO3, O3, and H2O

Convective schemes generate a large variety of mass outflow profiles, despite, in many cases, being validated against common datasets. Measurements of chemical tracers can offer an independent test of whether a convective scheme is distributing mass in the vertical in a realistic manner. Aircraft, balloon, and satellite measurements are used to generate tropical climatological profiles of carbon monoxide, nitric acid, ozone, and water vapor. These profiles are then compared with those predicted from a number of convective parametrizations.