A Comprehensive Set of Polar Processing Diagnostics: Applications to Intercomparisons of Reanalysis Datasets

We present a set of temperature, polar vortex, and trajectory diagnostics that assess the dynamical factors related to chemical ozone loss in the wintertime polar stratosphere. While some of the diagnostics have previously been used in detailed ozone loss studies, we also apply new ones that lend additional insight into the shape and orientation of the polar vortex, and to the chemical processing that precedes the destruction of ozone. One primary advantage of these diagnostics is their simplicity, which allows in-depth intercomparisons of long term datasets commonly used in studies of ozone loss. In conjunction with the Stratosphere-troposphere Processes And their Role in Climate (SPARC) Reanalysis Intercomparison Project (S-RIP), we will present intercomparisons of the diagnostics derived from NASA's Modern Era Retrospective analysis for Research and Applications (MERRA) and the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts' (ECMWF's) Interim Reanalysis (ERA-Interim). We also plan to extend these intercomparisons to other reanalysis datasets – namely, the Japanese 55-year Reanalysis (JRA55) and the National Centers for Environmental Prediction's (NCEP's) Climate Forecasting System Reanalysis (CFSR). We will give a detailed description of the implementation of the diagnostics and the aforementioned intercomparisons of the reanalysis datasets.