What do we learn on bromoform transport and chemistry in deep convection from fine scale modelling?

Abstract

Abstract. Bromoform is one of the main sources of halogenated Very Short-Lived Species (VSLS) that possibly contributes when degradated to the inorganic halogen loading in the stratosphere. Because of its short lifetime of about four weeks, its pathway to the stratosphere is mainly the transport by convection up to the tropical tropopause layer (TTL) and then by radiative ascent in the low stratosphere. Some of its degradation product gases (PGs) that are soluble can be scavenged and not reach the TTL. In this paper we present a detailed modelling study of the transport and the degradation of bromoform and its PGs in convection. We use a 3-D-cloud resolving model coupled with a chemistry model including gaseous and aqueous chemistry. We run idealised simulations up to 10 days, initialised using a tropical radiosounding for atmospheric conditions and using outputs from a global chemistry-transport model for chemical species. Bromoform is initialised only in the low levels. The first simulation is run with stable atmospheric conditions. It shows that the sum of the bromoform and its PGs significantly decreases with time because of dry deposition and that PGs are mainly in the form of HBr after 2 days of simulation. The other simulation is similar to the first simulation but includes perturbations of temperature and of moisture leading to the development of a convective cloud reaching the TTL. Results of this simulation show an efficient vertical transport of the bromoform from the boundary layer in the upper troposphere and TTL (mixing ratio up to 45% of the initial boundary layer mixing ratio). The organic PGs, which are for the most abundant of them not very soluble, are also uplifted efficiently. For the inorganic PGs, which are more abundant than organic PGs, their mixing ratios in the upper troposphere and in the TTL depend on the partitioning between inorganic soluble and inorganic non soluble species in the convective cloud. Important soluble species such as HBr and HOBr are efficiently scavenged by rain. This removal is reduced by the production of Br2 (not soluble) in the gas phase from aqueous processes in the cloud droplets. This Br2 production process is therefore important for the PG budget in the upper troposphere and in the TTL. We also showed that this process is favoured by acidic conditions in the coud droplets, i.e. polluted conditions.