Preliminary Analysis of Aerosols' Effects on Tropopause Height

The relation between aerosol optical depth and tropopause height in 1979-1992 was analyzed by using the monthly pressure data of global tropopause, temperature, and potential height from NCEP/NCAR, and aerosol optical depth from TOMS. Results show that significant negative correlation with maximum coefficient of -0.6 exists between aerosol optical depth and tropopause height in some areas, such as East Asia, Australia, African equator nearby, and South American coasts. At the same time, the correlations between aerosol and tropopause height, aerosol and troposphere temperature are found to be large where aerosol optical depth is large, and the typical area is East Asia. As a sort of radiative forcing factor, aerosol influences the temperature distribution of troposphere, then causes tropopause height changing in certain degree by affecting the energy balance of atmosphere-earth system. The tropopause height change in the globe mainly shows as a lower trend with aerosol's effect.