UTLS - SLIMCAT Reference Atmosphere for UTLS-Ozone

The SLIMCAT Reference Atmosphere for UTLS-Ozone is a set of example output from the SLIMCAT three-dimensional chemical transport model (CTM). It includes three-dimensional global fields of chemical (and sometimes meteorological) variables as computed for twelve dates in 1997, near the middle of each month.

This data set includes 12 files, each of them corresponding to one output time near the middle of each month of Year 1997 (12 Jan, 11 Feb, 13 Mar, 12 Apr, 12 May, 11 Jun, 11 Jul, 10 Aug, 19 Sept, 19 Oct, 18 Nov, 18 Dec). Each file contains the calculated 3-D distribution of 37 chemical species or families and 6 meteorological variables. The model used is the SLIMCAT chemistry transport model (CTM), a description of which can be found at http://www.lec.leeds.ac.uk/~martyn/slimcat.html. The model was run from October 1991 and forced by the UK Met Office analyses. The model uses 18 isentropic levels. The vertical coordinate in the data files is the globally averaged altitude. The real lat/lon-dependent altitude is given in the ALT field recorded in the files. The THETA field gives the real model theta levels (which are constant with latitude/longitude).

The UTLS SLIMCAT data is available in the BADC UTLS-SLIMCAT archive. It contains modelled 3-D distributions of stratospheric chemical species computed by the SLIMCAT chemistry-transport model constrained by Unified Model analysed winds for Year 1997 (the data also include the dynamical fields). One output per month, around the middle of each month. The data are in NetCDF.

UTLS Ozone data are available to users subject to the terms and conditions of the UTLS Ozone Data Protocol, which aims at encouraging rapid dissemination of scientific results while simultaneously protecting the rights of individual scientists. Access to the data newly submitted to the archive is therefore restricted to the UTLS Ozone participants during 18 months (as long as submission takes place within the 6 months following data production), after which the data are released to the public domain.

The SLIMCAT data is now in the public domain.

Documentation:

• UTLS SLIMCAT Metadata are available in the UTLS-SLIMCAT doc archive

Links:

• TOMCAT/SLIMCAT 3D CTM Home Page
• Civil Aircraft for Regular Investigation of the Atmosphere Based on an Instrument Container (CARIBIC)
• COST Action 723 – Data Exploitation and Modeling for the Upper Tropospehre and Lower Stratosphere
• UTLS NERC webpage"

Natural Environment Research Council, [Chipperfield, M.] . UTLS-ozone - SLIMCAT Reference Atmosphere for UTLS-Ozone, [Internet]. NCAS British Atmospheric Data Centre, 2002-, Date of citation. Available from http://badc.nerc.ac.uk/view/badc.nerc.ac.uk__ATOM__dataent_SLIMUTLS

If you have queries about these pages or difficulties accessing UTLS SLIMCAT data at the BADC then you should contact BADC Support.

Other queries about the UTLS Ozone programme should be directed to the UTLS Ozone Project Manager Helen Rogers or to the Project Assistant Rebecca Penkett.