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Stratospheric Influence On The Northern North American Free Troposphere During Topse: 7be As A Stratospheric Tracer, Jack E. Dibb, R. Talbot, Eric Scheuer, Garry Seid, Linsey J. Debell, Barry Lefer, Brian Ridley

Earth Sciences

We use ⁷Be, with HNO₃ and O₃, to identify air masses sampled from the NCAR C-130 during TOPSE that retained clear evidence of stratospheric influence. A total of 43 such air masses, spread fairly evenly across the February to May sampling period, and 40°N–86°N latitude range, were encountered. South of 55°N, nearly all clear stratospheric influence was restricted to altitudes above 6 km. At higher latitudes stratospherically influenced air masses were encountered as low as 2 km. Approximately 12% of all TOPSE sampling time at altitudes above 2 km was spent in stratospherically impacted air, above …