Interrelationships between mixing ratios of long‐lived stratospheric constituents

Recent analyses have revealed simple relationships between the simultaneously measured mixing ratios of certain stratospheric constituents. In some cases, the relationship appears to be nearly linear, so that measured concentrations of one can be used to predict the other. We argue here that such relationships are to be expected for species of sufficiently long lifetime. Species whose local lifetimes are longer than quasi-horizontal transport time scales are in climatological slope equilibrium, i.e., they share surfaces of constant mixing ratio, and a scatter plot of the mixing ratio of one versus that of the other collapses to a compact curve whose slope at any point is the ratio of the net global fluxes of the two species through the corresponding surface of constant mixing ratio. Species whose local lifetimes are greater than vertical transport time scales are in gradient equilibrium and their mixing ratios display a linear relationship. For species whose atmospheric lifetimes are determined by removal in the stratosphere, the slope of this relationship in the lower stratosphere can be related to the ratio of their atmospheric lifetimes. These statements are illustrated using results from a two-dimensional chemistry-transport model.

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