STATUS OF GLOBAL FALLOUT PREDICTIONS

387

Sundstrom! of Sweden has approached the same problem differ-

ently.

He assumes that the horizontal and the vertical mixing intensi-

ties at a given point are both proportional to the variability of the

horizontal component of the wind, an observable quantity. A single proportionality constant converts the wind variability to diffusion constants

so that the latter may differ with altitude and latitude. In the first very

simplified model, a single meridional circulation cell within each
hemisphere was assumed to be present in the stratosphere. By a com-

parison of the observed ozone distribution in the stratosphere with that
expected from an estimate of photochemical production, the two unknowns can be found which yield a best fit between prediction and ob-

servation, The first unknownis the factor converting wind variability to
diffusion coefficients and the second is the sense and magnitude of the
preassigned meridional circulation.
There is one serious defect in the preceding approaches which,if
corrected, increases the complexity of either the New York University —

Weather Bureau iterative or Sundstrom’s statistical methods. This defect may be illustrated in Fig. 13. In this north—south meridional,

cross-section isolines of concentration slope downward toward northerly
latitudes as radionuclides frequently do in the northern hemisphere. It
is assumed that the surface of most intense mixing occurs not along
horizontal planes but parallel to sloping lines labeled M. Theflux of a

tracer substance is directed from north to south along the gradient in
the horizontal planes, but the flux along the M surface is from south to

north. Since there is no a priori reason why the principal mixing
to be oriented exactly along horizontal surfaces, a mixing model
Fickian diffusion should be capable of allowing the mixing to take
along any arbitrary surface. Davidson’s model incorporates this

ought
using
place
capa-

UP

2)
NORTH

SOUTH

Fig. 13—Schematic diagram of mixing along a sloping surface. Z =
height, C = mixing ratio, and M = principal mixing surface.

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