This review paper was written in 1993 for a broad audience of atmospheric chemists, and other scientifically-minded nonspecialists in fluid dynamics, who may be interested in gaining a quick impression of the most basic facts and ideas about global-scale atmospheric dynamics. Dynamical processes relevant to the ozone layer are emphasized, along with some very elementary aspects of the chemistry. The more recent work on "age of air" and "age spectrum" is not covered.
Included, for instance, is (a) a careful discussion of the `polar cooling thought-experiment' (section 6, p.14), (b) the basic difficulty with the concept of `eddy diffusivity' (section 10, pp. 30, 33 ff.) -- but see the subsequent work by N. Nakamura (J. Atmos. Sci. 53, 1524) and by Haynes and Shuckburgh (J. Geophys. Res. 105, 22777 and 22795) -- and (c) the various incompatible uses of words like `source' and `sink' in the literature (section 11, p. 36 ff.).
The full text is available in pdf or postscript and gif files, as detailed in the index file.
Some of the discussion is improved on in the review of Holton et al (1995), Stratosphere-Troposphere Exchange, published in Revs. Geophys. 33, 403-439. Implications for the Sun's internal circulation are developed in this ongoing research project.
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