A snapshot of the UCI chemical transport model.
A snapshot of the University of California, Irvine chemical transport model run showing a longitude-by-latitude color map of tropospheric ozone on the surface corresponding to e90 at 90 ppb concentration. Credit: Prather [2025], Figure 1d
Editors’ Highlights are summaries of recent papers by AGU’s journal editors.
Source: AGU Advances

Atmospheric models describing climate change rely on accurate depictions of chemical transport. Prather [2025] examines the different ways to define the troposphere, a highly chemically heterogeneous domain influenced by a range of chemical sources and sinks, from lightning, wildfires, and pollution to convection and rainfall.

The author builds on previous work proposing the use of the artificial age-of-air tracer e90. After calibrating the e90 tracer, Prather demonstrates its application in calculating the mass of the troposphere and troposphere ozone values, using output from UC Irvine’s chemical transport model, ozonesondes representing northern and southern mid-latitudes and the tropics, and satellite ozone profiles. This work presents a practical demonstration of the calibration of an age-of-air tropopause that could potentially be applied more widely in other models or other age-of-air tracers.  

Citation: Prather, M. J. (2025). Calibrating the tropospheric air and ozone mass. AGU Advances, 6, e2025AV001651. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025AV001651

—Kristina Vrouwenvelder, Executive Editor, AGU Advances

Text © 2025. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
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