Vertical mixing of passive scalars owing to breaking gravity waves

In this paper, some aspects of dispersion of air pollutants as emitted from aircraft in the lower stratosphere have been investigated. As this part of the atmosphere is always stably stratified, mixing as a result of small-scale turbulence is very slow. Instead, effective vertical mixing can be provided by breaking gravity waves. We have examined the mixing properties of those events by means of a numerical model, which simulates the wave development as well as the dispersion of passive trace substances. From these simulations, an effective diffusion coefficient for the entire event of a breaking gravity wave of about 0.7 m 2 s −1 was calculated.