High-southern latitudes sulfur cycle in an Atmospheric General Circulation Model

PosterThis modeling study (Cosme et al., Sulfur cycle in the high southern latitudes in the LMD-ZT General Circulation Model, submitted to JGR) was motivated by the recent publication of annual time-scale records of dimethylsulfide (DMS) and dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) in Antarctica, completing the available series of sulfate and methanesulfonic acid (MSA). Sulfur chemistry has been incorporated in the Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique Atmospheric General Circulation Model (AGCM), LMD-ZT, with high resolution and improved physics in the high-southern latitudes. The model predicts the concentration of 6 major sulfur species through emissions, transport, wet and dry deposition and chemistry in both gaseous and aqueous phases. Model results are broadly realistic when compared with measurements in air and snow or ice, and to results of other modeling studies, at high- and mid- southern latitudes. Although not corrected in this work, defects are identified and discussed: Atmospheric MSA concentrations are underestimated and DMSO concentrations are overestimated in summer, reflecting the lack of a DMSO sink leading to MSA; the deposition scheme used in the model may not be adapted to polar regions; DMS concentrations are underestimated in winter, and the model does not adequately reproduces interannual variability. Oceanic DMS sources appear deciding for the description of the sulfur cycle in these regions. The model suggests that ground atmospheric DMS concentrations are higher in winter than in summer, in a large part of central Antarctica. In the high-southern latitudes, high loads of DMS and DMSO are found and the main chemical sink of sulfur dioxide (SO2) is aqueous oxidation by ozone (O3), whereas oxidation by hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) dominates at the global scale