The Tropical Tropopause Layer - What and Why?
Dr. George Craig (DLR-Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, Oberpfaffenhofen)

The tropical tropopause, located at about 18km altitude, marks the boundary between the turbulent troposphere that is rapidly mixed by convective storms, and the relatively quiescent stratosphere where the temperature is controlled by radiative transfer. Although often appearing to be a sharp boundary, the tropical tropopause is actually marked by a complex transition between rapid convective and slower radiative and mechanically driven processes. This talk will review observations of the transition layer and use a variety of conceptual and numerical models to understand its structure.
Since the tropical tropopause is where air ascends into the stratosphere, the processes here have a controlling influence on stratospheric composition and chemistry over the whole globe.