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Understanding how the transport of gases and aerosols responds to climate change is necessary for policy making and emission controls. There is considerable spread in model projections of tracer transport in climate change simulations, largely because of the substantial uncertainty in projected changes in the large‐scale atmospheric circulation. In particular, a relationship between the response of tropospheric transport into the high latitudes and a shift of the midlatitude jet has been previously established in an idealized modeling study. To test the robustness of this relationship, we analyze the response of a passive tracer of northern midlatitude surface origin to abrupt 2xCO₂and 4xCO₂in a comprehensive climate model (Goddard Institute for Space Studies E2.2‐G). We show that a poleward shift of the northern midlatitude jet and enhanced eddy mixing along isentropes on the poleward flank of the jet result in decreased tracer concentrations over the midlatitudes and increased concentrations over the Arctic. This mechanism is robust in abrupt 2xCO₂and 4xCO₂simulations, the nonlinearity to CO₂forcing, and two versions of the model with different atmospheric chemistry. Preliminary analysis of realistic chemical tracers suggests that the same mechanism can be used to provide insights into the climate change response of anthropogenic pollutants.

Major sudden stratospheric warmings (SSWs), vortex formation, and final breakdown dates are key highlight points of the stratospheric polar vortex. These phenomena are relevant for stratosphere‐troposphere coupling, which explains the interest in understanding their future changes. However, up to now, there is not a clear consensus on which projected changes to the polar vortex are robust, particularly in the Northern Hemisphere, possibly due to short data record or relatively moderate CO₂forcing. The new simulations performed under the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project, Phase 6, together with the long daily data requirements of the DynVarMIP project in preindustrial and quadrupled CO₂(4xCO₂) forcing simulations provide a new opportunity to revisit this topic by overcoming the limitations mentioned above. In this study, we analyze this new model output to document the change, if any, in the frequency of SSWs under 4xCO₂forcing. Our analysis reveals a large disagreement across the models as to the sign of this change, even though most models show a statistically significant change. As for the near‐surface response to SSWs, the models, however, are in good agreement as to this signal over the North Atlantic: There is no indication of a change under 4xCO₂forcing. Over the Pacific, however, the change is more uncertain, with some indication that there will be a larger mean response. Finally, the models show robust changes to the seasonal cycle in the stratosphere. Specifically, we find a longer duration of the stratospheric polar vortex and thus a longer season of stratosphere‐troposphere coupling.