Articles | Volume 13, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-1909-2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-1909-2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
16 Apr 2020
Research article |
| 16 Apr 2020
| 16 Apr 2020
Issues related to the retrieval of stratospheric-aerosol particle size information based on optical measurements
Christian von Savigny
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Institute of Physics, University of Greifswald, Felix-Hausdorff-Str. 6, 17489 Greifswald, Germany
Christoph G. Hoffmann
Institute of Physics, University of Greifswald, Felix-Hausdorff-Str. 6, 17489 Greifswald, Germany
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Sandra Wallis, Matthew DeLand, and Christian von Savigny
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 3635–3645, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3635-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3635-2025, 2025
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The 2022 Hunga Tonga – Hunga Ha'apai eruption emitted about 150 Tg H2O that partly reached the upper polar Southern Hemisphere mesosphere in the beginning of 2024. Noctilucent clouds (NLCs) did not show a clear perturbation in their occurrence frequency, but the slight increase from mid-January to February could potentially have been caused by the additional H2O. It needed 2 years to reach the summer polar mesopause region, analogous to the 1883 Krakatoa eruption that is argued to have caused the first sightings of NLCs.
Felix Wrana, Terry Deshler, Christian Löns, Larry W. Thomason, and Christian von Savigny
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 3717–3736, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3717-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3717-2025, 2025
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There is a natural and globally occurring layer of small droplets (aerosols) at roughly 20 km altitude in the atmosphere. In this work, the size of these droplets is calculated from satellite measurements for the years 2002 to 2005, which is important for the aerosol cooling effect on Earth's climate. These years are interesting because there were no large volcanic eruptions that would change the background state of the aerosols. The results are compared to reliable balloon-borne measurements.
Anna Lange, Ulrike Niemeier, Alexei Rozanov, and Christian von Savigny
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1005, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1005, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
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Our paper investigates whether it is possible to observe injections of 1 and 2 Tg S/y (sulphur per year) into the stratosphere with the currently active satellite occultation instruments. The calculations show that, considering the natural variability and the assumptions made here, the stratospheric aerosols formed from emissions of 1 and 2 Tg S/y in the quasi steady-state phase can be detected, which is not the case in the first month of the two-year initial phase.
Christine Pohl, Felix Wrana, Alexei Rozanov, Terry Deshler, Elizaveta Malinina, Christian von Savigny, Landon A. Rieger, Adam E. Bourassa, and John P. Burrows
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4153–4181, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4153-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4153-2024, 2024
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Knowledge of stratospheric aerosol characteristics is important for understanding chemical and climate aerosol feedbacks. Two particle size distribution parameters, the aerosol extinction coefficient and the effective radius, are obtained from SCIAMACHY limb observations. The aerosol characteristics show good agreement with independent data sets from balloon-borne and satellite observations. This data set expands the limited knowledge of stratospheric aerosol characteristics.
Christian von Savigny, Anna Lange, Christoph G. Hoffmann, and Alexei Rozanov
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 2415–2422, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2415-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2415-2024, 2024
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It is well known that volcanic eruptions strongly affect the colours of the twilight sky. Typically, volcanic eruptions lead to enhanced reddish and violet twilight colours. In rare cases, however, volcanic eruptions can also lead to green sunsets. This study provides an explanation for the occurrence of these unusual green sunsets based on simulations with a radiative transfer model. Green volcanic sunsets require a sufficient stratospheric aerosol optical depth and specific aerosol sizes.
Anna Lange, Alexei Rozanov, and Christian von Savigny
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 14829–14839, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-14829-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-14829-2023, 2023
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We were able to demonstrate quantitatively that the blue colour of the sky cannot be solely attributed to Rayleigh scattering. The influence of ozone on the blue colour of the sky is calculated for different viewing geometries, total ozone columns and an enhanced stratospheric aerosol scenario. Furthermore, the effects of polarisation, surface albedo and observer height are investigated.
John M. C. Plane, Jörg Gumbel, Konstantinos S. Kalogerakis, Daniel R. Marsh, and Christian von Savigny
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 13255–13282, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13255-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13255-2023, 2023
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The mesosphere or lower thermosphere region of the atmosphere borders the edge of space. It is subject to extreme ultraviolet photons and charged particles from the Sun and atmospheric gravity waves from below, which tend to break in this region. The pressure is very low, which facilitates chemistry involving species in excited states, and this is also the region where cosmic dust ablates and injects various metals. The result is a unique and exotic chemistry.
Christoph G. Hoffmann, Lena G. Buth, and Christian von Savigny
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 12781–12799, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-12781-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-12781-2023, 2023
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The Madden–Julian oscillation is an important feature of weather in the tropics. Although it is mainly active in the troposphere, we show that it systematically influences the air temperature in the layers above, up to about 100 km altitude and from pole to pole. We have linked this to another known far-reaching process, interhemispheric coupling. This is basic research on atmospheric couplings and variability but might also be of interest for intraseasonal weather forecasting models.
Felix Wrana, Ulrike Niemeier, Larry W. Thomason, Sandra Wallis, and Christian von Savigny
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 9725–9743, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9725-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9725-2023, 2023
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The stratospheric aerosol layer is a naturally occurring and permanent layer of aerosol, in this case very small droplets of mostly sulfuric acid and water, that has a cooling effect on our climate. To quantify this effect and for our general understanding of stratospheric microphysical processes, knowledge of the size of those aerosol particles is needed. Using satellite measurements and atmospheric models we show that some volcanic eruptions can lead to on average smaller aerosol sizes.
Sandra Wallis, Hauke Schmidt, and Christian von Savigny
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 7001–7014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-7001-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-7001-2023, 2023
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Strong volcanic eruptions are able to alter the temperature and the circulation of the middle atmosphere. This study simulates the atmospheric response to an idealized strong tropical eruption and focuses on the impact on the mesosphere. The simulations show a warming of the polar summer mesopause in the first November after the eruption. Our study indicates that this is mainly due to dynamical coupling in the summer hemisphere with a potential contribution from interhemispheric coupling.
Christian von Savigny, Anna Lange, Anne Hemkendreis, Christoph G. Hoffmann, and Alexei Rozanov
Clim. Past, 18, 2345–2356, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-2345-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-2345-2022, 2022
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This study investigates the possibility of inferring information on aerosol optical depth from photographs of historic paintings. The idea – which has been applied in previous studies – is very interesting because it would provide an archive of the atmospheric aerosol loading covering many centuries. We show that twilight colours depend not only on the aerosol optical thickness, but also on several other parameters, making a quantitative estimate of aerosol optical depth very difficult.
Sandra Wallis, Christoph Gregor Hoffmann, and Christian von Savigny
Ann. Geophys., 40, 421–431, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-40-421-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-40-421-2022, 2022
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Although the 1991 eruption of Mt Pinatubo had a severe impact on Earth's climate, the effect of this event on the mesosphere is not well understood. We investigated satellite-borne temperature measurements from the HALOE instrument and found indications that a positive temperature anomaly is present in the tropical upper mesosphere at the beginning of the HALOE time series, which may be related to the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo.
Anna Lange, Gerd Baumgarten, Alexei Rozanov, and Christian von Savigny
Ann. Geophys., 40, 407–419, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-40-407-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-40-407-2022, 2022
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We investigate the influence of different parameters on the colour of noctilucent clouds (highest clouds in the atmosphere), using radiative transfer calculations. We determined the effect of the particle size, optical depth, single scattering/multiple scattering and ozone. For sufficiently large optical depth and for specific viewing geometries, ozone plays only a minor role in the blueish colour of noctilucent clouds (new result).
Mireia Papke Chica, Valerian Hahn, Tiziana Braeuer, Elena de la Torre Castro, Florian Ewald, Mathias Gergely, Simon Kirschler, Luca Bugliaro Goggia, Stefanie Knobloch, Martina Kraemer, Johannes Lucke, Johanna Mayer, Raphael Maerkl, Manuel Moser, Laura Tomsche, Tina Jurkat-Witschas, Martin Zoeger, Christian von Savigny, and Christiane Voigt
Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2022-255, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2022-255, 2022
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The mixed-phase temperature regime in convective clouds challenges our understanding of microphysical and radiative cloud properties. We provide a rare and unique dataset of aircraft in situ measurements in a strong mid-latitude convective system. We find that mechanisms initiating ice nucleation and growth strongly depend on temperature, relative humidity, and vertical velocity and variate within the measured system, resulting in altitude dependent changes of the cloud liquid and ice fraction.
Julia Koch, Adam Bourassa, Nick Lloyd, Chris Roth, and Christian von Savigny
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 3191–3202, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3191-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3191-2022, 2022
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The mesopause, the region of the earth's atmosphere between 85 and 100 km, is hard to access by direct measurements. Therefore we look for parameters that can be measured using satellite or ground-based measurements. In this study we researched sodium airglow, a phenomenon that occurs when sodium atoms are excited by chemical reactions. We compared satellite measurements of the airglow and resulting sodium concentration profiles to gain a better understanding of the sodium in that region.
Elizaveta Malinina, Alexei Rozanov, Ulrike Niemeier, Sandra Wallis, Carlo Arosio, Felix Wrana, Claudia Timmreck, Christian von Savigny, and John P. Burrows
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 14871–14891, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-14871-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-14871-2021, 2021
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In the paper, changes in the stratospheric aerosol loading after the 2018 Ambae eruption were analyzed using OMPS-LP observations. The eruption was also simulated with the MAECHAM5-HAM global climate model. Generally, the model and observations agree very well. We attribute the good consistency of the results to a precisely determined altitude and mass of the volcanic injection, as well as nudging of the meteorological data. The radiative forcing from the eruption was estimated to be −0.13 W m−2.
Nellie Wullenweber, Anna Lange, Alexei Rozanov, and Christian von Savigny
Clim. Past, 17, 969–983, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-969-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-969-2021, 2021
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This study investigates the physical processes leading to the rare phenomenon of the sun appearing blue or green. The phenomenon is caused by anomalous scattering by, e.g., volcanic or forest fire aerosols. Unlike most other studies, our study includes a full treatment of the effect of Rayleigh scattering on the colour of the sun. We investigate different factors and revisit a historic example, i.e. the Canadian forest fires in 1950, that led to blue sun events in different European countries.
Felix Wrana, Christian von Savigny, Jacob Zalach, and Larry W. Thomason
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 2345–2357, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2345-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2345-2021, 2021
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In this paper, we describe a new method for calculating the size of naturally occurring droplets (aerosols) made mostly of sulfuric acid and water that can be found roughly at 20 km altitude in the atmosphere. We use data from the instrument SAGE III/ISS that is mounted on the International Space Station. We show that our method works well, and that the size parameters we calculate are reasonable and can be a valuable addition for a better understanding of aerosols and their effect on climate.
Larry W. Thomason, Mahesh Kovilakam, Anja Schmidt, Christian von Savigny, Travis Knepp, and Landon Rieger
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 1143–1158, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-1143-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-1143-2021, 2021
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Measurements of the impact of volcanic eruptions on stratospheric aerosol loading by space-based instruments show show a fairly well-behaved relationship between the magnitude and the apparent changes to aerosol size over several orders of magnitude. This directly measured relationship provides a unique opportunity to verify the performance of interactive aerosol models used in climate models.
Lukas O. Muser, Gholam Ali Hoshyaripour, Julia Bruckert, Ákos Horváth, Elizaveta Malinina, Sandra Wallis, Fred J. Prata, Alexei Rozanov, Christian von Savigny, Heike Vogel, and Bernhard Vogel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 15015–15036, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15015-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15015-2020, 2020
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Volcanic aerosols endanger aircraft and thus disrupt air travel globally. For aviation safety, it is vital to know the location and lifetime of such aerosols in the atmosphere. Here we show that the interaction of volcanic particles with each other eventually reduces their atmospheric lifetime. Moreover, we demonstrate that sunlight heats these particles, which lifts them several kilometers in the atmosphere. These findings support a more reliable forecast of volcanic aerosol dispersion.
Thomas von Clarmann, Douglas A. Degenstein, Nathaniel J. Livesey, Stefan Bender, Amy Braverman, André Butz, Steven Compernolle, Robert Damadeo, Seth Dueck, Patrick Eriksson, Bernd Funke, Margaret C. Johnson, Yasuko Kasai, Arno Keppens, Anne Kleinert, Natalya A. Kramarova, Alexandra Laeng, Bavo Langerock, Vivienne H. Payne, Alexei Rozanov, Tomohiro O. Sato, Matthias Schneider, Patrick Sheese, Viktoria Sofieva, Gabriele P. Stiller, Christian von Savigny, and Daniel Zawada
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 4393–4436, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-4393-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-4393-2020, 2020
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Remote sensing of atmospheric state variables typically relies on the inverse solution of the radiative transfer equation. An adequately characterized retrieval provides information on the uncertainties of the estimated state variables as well as on how any constraint or a priori assumption affects the estimate. This paper summarizes related techniques and provides recommendations for unified error reporting.
Olexandr Lednyts'kyy and Christian von Savigny
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 2221–2261, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-2221-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-2221-2020, 2020
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Atomic oxygen is a chemically active trace gas and a critical component of the energy balance of the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT). By sequentially applying continuity equations of low degree, a new model representing the airglow and photochemistry of oxygen in the MLT is implemented, enabling comparisons with airglow observations at each step. The most effective data sets required to derive the abundance of atomic oxygen are the O2 atmospheric band emission, temperature, N2 and O2.
Piao Rong, Christian von Savigny, Chunmin Zhang, Christoph G. Hoffmann, and Michael J. Schwartz
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 1737–1755, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-1737-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-1737-2020, 2020
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We study the presence and characteristics of 27 d solar signatures in middle atmospheric temperature observed by the microwave limb sounder on NASA's Aura spacecraft. This is a highly interesting and significant subject because the physical and chemical mechanisms leading to these 27 d solar-driven signatures are, in many cases, not well understood. The analysis shows that highly significant 27 d solar signatures in middle atmospheric temperature are present at many altitudes and latitudes.
Jacob Zalach, Christian von Savigny, Arvid Langenbach, Gerd Baumgarten, Franz-Josef Lübken, and Adam Bourassa
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2019-267, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2019-267, 2019
Revised manuscript not accepted
Arvid Langenbach, Gerd Baumgarten, Jens Fiedler, Franz-Josef Lübken, Christian von Savigny, and Jacob Zalach
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 4065–4076, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-4065-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-4065-2019, 2019
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Stratospheric aerosol backscatter ratios in the Arctic using Rayleigh, Mie and Raman backscattered signals were calculated. A backscatter ratio calculation during daytime was performed for the first time. Sharp aerosol layers thinner than 1 km over several days were observed. The seasonal cycle of stratospheric background aerosol in high latitudes including the summer months was calculated for the first time. Top altitude of the aerosol layer was found to reach up to 34 km, especially in summer.
Christoph G. Hoffmann and Christian von Savigny
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 4235–4256, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-4235-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-4235-2019, 2019
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We examine a possible statistical linkage between atmospheric variability in the tropical troposphere on the intraseasonal timescale, which is known as Madden–Julian oscillation, and known variability of the solar radiation with a period of 27 days. This helps to understand tropospheric variability in more detail, which is generally of interest, e.g., for weather forecasting. We find indications for such a linkage; however, more research has to be conducted for an unambiguous attribution.
Christian von Savigny, Dieter H. W. Peters, and Günter Entzian
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 2079–2093, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-2079-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-2079-2019, 2019
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This study investigates solar effects in radio reflection height observations in the ionospheric D region at an altitude of about 80 km at northern midlatitudes. The analyzed time series covers almost six solar cycles. Statistically significant solar 27-day and 11-year signatures are identified. However, the driving mechanisms are not fully understood. We also provide evidence for dynamical effects on the radio reflection heights with periods close to the solar rotational cycle.
Tilo Fytterer, Christian von Savigny, Martin Mlynczak, and Miriam Sinnhuber
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 1835–1851, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-1835-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-1835-2019, 2019
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A model was developed to derive night-time atomic oxygen (O(3P)) and atomic hydrogen (H) from satellite observations in the altitude region between 75 km and 100 km. Comparisons between the
best-fit modeland the measurements suggest that chemical reactions involving O2 and O(3P) might occur differently than is usually assumed in literature. This considerably affects the derived abundances of O(3P) and H, which in turn might influence air temperature and winds of the whole atmosphere.
Martin P. Langowski, Christian von Savigny, John P. Burrows, Didier Fussen, Erin C. M. Dawkins, Wuhu Feng, John M. C. Plane, and Daniel R. Marsh
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 2989–3006, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-2989-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-2989-2017, 2017
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Meteoric metals form metal layers in the upper atmosphere anandplay a role in the formation of middle-atmospheric clouds and aerosols. However, the total metal influx rate is not well known. Global Na datasets from measurements and a model are available, which had not been compared yet on a global scale until this paper. Overall the agreement is good, and many differences between measurements are also found in the model simulations. However, the modeled layer altitude is too low.
Kai-Uwe Eichmann, Luca Lelli, Christian von Savigny, Harjinder Sembhi, and John P. Burrows
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 793–815, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-793-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-793-2016, 2016
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Height-resolved limb radiance spectra of the satellite instrument SCIAMACHY are used to retrieve cloud top heights with a colour index method. Clouds are detectable from the lower to the uppermost troposphere. These cloud heights help to improve the trace gas retrieval for the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. Comparisons with other data sets have shown good agreement. As clouds and aerosols are not distinguishable, lower stratospheric volcanic aerosol clouds are detected in some years.
M. P. Langowski, C. von Savigny, J. P. Burrows, V. V. Rozanov, T. Dunker, U.-P. Hoppe, M. Sinnhuber, and A. C. Aikin
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 295–311, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-295-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-295-2016, 2016
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An algorithm has been developed for the retrieval of sodium atom (Na) number density on a latitude and altitude grid from SCIAMACHY limb measurements of the Na resonance fluorescence (multiannual means 2008–2012). The Na layer peaks at 90 to 93 km altitude and has a FWHM of 5 to 15 km. A summer minimum in peak density and width is observed at high latitudes. At low latitudes, a semiannual oscillation is found. The results are compared with other measurements and models and agree well with these.
F. Ebojie, J. P. Burrows, C. Gebhardt, A. Ladstätter-Weißenmayer, C. von Savigny, A. Rozanov, M. Weber, and H. Bovensmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 417–436, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-417-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-417-2016, 2016
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The goal of this study is to determine the global and zonal changes in the tropospheric ozone data product derived from SCIAMACHY limb-nadir-matching (LNM) observations during the period 2003–2011.
Tropospheric O3 shows statistically significant increases over some regions of South Asia, the South American continent, Alaska, around Congo in Africa and over some continental outflows. Significant decrease in TOC is observed over some continents and oceans.
C. von Savigny, F. Ernst, A. Rozanov, R. Hommel, K.-U. Eichmann, V. Rozanov, J. P. Burrows, and L. W. Thomason
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 5223–5235, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-5223-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-5223-2015, 2015
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This article presents validation results for stratospheric aerosol extinction profiles retrieved from limb-scatter measurements with the SCIAMACHY instrument on the Envisat satellite. The SCIAMACHY retrievals are compared to co-located measurements with the SAGE II instrument. Very good agreement to within about 15% is found in a global average sense at altitudes above 15 km. The article also presents sample results on the global morphology of the stratospheric aerosol layer from 2003 to 2011.
O. Lednyts'kyy, C. von Savigny, K.-U. Eichmann, and M. G. Mlynczak
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 1021–1041, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-1021-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-1021-2015, 2015
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This paper deals with the retrieval of atomic oxygen concentration profiles in the Earth's upper mesosphere/lower thermosphere region from SCIAMACHY observations of oxygen green line airglow emissions. Atomic oxygen is one of the most important chemical constituents of this atmospheric region, and long-term satellite data sets are rare. The paper includes a detailed description of the retrieval algorithm, an error budget, validation results and some first scientific analyses.
M. P. Langowski, C. von Savigny, J. P. Burrows, W. Feng, J. M. C. Plane, D. R. Marsh, D. Janches, M. Sinnhuber, A. C. Aikin, and P. Liebing
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 273–295, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-273-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-273-2015, 2015
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Global concentration fields of Mg and Mg+ in the Earth's upper mesosphere and lower thermosphere (70-150km) are presented. These are retrieved from SCIAMACHY/Envisat satellite grating spectrometer measurements in limb viewing geometry between 2008 and 2012.
These were compared with WACCM-Mg model results and a large fraction of the available measurement results for these species, and an interpretation of the results is done. The variation of these species during NLC presence is discussed.
S. Kowalewski, C. von Savigny, M. Palm, I. C. McDade, and J. Notholt
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 10193–10210, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-10193-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-10193-2014, 2014
F. Ebojie, C. von Savigny, A. Ladstätter-Weißenmayer, A. Rozanov, M. Weber, K.-U. Eichmann, S. Bötel, N. Rahpoe, H. Bovensmann, and J. P. Burrows
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 7, 2073–2096, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-2073-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-2073-2014, 2014
B. Hassler, I. Petropavlovskikh, J. Staehelin, T. August, P. K. Bhartia, C. Clerbaux, D. Degenstein, M. De Mazière, B. M. Dinelli, A. Dudhia, G. Dufour, S. M. Frith, L. Froidevaux, S. Godin-Beekmann, J. Granville, N. R. P. Harris, K. Hoppel, D. Hubert, Y. Kasai, M. J. Kurylo, E. Kyrölä, J.-C. Lambert, P. F. Levelt, C. T. McElroy, R. D. McPeters, R. Munro, H. Nakajima, A. Parrish, P. Raspollini, E. E. Remsberg, K. H. Rosenlof, A. Rozanov, T. Sano, Y. Sasano, M. Shiotani, H. G. J. Smit, G. Stiller, J. Tamminen, D. W. Tarasick, J. Urban, R. J. van der A, J. P. Veefkind, C. Vigouroux, T. von Clarmann, C. von Savigny, K. A. Walker, M. Weber, J. Wild, and J. M. Zawodny
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 7, 1395–1427, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-1395-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-1395-2014, 2014
R. Hommel, K.-U. Eichmann, J. Aschmann, K. Bramstedt, M. Weber, C. von Savigny, A. Richter, A. Rozanov, F. Wittrock, F. Khosrawi, R. Bauer, and J. P. Burrows
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 3247–3276, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-3247-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-3247-2014, 2014
M. Langowski, M. Sinnhuber, A. C. Aikin, C. von Savigny, and J. P. Burrows
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 7, 29–48, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-29-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-29-2014, 2014
N. Rahpoe, C. von Savigny, M. Weber, A.V. Rozanov, H. Bovensmann, and J. P. Burrows
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 6, 2825–2837, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-6-2825-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-6-2825-2013, 2013
Sandra Wallis, Matthew DeLand, and Christian von Savigny
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 3635–3645, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3635-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3635-2025, 2025
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The 2022 Hunga Tonga – Hunga Ha'apai eruption emitted about 150 Tg H2O that partly reached the upper polar Southern Hemisphere mesosphere in the beginning of 2024. Noctilucent clouds (NLCs) did not show a clear perturbation in their occurrence frequency, but the slight increase from mid-January to February could potentially have been caused by the additional H2O. It needed 2 years to reach the summer polar mesopause region, analogous to the 1883 Krakatoa eruption that is argued to have caused the first sightings of NLCs.
Felix Wrana, Terry Deshler, Christian Löns, Larry W. Thomason, and Christian von Savigny
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 3717–3736, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3717-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3717-2025, 2025
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There is a natural and globally occurring layer of small droplets (aerosols) at roughly 20 km altitude in the atmosphere. In this work, the size of these droplets is calculated from satellite measurements for the years 2002 to 2005, which is important for the aerosol cooling effect on Earth's climate. These years are interesting because there were no large volcanic eruptions that would change the background state of the aerosols. The results are compared to reliable balloon-borne measurements.
Anna Lange, Ulrike Niemeier, Alexei Rozanov, and Christian von Savigny
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1005, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-1005, 2025
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
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Our paper investigates whether it is possible to observe injections of 1 and 2 Tg S/y (sulphur per year) into the stratosphere with the currently active satellite occultation instruments. The calculations show that, considering the natural variability and the assumptions made here, the stratospheric aerosols formed from emissions of 1 and 2 Tg S/y in the quasi steady-state phase can be detected, which is not the case in the first month of the two-year initial phase.
Christine Pohl, Felix Wrana, Alexei Rozanov, Terry Deshler, Elizaveta Malinina, Christian von Savigny, Landon A. Rieger, Adam E. Bourassa, and John P. Burrows
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4153–4181, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4153-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4153-2024, 2024
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Knowledge of stratospheric aerosol characteristics is important for understanding chemical and climate aerosol feedbacks. Two particle size distribution parameters, the aerosol extinction coefficient and the effective radius, are obtained from SCIAMACHY limb observations. The aerosol characteristics show good agreement with independent data sets from balloon-borne and satellite observations. This data set expands the limited knowledge of stratospheric aerosol characteristics.
Christian von Savigny, Anna Lange, Christoph G. Hoffmann, and Alexei Rozanov
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 2415–2422, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2415-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2415-2024, 2024
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It is well known that volcanic eruptions strongly affect the colours of the twilight sky. Typically, volcanic eruptions lead to enhanced reddish and violet twilight colours. In rare cases, however, volcanic eruptions can also lead to green sunsets. This study provides an explanation for the occurrence of these unusual green sunsets based on simulations with a radiative transfer model. Green volcanic sunsets require a sufficient stratospheric aerosol optical depth and specific aerosol sizes.
Anna Lange, Alexei Rozanov, and Christian von Savigny
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 14829–14839, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-14829-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-14829-2023, 2023
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We were able to demonstrate quantitatively that the blue colour of the sky cannot be solely attributed to Rayleigh scattering. The influence of ozone on the blue colour of the sky is calculated for different viewing geometries, total ozone columns and an enhanced stratospheric aerosol scenario. Furthermore, the effects of polarisation, surface albedo and observer height are investigated.
John M. C. Plane, Jörg Gumbel, Konstantinos S. Kalogerakis, Daniel R. Marsh, and Christian von Savigny
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 13255–13282, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13255-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13255-2023, 2023
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The mesosphere or lower thermosphere region of the atmosphere borders the edge of space. It is subject to extreme ultraviolet photons and charged particles from the Sun and atmospheric gravity waves from below, which tend to break in this region. The pressure is very low, which facilitates chemistry involving species in excited states, and this is also the region where cosmic dust ablates and injects various metals. The result is a unique and exotic chemistry.
Christoph G. Hoffmann, Lena G. Buth, and Christian von Savigny
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 12781–12799, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-12781-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-12781-2023, 2023
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The Madden–Julian oscillation is an important feature of weather in the tropics. Although it is mainly active in the troposphere, we show that it systematically influences the air temperature in the layers above, up to about 100 km altitude and from pole to pole. We have linked this to another known far-reaching process, interhemispheric coupling. This is basic research on atmospheric couplings and variability but might also be of interest for intraseasonal weather forecasting models.
Felix Wrana, Ulrike Niemeier, Larry W. Thomason, Sandra Wallis, and Christian von Savigny
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 9725–9743, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9725-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9725-2023, 2023
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The stratospheric aerosol layer is a naturally occurring and permanent layer of aerosol, in this case very small droplets of mostly sulfuric acid and water, that has a cooling effect on our climate. To quantify this effect and for our general understanding of stratospheric microphysical processes, knowledge of the size of those aerosol particles is needed. Using satellite measurements and atmospheric models we show that some volcanic eruptions can lead to on average smaller aerosol sizes.
Sandra Wallis, Hauke Schmidt, and Christian von Savigny
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 7001–7014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-7001-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-7001-2023, 2023
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Strong volcanic eruptions are able to alter the temperature and the circulation of the middle atmosphere. This study simulates the atmospheric response to an idealized strong tropical eruption and focuses on the impact on the mesosphere. The simulations show a warming of the polar summer mesopause in the first November after the eruption. Our study indicates that this is mainly due to dynamical coupling in the summer hemisphere with a potential contribution from interhemispheric coupling.
Christian von Savigny, Anna Lange, Anne Hemkendreis, Christoph G. Hoffmann, and Alexei Rozanov
Clim. Past, 18, 2345–2356, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-2345-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-2345-2022, 2022
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This study investigates the possibility of inferring information on aerosol optical depth from photographs of historic paintings. The idea – which has been applied in previous studies – is very interesting because it would provide an archive of the atmospheric aerosol loading covering many centuries. We show that twilight colours depend not only on the aerosol optical thickness, but also on several other parameters, making a quantitative estimate of aerosol optical depth very difficult.
Sandra Wallis, Christoph Gregor Hoffmann, and Christian von Savigny
Ann. Geophys., 40, 421–431, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-40-421-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-40-421-2022, 2022
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Although the 1991 eruption of Mt Pinatubo had a severe impact on Earth's climate, the effect of this event on the mesosphere is not well understood. We investigated satellite-borne temperature measurements from the HALOE instrument and found indications that a positive temperature anomaly is present in the tropical upper mesosphere at the beginning of the HALOE time series, which may be related to the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo.
Anna Lange, Gerd Baumgarten, Alexei Rozanov, and Christian von Savigny
Ann. Geophys., 40, 407–419, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-40-407-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-40-407-2022, 2022
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We investigate the influence of different parameters on the colour of noctilucent clouds (highest clouds in the atmosphere), using radiative transfer calculations. We determined the effect of the particle size, optical depth, single scattering/multiple scattering and ozone. For sufficiently large optical depth and for specific viewing geometries, ozone plays only a minor role in the blueish colour of noctilucent clouds (new result).
Mireia Papke Chica, Valerian Hahn, Tiziana Braeuer, Elena de la Torre Castro, Florian Ewald, Mathias Gergely, Simon Kirschler, Luca Bugliaro Goggia, Stefanie Knobloch, Martina Kraemer, Johannes Lucke, Johanna Mayer, Raphael Maerkl, Manuel Moser, Laura Tomsche, Tina Jurkat-Witschas, Martin Zoeger, Christian von Savigny, and Christiane Voigt
Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2022-255, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2022-255, 2022
Preprint withdrawn
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The mixed-phase temperature regime in convective clouds challenges our understanding of microphysical and radiative cloud properties. We provide a rare and unique dataset of aircraft in situ measurements in a strong mid-latitude convective system. We find that mechanisms initiating ice nucleation and growth strongly depend on temperature, relative humidity, and vertical velocity and variate within the measured system, resulting in altitude dependent changes of the cloud liquid and ice fraction.
Julia Koch, Adam Bourassa, Nick Lloyd, Chris Roth, and Christian von Savigny
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 3191–3202, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3191-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3191-2022, 2022
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The mesopause, the region of the earth's atmosphere between 85 and 100 km, is hard to access by direct measurements. Therefore we look for parameters that can be measured using satellite or ground-based measurements. In this study we researched sodium airglow, a phenomenon that occurs when sodium atoms are excited by chemical reactions. We compared satellite measurements of the airglow and resulting sodium concentration profiles to gain a better understanding of the sodium in that region.
Elizaveta Malinina, Alexei Rozanov, Ulrike Niemeier, Sandra Wallis, Carlo Arosio, Felix Wrana, Claudia Timmreck, Christian von Savigny, and John P. Burrows
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 14871–14891, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-14871-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-14871-2021, 2021
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In the paper, changes in the stratospheric aerosol loading after the 2018 Ambae eruption were analyzed using OMPS-LP observations. The eruption was also simulated with the MAECHAM5-HAM global climate model. Generally, the model and observations agree very well. We attribute the good consistency of the results to a precisely determined altitude and mass of the volcanic injection, as well as nudging of the meteorological data. The radiative forcing from the eruption was estimated to be −0.13 W m−2.
Nellie Wullenweber, Anna Lange, Alexei Rozanov, and Christian von Savigny
Clim. Past, 17, 969–983, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-969-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-17-969-2021, 2021
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This study investigates the physical processes leading to the rare phenomenon of the sun appearing blue or green. The phenomenon is caused by anomalous scattering by, e.g., volcanic or forest fire aerosols. Unlike most other studies, our study includes a full treatment of the effect of Rayleigh scattering on the colour of the sun. We investigate different factors and revisit a historic example, i.e. the Canadian forest fires in 1950, that led to blue sun events in different European countries.
Felix Wrana, Christian von Savigny, Jacob Zalach, and Larry W. Thomason
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 2345–2357, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2345-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-2345-2021, 2021
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In this paper, we describe a new method for calculating the size of naturally occurring droplets (aerosols) made mostly of sulfuric acid and water that can be found roughly at 20 km altitude in the atmosphere. We use data from the instrument SAGE III/ISS that is mounted on the International Space Station. We show that our method works well, and that the size parameters we calculate are reasonable and can be a valuable addition for a better understanding of aerosols and their effect on climate.
Larry W. Thomason, Mahesh Kovilakam, Anja Schmidt, Christian von Savigny, Travis Knepp, and Landon Rieger
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 1143–1158, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-1143-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-1143-2021, 2021
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Measurements of the impact of volcanic eruptions on stratospheric aerosol loading by space-based instruments show show a fairly well-behaved relationship between the magnitude and the apparent changes to aerosol size over several orders of magnitude. This directly measured relationship provides a unique opportunity to verify the performance of interactive aerosol models used in climate models.
Lukas O. Muser, Gholam Ali Hoshyaripour, Julia Bruckert, Ákos Horváth, Elizaveta Malinina, Sandra Wallis, Fred J. Prata, Alexei Rozanov, Christian von Savigny, Heike Vogel, and Bernhard Vogel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 15015–15036, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15015-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15015-2020, 2020
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Volcanic aerosols endanger aircraft and thus disrupt air travel globally. For aviation safety, it is vital to know the location and lifetime of such aerosols in the atmosphere. Here we show that the interaction of volcanic particles with each other eventually reduces their atmospheric lifetime. Moreover, we demonstrate that sunlight heats these particles, which lifts them several kilometers in the atmosphere. These findings support a more reliable forecast of volcanic aerosol dispersion.
Thomas von Clarmann, Douglas A. Degenstein, Nathaniel J. Livesey, Stefan Bender, Amy Braverman, André Butz, Steven Compernolle, Robert Damadeo, Seth Dueck, Patrick Eriksson, Bernd Funke, Margaret C. Johnson, Yasuko Kasai, Arno Keppens, Anne Kleinert, Natalya A. Kramarova, Alexandra Laeng, Bavo Langerock, Vivienne H. Payne, Alexei Rozanov, Tomohiro O. Sato, Matthias Schneider, Patrick Sheese, Viktoria Sofieva, Gabriele P. Stiller, Christian von Savigny, and Daniel Zawada
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 4393–4436, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-4393-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-4393-2020, 2020
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Remote sensing of atmospheric state variables typically relies on the inverse solution of the radiative transfer equation. An adequately characterized retrieval provides information on the uncertainties of the estimated state variables as well as on how any constraint or a priori assumption affects the estimate. This paper summarizes related techniques and provides recommendations for unified error reporting.
Olexandr Lednyts'kyy and Christian von Savigny
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 2221–2261, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-2221-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-2221-2020, 2020
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Atomic oxygen is a chemically active trace gas and a critical component of the energy balance of the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT). By sequentially applying continuity equations of low degree, a new model representing the airglow and photochemistry of oxygen in the MLT is implemented, enabling comparisons with airglow observations at each step. The most effective data sets required to derive the abundance of atomic oxygen are the O2 atmospheric band emission, temperature, N2 and O2.
Piao Rong, Christian von Savigny, Chunmin Zhang, Christoph G. Hoffmann, and Michael J. Schwartz
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 1737–1755, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-1737-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-1737-2020, 2020
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We study the presence and characteristics of 27 d solar signatures in middle atmospheric temperature observed by the microwave limb sounder on NASA's Aura spacecraft. This is a highly interesting and significant subject because the physical and chemical mechanisms leading to these 27 d solar-driven signatures are, in many cases, not well understood. The analysis shows that highly significant 27 d solar signatures in middle atmospheric temperature are present at many altitudes and latitudes.
Niall J. Ryan, Mathias Palm, Christoph G. Hoffmann, Jens Goliasch, and Justus Notholt
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 4077–4089, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-4077-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-4077-2019, 2019
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We present a new ground-based instrument (CORAM) that measures atmospheric carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations within approximately 47–87 km in altitude with a 1 h time resolution. The measurements are made at Ny-Ålesund (79° N), Svalbard, and add much-needed coverage to the high Arctic. The first measured CO profiles from winter 2017/2018 are compared to co-located measurements from the Aura MLS satellite instrument and show agreement on daily and monthly timescales.
Jacob Zalach, Christian von Savigny, Arvid Langenbach, Gerd Baumgarten, Franz-Josef Lübken, and Adam Bourassa
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2019-267, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2019-267, 2019
Revised manuscript not accepted
Arvid Langenbach, Gerd Baumgarten, Jens Fiedler, Franz-Josef Lübken, Christian von Savigny, and Jacob Zalach
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 4065–4076, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-4065-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-4065-2019, 2019
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Stratospheric aerosol backscatter ratios in the Arctic using Rayleigh, Mie and Raman backscattered signals were calculated. A backscatter ratio calculation during daytime was performed for the first time. Sharp aerosol layers thinner than 1 km over several days were observed. The seasonal cycle of stratospheric background aerosol in high latitudes including the summer months was calculated for the first time. Top altitude of the aerosol layer was found to reach up to 34 km, especially in summer.
Christoph G. Hoffmann and Christian von Savigny
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 4235–4256, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-4235-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-4235-2019, 2019
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We examine a possible statistical linkage between atmospheric variability in the tropical troposphere on the intraseasonal timescale, which is known as Madden–Julian oscillation, and known variability of the solar radiation with a period of 27 days. This helps to understand tropospheric variability in more detail, which is generally of interest, e.g., for weather forecasting. We find indications for such a linkage; however, more research has to be conducted for an unambiguous attribution.
Christian von Savigny, Dieter H. W. Peters, and Günter Entzian
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 2079–2093, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-2079-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-2079-2019, 2019
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This study investigates solar effects in radio reflection height observations in the ionospheric D region at an altitude of about 80 km at northern midlatitudes. The analyzed time series covers almost six solar cycles. Statistically significant solar 27-day and 11-year signatures are identified. However, the driving mechanisms are not fully understood. We also provide evidence for dynamical effects on the radio reflection heights with periods close to the solar rotational cycle.
Tilo Fytterer, Christian von Savigny, Martin Mlynczak, and Miriam Sinnhuber
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 1835–1851, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-1835-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-1835-2019, 2019
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A model was developed to derive night-time atomic oxygen (O(3P)) and atomic hydrogen (H) from satellite observations in the altitude region between 75 km and 100 km. Comparisons between the
best-fit modeland the measurements suggest that chemical reactions involving O2 and O(3P) might occur differently than is usually assumed in literature. This considerably affects the derived abundances of O(3P) and H, which in turn might influence air temperature and winds of the whole atmosphere.
Niall J. Ryan, Douglas E. Kinnison, Rolando R. Garcia, Christoph G. Hoffmann, Mathias Palm, Uwe Raffalski, and Justus Notholt
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 1457–1474, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-1457-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-1457-2018, 2018
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We used model output and instrument data to assess how well polar atmospheric descent rates can be derived using concentration measurements of long-lived gases in the atmosphere. The results indicate that the method incurs errors as large as the descent rates, and often leads to a misinterpretation of the direction of air motion. The rates derived using this method do not appear to represent the mean vertical wind in the middle atmosphere, and we suggest an alternate definition.
Martin P. Langowski, Christian von Savigny, John P. Burrows, Didier Fussen, Erin C. M. Dawkins, Wuhu Feng, John M. C. Plane, and Daniel R. Marsh
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 2989–3006, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-2989-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-2989-2017, 2017
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Meteoric metals form metal layers in the upper atmosphere anandplay a role in the formation of middle-atmospheric clouds and aerosols. However, the total metal influx rate is not well known. Global Na datasets from measurements and a model are available, which had not been compared yet on a global scale until this paper. Overall the agreement is good, and many differences between measurements are also found in the model simulations. However, the modeled layer altitude is too low.
Kai-Uwe Eichmann, Luca Lelli, Christian von Savigny, Harjinder Sembhi, and John P. Burrows
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 793–815, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-793-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-793-2016, 2016
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Height-resolved limb radiance spectra of the satellite instrument SCIAMACHY are used to retrieve cloud top heights with a colour index method. Clouds are detectable from the lower to the uppermost troposphere. These cloud heights help to improve the trace gas retrieval for the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. Comparisons with other data sets have shown good agreement. As clouds and aerosols are not distinguishable, lower stratospheric volcanic aerosol clouds are detected in some years.
M. P. Langowski, C. von Savigny, J. P. Burrows, V. V. Rozanov, T. Dunker, U.-P. Hoppe, M. Sinnhuber, and A. C. Aikin
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 295–311, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-295-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-295-2016, 2016
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An algorithm has been developed for the retrieval of sodium atom (Na) number density on a latitude and altitude grid from SCIAMACHY limb measurements of the Na resonance fluorescence (multiannual means 2008–2012). The Na layer peaks at 90 to 93 km altitude and has a FWHM of 5 to 15 km. A summer minimum in peak density and width is observed at high latitudes. At low latitudes, a semiannual oscillation is found. The results are compared with other measurements and models and agree well with these.
F. Ebojie, J. P. Burrows, C. Gebhardt, A. Ladstätter-Weißenmayer, C. von Savigny, A. Rozanov, M. Weber, and H. Bovensmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 417–436, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-417-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-417-2016, 2016
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The goal of this study is to determine the global and zonal changes in the tropospheric ozone data product derived from SCIAMACHY limb-nadir-matching (LNM) observations during the period 2003–2011.
Tropospheric O3 shows statistically significant increases over some regions of South Asia, the South American continent, Alaska, around Congo in Africa and over some continental outflows. Significant decrease in TOC is observed over some continents and oceans.
C. von Savigny, F. Ernst, A. Rozanov, R. Hommel, K.-U. Eichmann, V. Rozanov, J. P. Burrows, and L. W. Thomason
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 5223–5235, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-5223-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-5223-2015, 2015
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This article presents validation results for stratospheric aerosol extinction profiles retrieved from limb-scatter measurements with the SCIAMACHY instrument on the Envisat satellite. The SCIAMACHY retrievals are compared to co-located measurements with the SAGE II instrument. Very good agreement to within about 15% is found in a global average sense at altitudes above 15 km. The article also presents sample results on the global morphology of the stratospheric aerosol layer from 2003 to 2011.
O. Lednyts'kyy, C. von Savigny, K.-U. Eichmann, and M. G. Mlynczak
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 1021–1041, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-1021-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-1021-2015, 2015
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This paper deals with the retrieval of atomic oxygen concentration profiles in the Earth's upper mesosphere/lower thermosphere region from SCIAMACHY observations of oxygen green line airglow emissions. Atomic oxygen is one of the most important chemical constituents of this atmospheric region, and long-term satellite data sets are rare. The paper includes a detailed description of the retrieval algorithm, an error budget, validation results and some first scientific analyses.
M. P. Langowski, C. von Savigny, J. P. Burrows, W. Feng, J. M. C. Plane, D. R. Marsh, D. Janches, M. Sinnhuber, A. C. Aikin, and P. Liebing
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 273–295, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-273-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-273-2015, 2015
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Global concentration fields of Mg and Mg+ in the Earth's upper mesosphere and lower thermosphere (70-150km) are presented. These are retrieved from SCIAMACHY/Envisat satellite grating spectrometer measurements in limb viewing geometry between 2008 and 2012.
These were compared with WACCM-Mg model results and a large fraction of the available measurement results for these species, and an interpretation of the results is done. The variation of these species during NLC presence is discussed.
S. Kowalewski, C. von Savigny, M. Palm, I. C. McDade, and J. Notholt
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 10193–10210, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-10193-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-10193-2014, 2014
F. Ebojie, C. von Savigny, A. Ladstätter-Weißenmayer, A. Rozanov, M. Weber, K.-U. Eichmann, S. Bötel, N. Rahpoe, H. Bovensmann, and J. P. Burrows
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 7, 2073–2096, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-2073-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-2073-2014, 2014
B. Hassler, I. Petropavlovskikh, J. Staehelin, T. August, P. K. Bhartia, C. Clerbaux, D. Degenstein, M. De Mazière, B. M. Dinelli, A. Dudhia, G. Dufour, S. M. Frith, L. Froidevaux, S. Godin-Beekmann, J. Granville, N. R. P. Harris, K. Hoppel, D. Hubert, Y. Kasai, M. J. Kurylo, E. Kyrölä, J.-C. Lambert, P. F. Levelt, C. T. McElroy, R. D. McPeters, R. Munro, H. Nakajima, A. Parrish, P. Raspollini, E. E. Remsberg, K. H. Rosenlof, A. Rozanov, T. Sano, Y. Sasano, M. Shiotani, H. G. J. Smit, G. Stiller, J. Tamminen, D. W. Tarasick, J. Urban, R. J. van der A, J. P. Veefkind, C. Vigouroux, T. von Clarmann, C. von Savigny, K. A. Walker, M. Weber, J. Wild, and J. M. Zawodny
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 7, 1395–1427, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-1395-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-1395-2014, 2014
R. Hommel, K.-U. Eichmann, J. Aschmann, K. Bramstedt, M. Weber, C. von Savigny, A. Richter, A. Rozanov, F. Wittrock, F. Khosrawi, R. Bauer, and J. P. Burrows
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 3247–3276, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-3247-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-3247-2014, 2014
M. Langowski, M. Sinnhuber, A. C. Aikin, C. von Savigny, and J. P. Burrows
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 7, 29–48, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-29-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-29-2014, 2014
N. Rahpoe, C. von Savigny, M. Weber, A.V. Rozanov, H. Bovensmann, and J. P. Burrows
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 6, 2825–2837, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-6-2825-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-6-2825-2013, 2013
Related subject area
Subject: Aerosols | Technique: Remote Sensing | Topic: Data Processing and Information Retrieval
Multi-layer retrieval of aerosol optical depth in the troposphere using SEVIRI data: a case study of the European continent
Star photometry with all-sky cameras to retrieve aerosol optical depth at night-time
Ground-based contrail observations: comparisons with reanalysis weather data and contrail model simulations
Improvements in aerosol layer height retrievals from TROPOMI oxygen A-band measurements by surface albedo fitting in optimal estimation
Satellite Aerosol Composition Retrieval from a combination of three different Instruments: Information content analysis
Towards Gridded Nighttime Aerosol Optical Thickness Retrievals Using VIIRS Day/Night Band Observations Over Regions with Artificial Light Sources
Retrieval of stratospheric aerosol extinction coefficients from sun-normalized Ozone Mapper and Profiler Suite Limb Profiler (OMPS-LP) measurements
Optical Properties of North Atlantic Aerosols Through a compact dual-wavelength depolarization Lidar Observations
Total column optical depths retrieved from CALIPSO lidar ocean surface backscatter
ACDL/DQ-1 Calibration Algorithms. Part I: Nighttime 532 nm Polarization and High-Spectral-Resolution Channel
ALICENET – an Italian network of automated lidar ceilometers for four-dimensional aerosol monitoring: infrastructure, data processing, and applications
Post-process correction improves the accuracy of satellite PM2.5 retrievals
Increasing aerosol optical depth spatial and temporal availability by merging datasets from geostationary and sun-synchronous satellites
Synergy of active and passive airborne observations for heating rates calculation during the AEROCLO-SA field campaign in Namibia
Multi-angle aerosol optical depth retrieval method based on improved surface reflectance
Comparison of diurnal aerosol products retrieved from combinations of micro-pulse lidar and sun photometer observations over the KAUST observation site
First atmospheric aerosol-monitoring results from the Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS) over Asia
Aerosol optical depth data fusion with Geostationary Korea Multi-Purpose Satellite (GEO-KOMPSAT-2) instruments GEMS, AMI, and GOCI-II: statistical and deep neural network methods
Stratospheric aerosol characteristics from SCIAMACHY limb observations: two-parameter retrieval
Retrieval and analysis of the composition of an aerosol mixture through Mie–Raman–fluorescence lidar observations
Using neural networks for near-real-time aerosol retrievals from OMPS Limb Profiler measurements
Transport of the Hunga volcanic aerosols inferred from Himawari-8/9 limb measurements
A near-global multiyear climate data record of the fine-mode and coarse-mode components of atmospheric pure dust
Innovative aerosol hygroscopic growth study from Mie–Raman–fluorescence lidar and microwave radiometer synergy
Evaluation of calibration performance of a low-cost particulate matter sensor using collocated and distant NO2
Geostationary aerosol retrievals of extreme biomass burning plumes during the 2019–2020 Australian bushfires
Multi-wavelength dataset of aerosol extinction profiles retrieved from GOMOS stellar occultation measurements
Deep-Pathfinder: a boundary layer height detection algorithm based on image segmentation
An iterative algorithm to simultaneously retrieve aerosol extinction and effective radius profiles using CALIOP
Cloud detection from multi-angular polarimetric satellite measurements using a neural network ensemble approach
Producing aerosol size distributions consistent with optical particle counters measurements using space-based measurements of aerosol extinction coefficient
Retrieving UV–Vis spectral single-scattering albedo of absorbing aerosols above clouds from synergy of ORACLES airborne and A-train sensors
Characterization of stratospheric particle size distribution uncertainties using SAGE II and SAGE III/ISS extinction spectra
Parameterizing spectral surface reflectance relationships for the Dark Target aerosol algorithm applied to a geostationary imager
Aerosol and cloud data processing and optical property retrieval algorithms for the spaceborne ACDL/DQ-1
Derivation of depolarization ratios of aerosol fluorescence and water vapor Raman backscatters from lidar measurements
Long-term aerosol particle depolarization ratio measurements with HALO Photonics Doppler lidar
HETEAC-Flex: an optimal estimation method for aerosol typing based on lidar-derived intensive optical properties
MAGARA: a Multi-Angle Geostationary Aerosol Retrieval Algorithm
Multi-section reference value for the analysis of horizontally scanning aerosol lidar observations
Retrieval of aerosol optical depth over the Arctic cryosphere during spring and summer using satellite observations
Quantifying particulate matter optical properties and flow rate in industrial stack plumes from the PRISMA hyperspectral imager
Aerosol retrieval over snow using the RemoTAP algorithm
Combined sun-photometer–lidar inversion: lessons learned during the EARLINET/ACTRIS COVID-19 campaign
Simultaneous retrieval of aerosol and ocean properties from PACE HARP2 with uncertainty assessment using cascading neural network radiative transfer models
Linear polarization signatures of atmospheric dust with the SolPol direct-sun polarimeter
Retrieval of aerosol properties from zenith sky radiance measurements
An ensemble method for improving the estimation of planetary boundary layer height from radiosonde data
Detection and analysis of Lhù'ààn Mân' (Kluane Lake) dust plumes using passive and active ground-based remote sensing supported by physical surface measurements
Cloud top heights and aerosol layer properties from EarthCARE lidar observations: the A-CTH and A-ALD products
Maryam Pashayi, Mehran Satari, and Mehdi Momeni Shahraki
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 1415–1439, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1415-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1415-2025, 2025
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Multi-layer aerosol optical depth (AOD) is retrieved using the geostationary Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infrared Imager (SEVIRI) and machine learning, trained on Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) data. The model provides AOD at a 3 km × 3 km spatial and 15 min temporal resolution over Europe. It accurately captured multi-layer AOD dynamics during Saharan dust transport and the Mount Etna eruption, demonstrating consistent physical accuracy.
Roberto Román, Daniel González-Fernández, Juan Carlos Antuña-Sánchez, Celia Herrero del Barrio, Sara Herrero-Anta, África Barreto, Victoria E. Cachorro, Lionel Doppler, Ramiro González, Christoph Ritter, David Mateos, Natalia Kouremeti, Gustavo Copes, Abel Calle, María José Granados-Muñoz, Carlos Toledano, and Ángel M. de Frutos
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-667, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-667, 2025
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This paper presents a novel technique to extract starlight signals from all-sky images and retrieve aerosol optical depth (AOD). It is validated against lunar photometry, showing a strong correlation between both data series. This innovative approach will expand nocturnal AOD measurements to more locations, as all-sky cameras are a simpler and more cost-effective alternative to stellar and lunar photometers.
Jade Low, Roger Teoh, Joel Ponsonby, Edward Gryspeerdt, Marc Shapiro, and Marc E. J. Stettler
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 37–56, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-37-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-37-2025, 2025
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The radiative forcing due to contrails is of the same order of magnitude as aviation CO2 emissions but has a higher uncertainty. Observations are vital to improve our understanding of the contrail lifecycle, improve models, and measure the effect of mitigation action. Here, we use ground-based cameras combined with flight telemetry to track visible contrails and measure their lifetime and width. We evaluate model predictions and demonstrate the capability of this approach.
Martin de Graaf, Maarten Sneep, Mark ter Linden, L. Gijsbert Tilstra, and J. Pepijn Veefkind
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-198, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-198, 2025
Revised manuscript accepted for AMT
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The TROPOMI aerosol layer height is constantly being improved since its release in 2019. Over land, the ALH was too low (closer to the surface than expected), especially over bright scenes. This paper describes the latest improvements of the product, especially the treatment of the surface albedo over land. The results are compared with space-based aerosol profiles for a set of situations, ranging from multiple layers of smoke, thick desert dust plumes and low-altitude industrial pollution.
Ulrike Stöffelmair, Thomas Popp, Marco Vountas, and Hartmut Bösch
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2800, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2800, 2024
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The aerosol composition has a large influence on the climate system. This study uses realistic simulated scenarios to look at the information content of the combination of three satellite-based instruments (SLSTR, IASI and GOME-2). It shows that it is possible to retrieve 6 to 15 different aerosol components in addition to the AOD and different surface parameter. The results will be used for the development of a synergistic multi-sensor retrieval algorithms.
Jianglong Zhang, Jeffrey S. Reid, Blake Sorenson, Steven D. Miller, Miguel O. Román, Zhuosen Wang, Robert J. D. Spurr, Shawn Jaker, Thomas F. Eck, and Juli I. Rubin
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-181, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-181, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for AMT
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Using observations from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite Day-Night Band, we developed a method for constructing gridded nighttime aerosol optical thickness (AOT) data based on the spatial derivative of measured top-of-atmosphere attenuated upwelling artificial lights at night. The gridded nighttime AOT retrievals, compared against Aerosol Robotic Network data, show reasonable skill levels for potential data assimilation, air quality and climate studies of significant events.
Alexei Rozanov, Christine Pohl, Carlo Arosio, Adam Bourassa, Klaus Bramstedt, Elizaveta Malinina, Landon Rieger, and John P. Burrows
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 6677–6695, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6677-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6677-2024, 2024
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We developed a new algorithm to retrieve vertical distributions of aerosol extinction coefficients in the stratosphere. The algorithm is applied to measurements of scattered solar light from the spaceborne OMPS-LP (Ozone Mapper and Profiler Suite Limb Profiler) instrument. The retrieval results are compared to data from other spaceborne instruments and used to investigate the evolution of the aerosol plume following the eruption of the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha'apai volcano in January 2022.
Yenny González, María F. Sánchez-Barrero, Ioana Popovici, África Barreto, Stephane Victori, Ellsworth J. Welton, Rosa D. García, Pablo G. Sicilia, Fernando A. Almansa, Carlos Torres, and Philippe Goloub
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2727, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2727, 2024
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We characterize the optical properties of various aerosols using a compact dual-wavelength depolarization lidar (CIMEL CE376) at 532 and 808 nm. Through a modified two-wavelength Klett inversion method, we assess the vertical distribution and temporal evolution of Saharan dust, volcanic aerosols, and wildfire smoke in the subtropical North Atlantic from August 2021 to August 2023. The study confirms the CE376 lidar's effectiveness in monitoring and characterizing atmospheric aerosols over time.
Robert A. Ryan, Mark A. Vaughan, Sharon D. Rodier, Jason L. Tackett, John A. Reagan, Richard A. Ferrare, Johnathan W. Hair, John A. Smith, and Brian J. Getzewich
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 6517–6545, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6517-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6517-2024, 2024
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We introduce Ocean Derived Column Optical Depth (ODCOD), a new way to estimate column optical depths using Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) measurements from the ocean surface. ODCOD estimates include contributions from particulates in the full column, which CALIOP estimates do not, making it a complement measurement to CALIOP’s standard estimates. We find that ODCOD compares well with other established data sets in the daytime but tends to estimate higher at night.
Fanqian Meng, Junwu Tang, Guangyao Dai, Wenrui Long, Kangwen Sun, Zhiyu Zhang, Xiaoquan Song, Jiqiao Liu, Weibiao Chen, and Songhua Wu
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-179, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-179, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for AMT
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This paper presents a comprehensive calibration procedure for the first spaceborne high-spectral-resolution lidar with an iodine vapor absorption filter ACDL on board DQ-1 by utilizing nighttime 532 nm multi-channel data. And analyzed the error sources of the multi-channel calibration coefficients and assessed the results. The results shows that the ACDL polarization and HSRL channel calibration is reliable and operates within the expected error range of approximately 5 %.
Annachiara Bellini, Henri Diémoz, Luca Di Liberto, Gian Paolo Gobbi, Alessandro Bracci, Ferdinando Pasqualini, and Francesca Barnaba
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 6119–6144, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6119-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-6119-2024, 2024
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We provide a comprehensive overview of the Italian Automated LIdar-CEilometer network, ALICENET, describing its infrastructure, aerosol retrievals, and main applications. The supplement covers data-processing details. We include examples of output products, comparisons with independent data, and examples of the network capability to provide near-real-time aerosol fields over Italy. ALICENET is expected to benefit the sectors of air quality, radiative budget/solar energy, and aviation safety.
Andrea Porcheddu, Ville Kolehmainen, Timo Lähivaara, and Antti Lipponen
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5747–5764, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5747-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5747-2024, 2024
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This study focuses on improving the accuracy of satellite-based PM2.5 retrieval, crucial for monitoring air quality and its impact on health. It employs machine learning to correct the AOD-to-PM2.5 conversion ratio using various data sources. The approach produces high-resolution PM2.5 estimates with improved accuracy. The method is flexible and can incorporate additional training data from different sources, making it a valuable tool for air quality monitoring and epidemiological studies.
Pawan Gupta, Robert C. Levy, Shana Mattoo, Lorraine A. Remer, Zhaohui Zhang, Virginia Sawyer, Jennifer Wei, Sally Zhao, Min Oo, V. Praju Kiliyanpilakkil, and Xiaohua Pan
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5455–5476, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5455-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5455-2024, 2024
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In this study, for the first time, we combined aerosol data from six satellites using a unified algorithm. The global datasets are generated at a high spatial resolution of about 25 km with an interval of 30 min. The new datasets are compared against ground truth and verified. They will be useful for various applications such as air quality monitoring, climate research, pollution diurnal variability, long-range smoke and dust transport, and evaluation of regional and global models.
Mégane Ventura, Fabien Waquet, Isabelle Chiapello, Gérard Brogniez, Frédéric Parol, Frédérique Auriol, Rodrigue Loisil, Cyril Delegove, Luc Blarel, Oleg Dubovik, Marc Mallet, Cyrille Flamant, and Paola Formenti
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-121, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-121, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for AMT
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Biomass burning aerosols (BBA) from Central Africa, are transported above stratocumulus clouds. The absorption of solar energy by aerosols induce warming, altering the clouds dynamics. We developed an approach that combines polarimeter and lidar to quantify it. This methodology is assessed during the AEROCLO-SA campaign. To validate it, we used flux measurements acquired during aircraft loop descents. Major perspective is the generalization of this method to the global level.
Lijuan Chen, Ren Wang, Ying Fei, Peng Fang, Yong Zha, and Haishan Chen
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4411–4424, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4411-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4411-2024, 2024
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This study explores the problems of surface reflectance estimation from previous MISR satellite remote sensing images and develops an error correction model to obtain a higher-precision aerosol optical depth (AOD) product. High-accuracy AOD is important not only for the daily monitoring of air pollution but also for the study of energy exchange between land and atmosphere. This will help further improve the retrieval accuracy of multi-angle AOD on large spatial scales and for long time series.
Anton Lopatin, Oleg Dubovik, Georgiy Stenchikov, Ellsworth J. Welton, Illia Shevchenko, David Fuertes, Marcos Herreras-Giralda, Tatsiana Lapyonok, and Alexander Smirnov
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4445–4470, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4445-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4445-2024, 2024
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We compare aerosol properties over the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology campus using Generalized Retrieval of Aerosol and Surface Properties (GRASP) and the Micro-Pulse Lidar Network (MPLNET). We focus on the impact of different aerosol retrieval assumptions on daytime and nighttime retrievals and analyze seasonal variability in aerosol properties, aiding in understanding aerosol behavior and improving retrieval. Our work has implications for climate and public health.
Yeseul Cho, Jhoon Kim, Sujung Go, Mijin Kim, Seoyoung Lee, Minseok Kim, Heesung Chong, Won-Jin Lee, Dong-Won Lee, Omar Torres, and Sang Seo Park
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4369–4390, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4369-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4369-2024, 2024
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Aerosol optical properties have been provided by the Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer (GEMS), the world’s first geostationary-Earth-orbit (GEO) satellite instrument designed for atmospheric environmental monitoring. This study describes improvements made to the GEMS aerosol retrieval algorithm (AERAOD) and presents its validation results. These enhancements aim to provide more accurate and reliable aerosol-monitoring results for Asia.
Minseok Kim, Jhoon Kim, Hyunkwang Lim, Seoyoung Lee, Yeseul Cho, Yun-Gon Lee, Sujung Go, and Kyunghwa Lee
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4317–4335, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4317-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4317-2024, 2024
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Information about aerosol loading in the atmosphere can be collected from various satellite instruments. Aerosol products from various satellite instruments have their own error characteristics. This study statistically merged aerosol optical depth datasets from multiple instruments aboard geostationary satellites considering uncertainties. Also, a deep neural network technique is adopted for aerosol data merging.
Christine Pohl, Felix Wrana, Alexei Rozanov, Terry Deshler, Elizaveta Malinina, Christian von Savigny, Landon A. Rieger, Adam E. Bourassa, and John P. Burrows
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4153–4181, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4153-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4153-2024, 2024
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Knowledge of stratospheric aerosol characteristics is important for understanding chemical and climate aerosol feedbacks. Two particle size distribution parameters, the aerosol extinction coefficient and the effective radius, are obtained from SCIAMACHY limb observations. The aerosol characteristics show good agreement with independent data sets from balloon-borne and satellite observations. This data set expands the limited knowledge of stratospheric aerosol characteristics.
Igor Veselovskii, Boris Barchunov, Qiaoyun Hu, Philippe Goloub, Thierry Podvin, Mikhail Korenskii, Gaël Dubois, William Boissiere, and Nikita Kasianik
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4137–4152, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4137-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4137-2024, 2024
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The paper presents a new method that categorizes atmospheric aerosols by analyzing their optical properties with a Mie–Raman–fluorescence lidar. The research specifically looks into understanding the presence of smoke, urban, and dust aerosols in the mixtures identified by this lidar. The reliability of the results is evaluated using the Monte Carlo technique. The effectiveness of this approach is successfully demonstrated through testing in ATOLL, an observatory influenced by diverse aerosols.
Michael D. Himes, Ghassan Taha, Daniel Kahn, Tong Zhu, and Natalya A. Kramarova
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1823, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-1823, 2024
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The Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite's Limb Profiler (OMPS LP) provides near-global coverage and information about how aerosols from volcanic eruptions and major wildfires are vertically distributed through the atmosphere. We developed a machine learning method to characterize aerosols using OMPS LP measurements about 60 times faster than the current approach. This near-real-time characterization can be used to ensure aviation flight paths avoid dangerous conditions.
Fred Prata
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3751–3764, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3751-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3751-2024, 2024
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Geostationary satellite data have been used to measure the stratospheric aerosols from the explosive Hunga volcanic eruption by using the data in a novel way. The onboard imager views part of the Earth's limb and data from this region were analysed to generate vertical cross-sections of aerosols high in the atmosphere. The analyses show the hemispheric spread of the aerosols and their vertical structure in layers from 22–28 km in the stratosphere.
Emmanouil Proestakis, Antonis Gkikas, Thanasis Georgiou, Anna Kampouri, Eleni Drakaki, Claire L. Ryder, Franco Marenco, Eleni Marinou, and Vassilis Amiridis
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3625–3667, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3625-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3625-2024, 2024
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A new four-dimensional, multiyear, and near-global climate data record of the fine-mode (submicrometer diameter) and coarse-mode (supermicrometer diameter) components of atmospheric pure dust is presented. The dataset is considered unique with respect to a wide range of potential applications, including climatological, time series, and trend analysis over extensive geographical domains and temporal periods, validation of atmospheric dust models and datasets, and air quality.
Robin Miri, Olivier Pujol, Qiaoyun Hu, Philippe Goloub, Igor Veselovskii, Thierry Podvin, and Fabrice Ducos
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3367–3375, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3367-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3367-2024, 2024
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This paper focuses on the use of fluorescence to study aerosols with lidar. An innovative method for aerosol hygroscopic growth study using fluorescence is presented. The paper presents case studies to showcase the effectiveness and potential of the proposed approach. These advancements will contribute to better understanding the interactions between aerosols and water vapor, with future work expected to be dedicated to aerosol–cloud interaction.
Kabseok Ko, Seokheon Cho, and Ramesh R. Rao
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3303–3322, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3303-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3303-2024, 2024
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In our study, we examined how NO2, temperature, and relative humidity influence the calibration of PurpleAir PA-II sensors. We found that incorporating NO2 data from collocated reliable instruments enhances PM2.5 calibration performance. Due to the impracticality of collocating reliable NO2 instruments with sensors, we suggest using distant NO2 data for calibration. We demonstrated that performance improves when distant NO2 correlates highly with collocated NO2 measurements.
Daniel J. V. Robbins, Caroline A. Poulsen, Steven T. Siems, Simon R. Proud, Andrew T. Prata, Roy G. Grainger, and Adam C. Povey
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3279–3302, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3279-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3279-2024, 2024
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Extreme wildfire events are becoming more common with climate change. The smoke plumes associated with these wildfires are not captured by current operational satellite products due to their high optical thickness. We have developed a novel aerosol retrieval for the Advanced Himawari Imager to study these plumes. We find very high values of optical thickness not observed in other operational satellite products, suggesting these plumes have been missed in previous studies.
Viktoria F. Sofieva, Monika Szelag, Johanna Tamminen, Didier Fussen, Christine Bingen, Filip Vanhellemont, Nina Mateshvili, Alexei Rozanov, and Christine Pohl
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3085–3101, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3085-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3085-2024, 2024
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We have developed the new multi-wavelength dataset of aerosol extinction profiles, which are retrieved from the averaged transmittance spectra by the Global Ozone Monitoring by Occultation of Stars instrument aboard Envisat. The retrieved aerosol extinction profiles are provided in the altitude range 10–40 km at 400, 440, 452, 470, 500, 525, 550, 672 and 750 nm for the period 2002–2012. FMI-GOMOSaero aerosol profiles have improved quality; they are in good agreement with other datasets.
Jasper S. Wijnands, Arnoud Apituley, Diego Alves Gouveia, and Jan Willem Noteboom
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3029–3045, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3029-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3029-2024, 2024
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The mixing of air in the lower atmosphere influences the concentration of air pollutants and greenhouse gases. Our study developed a new method, Deep-Pathfinder, to estimate mixing layer height. Deep-Pathfinder analyses imagery with aerosol observations using artificial intelligence techniques for computer vision. Compared to existing methods, it improves temporal consistency and resolution and can be used in real time, which is valuable for aviation, forecasting, and air quality monitoring.
Liang Chang, Jing Li, Jingjing Ren, Changrui Xiong, and Lu Zhang
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2637–2648, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2637-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2637-2024, 2024
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We described a modified lidar inversion algorithm to retrieve aerosol extinction and size distribution simultaneously from two-wavelength elastic lidar measurements. Its major advantage is that the lidar ratio of each layer is determined iteratively by a lidar ratio–Ångström exponent lookup table. The algorithm was applied to the Raman lidar and CALIOP measurements. The retrieved results by our method are in good agreement with those achieved by Raman method.
Zihao Yuan, Guangliang Fu, Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, Hai Xiang Lin, Jan Willem Erisman, and Otto P. Hasekamp
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2595–2610, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2595-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2595-2024, 2024
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Currently, aerosol properties from spaceborne multi-angle polarimeter (MAP) instruments can only be retrieved in cloud-free areas or in areas where an aerosol layer is located above a cloud. Therefore, it is important to be able to identify cloud-free pixels for which an aerosol retrieval algorithm can provide meaningful output. The developed neural network cloud screening demonstrates that cloud masking for MAP aerosol retrieval can be based on the MAP measurements themselves.
Nicholas Ernest, Larry W. Thomason, and Terry Deshler
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-62, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2024-62, 2024
Revised manuscript accepted for AMT
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We use balloon-borne measurements of aerosol size distribution (ASD) made by the University of Wyoming (UW) to derive distributions which are representative of the ASDs that underlie measurements made by the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment II (SAGE II). A simple single mode log-normal distribution has in the past been used to derive ASD from SAGE II data; here we derive bimodal log-normal distributions. Reproducing median aerosol properties, however sometimes with wide variance.
Hiren T. Jethva, Omar Torres, Richard A. Ferrare, Sharon P. Burton, Anthony L. Cook, David B. Harper, Chris A. Hostetler, Jens Redemann, Vinay Kayetha, Samuel LeBlanc, Kristina Pistone, Logan Mitchell, and Connor J. Flynn
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2335–2366, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2335-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2335-2024, 2024
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We introduce a novel synergy algorithm applied to ORALCES airborne measurements of above-cloud aerosol optical depth and UV–Vis satellite observations from OMI and MODIS to retrieve spectral aerosol single-scattering albedo of lofted layers of carbonaceous smoke aerosols over clouds. The development of the proposed aerosol–cloud algorithm implies a possible synergy of CALIOP and OMI–MODIS passive sensors to deduce a global product of AOD and SSA of absorbing aerosols above clouds.
Travis N. Knepp, Mahesh Kovilakam, Larry Thomason, and Stephen J. Miller
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2025–2054, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2025-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2025-2024, 2024
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An algorithm is presented to derive a new SAGE III/ISS (Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment III on the International Space Station) Level-2 product: the size distribution of stratospheric particles. This is a significant improvement over previous techniques in that we now provide uncertainty estimates for all inferred parameters. We also evaluated the stability of this method in retrieving bimodal distribution parameters. We present a special application to the 2022 eruption of Hunga Tonga.
Mijin Kim, Robert C. Levy, Lorraine A. Remer, Shana Mattoo, and Pawan Gupta
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 1913–1939, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1913-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1913-2024, 2024
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The study focused on evaluating and modifying the surface reflectance parameterization (SRP) of the Dark Target (DT) algorithm for geostationary observation. When using the DT SRP with the ABIs sensor on GOES-R, artificial diurnal signatures were present in AOD retrieval. To overcome this issue, a new SRP was developed, incorporating solar zenith angle and land cover type. The revised SRP resulted in improved AOD retrieval, demonstrating reduced bias around local noon.
Guangyao Dai, Songhua Wu, Wenrui Long, Jiqiao Liu, Yuan Xie, Kangwen Sun, Fanqian Meng, Xiaoquan Song, Zhongwei Huang, and Weibiao Chen
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 1879–1890, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1879-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1879-2024, 2024
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An overview is given of the main algorithms applied to derive the aerosol and cloud optical property product of the Aerosol and Carbon Detection Lidar (ACDL), which is capable of globally profiling aerosol and cloud optical properties with high accuracy. The paper demonstrates the observational capabilities of ACDL for aerosol and cloud vertical structure and global distribution through two optical property product measurement cases and global aerosol optical depth profile observations.
Igor Veselovskii, Qiaoyun Hu, Philippe Goloub, Thierry Podvin, William Boissiere, Mikhail Korenskiy, Nikita Kasianik, Sergey Khaykyn, and Robin Miri
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 1023–1036, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1023-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-1023-2024, 2024
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Measurements of transported smoke layers were performed with a lidar in Lille and a five-channel fluorescence lidar in Moscow. Results show the peak of fluorescence in the boundary layer is at 438 nm, while in the smoke layer it shifts to longer wavelengths. The fluorescence depolarization is 45 % to 55 %. The depolarization ratio of the water vapor channel is low (2 ± 0.5 %) in the absence of fluorescence and can be used to evaluate the contribution of fluorescence to water vapor signal.
Viet Le, Hannah Lobo, Ewan J. O'Connor, and Ville Vakkari
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 921–941, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-921-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-921-2024, 2024
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This study offers a long-term overview of aerosol particle depolarization ratio at the wavelength of 1565 nm obtained from vertical profiling measurements by Halo Doppler lidars during 4 years at four different locations across Finland. Our observations support the long-term usage of Halo Doppler lidar depolarization ratio such as the detection of aerosols that may pose a safety risk for aviation. Long-range Saharan dust transport and pollen transport are also showcased here.
Athena Augusta Floutsi, Holger Baars, and Ulla Wandinger
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 693–714, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-693-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-693-2024, 2024
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We introduce an aerosol-typing scheme (HETEAC-Flex) based on lidar-derived intensive optical properties and applicable to ground-based and spaceborne lidars. HETEAC-Flex utilizes the optimal estimation method and enables the identification of up to four different aerosol components, as well as the determination of their contribution to the aerosol mixture in terms of relative volume. The aerosol components represent common aerosol types such as dust, sea salt, smoke and pollution.
James A. Limbacher, Ralph A. Kahn, Mariel D. Friberg, Jaehwa Lee, Tyler Summers, and Hai Zhang
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 471–498, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-471-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-471-2024, 2024
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We present the new Multi-Angle Geostationary Aerosol Retrieval Algorithm (MAGARA) that fuses observations from GOES-16 and GOES-17 to retrieve information about aerosol loading (at 10–15 min cadence) and aerosol particle properties (daily), all at pixel-level resolution. We present MAGARA results for three case studies: the 2018 California Camp Fire, the 2019 Williams Flats Fire, and the 2019 Kincade Fire. We also compare MAGARA aerosol loading and particle properties with AERONET.
Juseon Shin, Gahyeong Kim, Dukhyeon Kim, Matthias Tesche, Gahyeon Park, and Youngmin Noh
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 397–406, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-397-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-397-2024, 2024
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We introduce the multi-section method, a novel approach for stable extinction coefficient retrievals in horizontally scanning aerosol lidar measurements, in this study. Our method effectively removes signal–noise-induced irregular peaks and derives a reference extinction coefficient, αref, from multiple scans, resulting in a strong correlation (>0.74) with PM2.5 mass concentrations. Case studies demonstrate its utility in retrieving spatio-temporal aerosol distributions and PM2.5 concentrations.
Basudev Swain, Marco Vountas, Adrien Deroubaix, Luca Lelli, Yanick Ziegler, Soheila Jafariserajehlou, Sachin S. Gunthe, Andreas Herber, Christoph Ritter, Hartmut Bösch, and John P. Burrows
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 359–375, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-359-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-359-2024, 2024
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Aerosols are suspensions of particles dispersed in the air. In this study, we use a novel retrieval of satellite data to investigate an optical property of aerosols, the aerosol optical depth, in the high Arctic to assess their direct and indirect roles in climate change. This study demonstrates that the presented approach shows good quality and very promising potential.
Gabriel Calassou, Pierre-Yves Foucher, and Jean-François Léon
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 57–71, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-57-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-57-2024, 2024
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We propose analyzing the aerosol composition of plumes emitted by different industrial stacks using PRISMA satellite hyperspectral observations. Three industrial sites have been observed: a coal-fired power plant in South Africa, a steel plant in China, and gas flaring at an oil extraction site in Algeria. Aerosol optical thickness and particle radius are retrieved within the plumes. The mass flow rate of particulate matter is estimated in the plume using the integrated mass enhancement method.
Zihan Zhang, Guangliang Fu, and Otto Hasekamp
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 6051–6063, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-6051-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-6051-2023, 2023
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In order to conduct accurate aerosol retrieval over snow, the Remote Sensing of Trace Gases and Aerosol Products (RemoTAP) algorithm is extended with a bi-directional reflection distribution function for snow surfaces. The experiments with both synthetic and real data show that the extended RemoTAP maintains capability for snow-free pixels and has obvious advantages in accuracy and the fraction of successful retrievals for retrieval over snow, especially over surfaces with snow cover > 75 %.
Alexandra Tsekeri, Anna Gialitaki, Marco Di Paolantonio, Davide Dionisi, Gian Luigi Liberti, Alnilam Fernandes, Artur Szkop, Aleksander Pietruczuk, Daniel Pérez-Ramírez, Maria J. Granados Muñoz, Juan Luis Guerrero-Rascado, Lucas Alados-Arboledas, Diego Bermejo Pantaleón, Juan Antonio Bravo-Aranda, Anna Kampouri, Eleni Marinou, Vassilis Amiridis, Michael Sicard, Adolfo Comerón, Constantino Muñoz-Porcar, Alejandro Rodríguez-Gómez, Salvatore Romano, Maria Rita Perrone, Xiaoxia Shang, Mika Komppula, Rodanthi-Elisavet Mamouri, Argyro Nisantzi, Diofantos Hadjimitsis, Francisco Navas-Guzmán, Alexander Haefele, Dominika Szczepanik, Artur Tomczak, Iwona S. Stachlewska, Livio Belegante, Doina Nicolae, Kalliopi Artemis Voudouri, Dimitris Balis, Athena A. Floutsi, Holger Baars, Linda Miladi, Nicolas Pascal, Oleg Dubovik, and Anton Lopatin
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 6025–6050, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-6025-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-6025-2023, 2023
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EARLINET/ACTRIS organized an intensive observational campaign in May 2020, with the objective of monitoring the atmospheric state over Europe during the COVID-19 lockdown and relaxation period. The work presented herein focuses on deriving a common methodology for applying a synergistic retrieval that utilizes the network's ground-based passive and active remote sensing measurements and deriving the aerosols from anthropogenic activities over Europe.
Meng Gao, Bryan A. Franz, Peng-Wang Zhai, Kirk Knobelspiesse, Andrew M. Sayer, Xiaoguang Xu, J. Vanderlei Martins, Brian Cairns, Patricia Castellanos, Guangliang Fu, Neranga Hannadige, Otto Hasekamp, Yongxiang Hu, Amir Ibrahim, Frederick Patt, Anin Puthukkudy, and P. Jeremy Werdell
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5863–5881, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5863-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5863-2023, 2023
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This study evaluated the retrievability and uncertainty of aerosol and ocean properties from PACE's HARP2 instrument using enhanced neural network models with the FastMAPOL algorithm. A cascading retrieval method is developed to improve retrieval performance. A global set of simulated HARP2 data is generated and used for uncertainty evaluations. The performance assessment demonstrates that the FastMAPOL algorithm is a viable approach for operational application to HARP2 data after PACE launch.
Vasiliki Daskalopoulou, Panagiotis I. Raptis, Alexandra Tsekeri, Vassilis Amiridis, Stelios Kazadzis, Zbigniew Ulanowski, Vassilis Charmandaris, Konstantinos Tassis, and William Martin
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 4529–4550, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4529-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4529-2023, 2023
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Atmospheric dust particles may present a preferential alignment due to their shape on long range transport. Since dust is abundant and plays a key role to global climate, the elusive observation of orientation will be a game changer to existing measurement techniques and the representation of particles in climate models. We utilize a specifically designed instrument, SolPol, and target the Sun from the ground for large polarization values under dusty conditions, a clear sign of orientation.
Sara Herrero-Anta, Roberto Román, David Mateos, Ramiro González, Juan Carlos Antuña-Sánchez, Marcos Herreras-Giralda, Antonio Fernando Almansa, Daniel González-Fernández, Celia Herrero del Barrio, Carlos Toledano, Victoria E. Cachorro, and Ángel M. de Frutos
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 4423–4443, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4423-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4423-2023, 2023
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This paper shows the potential of a simple radiometer like the ZEN-R52 as a possible alternative for aerosol property retrieval in remote areas. A calibration method based on radiative transfer simulations together with an inversion methodology using the GRASP code is proposed here. The results demonstrate that this methodology is useful for the retrieval of aerosol extensive properties like aerosol optical depth (AOD) and aerosol volume concentration for total, fine and coarse modes.
Xi Chen, Ting Yang, Zifa Wang, Futing Wang, and Haibo Wang
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 4289–4302, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4289-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4289-2023, 2023
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Uncertainties remain great in the planetary boundary layer height (PBLH) determination from radiosonde, especially during the transition period of different PBL regimes. We combine seven existing methods along with statistical modification on gradient-based methods. We find that the ensemble method can eliminate the overestimation of PBLH and reduce the inconsistency between individual methods. The ensemble method improves the effectiveness of PBLH determination to 62.6 %.
Seyed Ali Sayedain, Norman T. O'Neill, James King, Patrick L. Hayes, Daniel Bellamy, Richard Washington, Sebastian Engelstaedter, Andy Vicente-Luis, Jill Bachelder, and Malo Bernhard
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 4115–4135, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4115-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4115-2023, 2023
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We used (columnar) ground-based remote sensing (RS) tools and surface measurements to characterize local (drainage-basin) dust plumes at a site in the Yukon. Plume height, particle size, and column-to-surface ratios enabled insights into how satellite RS could be used to analyze Arctic-wide dust transport. This helps modelers refine dust impacts in their climate change simulations. It is an important step since local dust is a key source of dust deposition on snow in the sensitive Arctic region.
Ulla Wandinger, Moritz Haarig, Holger Baars, David Donovan, and Gerd-Jan van Zadelhoff
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 4031–4052, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4031-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4031-2023, 2023
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We introduce the algorithms that have been developed to derive cloud top height and aerosol layer products from observations with the Atmospheric Lidar (ATLID) onboard the Earth Cloud, Aerosol and Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE). The products provide information on the uppermost cloud and geometrical and optical properties of aerosol layers in an atmospheric column. They can be used individually but also serve as input for algorithms that combine observations with EarthCARE’s lidar and imager.
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Short summary
Stratospheric sulfate aerosols increase the Earth's planetary albedo and can lead to significant surface cooling, for example in the aftermath of volcanic eruptions. Their particle size distribution, important for physical and chemical effects of these aerosols, is still not fully understood. The present paper proposes an explanation for systematic differences in aerosol particle size retrieved from measurements made in different measurement geometries and reported in earlier studies.
Stratospheric sulfate aerosols increase the Earth's planetary albedo and can lead to significant...
