An intercomparison of aircraft sulfur dioxide measurements in clean and polluted marine environments

Temple, Loren G.; Young, Stuart; Bannan, Thomas; Batten, Stephanie E.; Bauguitte, Stéphane; Coe, Hugh; Grant, Eve; Lacy, Stuart E.; Lee, James D.; Matthews, Emily; Pasternak, Dominika; Rogers, Samuel D. A.; Rollins, Andrew W.; Vallow, Jake; Yang, Mingxi; Edwards, Pete M.

doi:10.5194/amt-19-1165-2026

Articles | Volume 19, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-19-1165-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-19-1165-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 19, issue 4

Research article

|

17 Feb 2026

Research article |

| 17 Feb 2026

An intercomparison of aircraft sulfur dioxide measurements in clean and polluted marine environments

Loren G. Temple, Stuart Young, Thomas Bannan, Stephanie E. Batten, Stéphane Bauguitte, Hugh Coe, Eve Grant, Stuart E. Lacy, James D. Lee, Emily Matthews, Dominika Pasternak, Samuel D. A. Rogers, Andrew W. Rollins, Jake Vallow, Mingxi Yang, and Pete M. Edwards

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-19-1165-2026-supplement

Data sets

Aircraft Data from the University of York's LIF-SO2 Instrument L. Temple et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18417210

wacl-york/York_LIF_Instrument_Paper2026: Data and code for 'An intercomparison of aircraft sulfur dioxide measurements in clean and polluted marine environments' publication (Version 1) L. Temple et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18420994

FAAM C285, C286, C287 ACRUISE flights: Airborne atmospheric measurements from core instrument suite on board the BAE-146 aircraft Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements, Natural Environment Research Council, and Met Office https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/d6eb4e907c124482881d7d03c06903e4

FAAM C289, C290, C292, C293 ACSIS flights: Airborne atmospheric measurements from core instrument suite on board the BAE-146 aircraft Facility for Airborne Atmospheric Measurements, Natural Environment Research Council, and Met Office https://catalogue.ceda.ac.uk/uuid/7e92f3a40afc494f9aaf92525ebb4779

Short summary

Sulfur dioxide (SO₂) is a key precursor to aerosol formation, particularly in remote marine environments, ultimately affecting cloud properties and climate. Accurate quantification of atmospheric SO₂ is therefore crucial. This work compares a custom-built laser-based instrument to two commercial SO₂ analysers during measurements from a large research aircraft. Our results show that this custom-built system offers greater sensitivity at time resolutions required for aircraft measurements.