Articles | Volume 19, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-19-1165-2026
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-19-1165-2026
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

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Data supporting the North Atlantic Climate System Integrated Study (ACSIS) programme, including atmospheric composition; oceanographic and sea-ice observations (2016–2022); and output from ocean, atmosphere, land, and sea-ice models (1950–2050)
Alex T. Archibald, Bablu Sinha, Maria R. Russo, Emily Matthews, Freya A. Squires, N. Luke Abraham, Stephane J.-B. Bauguitte, Thomas J. Bannan, Thomas G. Bell, David Berry, Lucy J. Carpenter, Hugh Coe, Andrew Coward, Peter Edwards, Daniel Feltham, Dwayne Heard, Jim Hopkins, James Keeble, Elizabeth C. Kent, Brian A. King, Isobel R. Lawrence, James Lee, Claire R. Macintosh, Alex Megann, Bengamin I. Moat, Katie Read, Chris Reed, Malcolm J. Roberts, Reinhard Schiemann, David Schroeder, Timothy J. Smyth, Loren Temple, Navaneeth Thamban, Lisa Whalley, Simon Williams, Huihui Wu, and Mingxi Yang
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 135–164, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-135-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-135-2025, 2025
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Cited articles

Aliabadi, A. A., Thomas, J. L., Herber, A. B., Staebler, R. M., Leaitch, W. R., Schulz, H., Law, K. S., Marelle, L., Burkart, J., Willis, M. D., Bozem, H., Hoor, P. M., Köllner, F., Schneider, J., Levasseur, M., and Abbatt, J. P. D.: Ship emissions measurement in the Arctic by plume intercepts of the Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker Amundsen from the Polar 6 aircraft platform, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 7899–7916, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-7899-2016, 2016. 
Archibald, A. T., Sinha, B., Russo, M. R., Matthews, E., Squires, F. A., Abraham, N. L., Bauguitte, S. J.-B., Bannan, T. J., Bell, T. G., Berry, D., Carpenter, L. J., Coe, H., Coward, A., Edwards, P., Feltham, D., Heard, D., Hopkins, J., Keeble, J., Kent, E. C., King, B. A., Lawrence, I. R., Lee, J., Macintosh, C. R., Megann, A., Moat, B. I., Read, K., Reed, C., Roberts, M. J., Schiemann, R., Schroeder, D., Smyth, T. J., Temple, L., Thamban, N., Whalley, L., Williams, S., Wu, H., and Yang, M.: Data supporting the North Atlantic Climate System Integrated Study (ACSIS) programme, including atmospheric composition; oceanographic and sea-ice observations (2016–2022); and output from ocean, atmosphere, land, and sea-ice models (1950–2050), Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 17, 135–164, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-17-135-2025, 2025. 
Beecken, J., Mellqvist, J., Salo, K., Ekholm, J., and Jalkanen, J.-P.: Airborne emission measurements of SO2, NOx and particles from individual ships using a sniffer technique, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 7, 1957–1968, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-1957-2014, 2014. 
Berg, N., Mellqvist, J., Jalkanen, J.-P., and Balzani, J.: Ship emissions of SO2 and NO2: DOAS measurements from airborne platforms, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 5, 1085–1098, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-5-1085-2012, 2012. 
Bian, H., Chin, M., Colarco, P. R., Apel, E. C., Blake, D. R., Froyd, K., Hornbrook, R. S., Jimenez, J., Jost, P. C., Lawler, M., Liu, M., Lund, M. T., Matsui, H., Nault, B. A., Penner, J. E., Rollins, A. W., Schill, G., Skeie, R. B., Wang, H., Xu, L., Zhang, K., and Zhu, J.: Observationally constrained analysis of sulfur cycle in the marine atmosphere with NASA ATom measurements and AeroCom model simulations, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 1717–1741, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-1717-2024, 2024. 
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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.
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