Articles | Volume 9, issue 7
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-3355-2016
© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-3355-2016
© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Research article
| 
28 Jul 2016
Research article |
| 28 Jul 2016
MIPAS IMK/IAA CFC-11 (CCl3F) and CFC-12 (CCl2F2) measurements: accuracy, precision and long-term stability
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Karlsruhe, Germany
A. Laeng
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Karlsruhe, Germany
S. Lossow
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Karlsruhe, Germany
S. Kellmann
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Karlsruhe, Germany
G. Stiller
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Karlsruhe, Germany
T. von Clarmann
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Karlsruhe, Germany
N. Glatthor
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Karlsruhe, Germany
M. Höpfner
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Karlsruhe, Germany
M. Kiefer
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Karlsruhe, Germany
H. Oelhaf
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Karlsruhe, Germany
J. Orphal
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Karlsruhe, Germany
Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía, CSIC, Granada, Spain
U. Grabowski
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Karlsruhe, Germany
F. Haenel
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Karlsruhe, Germany
A. Linden
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Karlsruhe, Germany
G. Wetzel
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Karlsruhe, Germany
W. Woiwode
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Karlsruhe, Germany
P. F. Bernath
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 23529-0126, USA
C. Boone
Department of Chemistry, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
G. S. Dutton
NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, CO 80305, USA
Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA
J. W. Elkins
NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, CO 80305, USA
Institut für Atmosphäre und Umwelt, J. W. Goethe Universität, Frankfurt, Germany
J. C. Gille
National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA
Center for Limb Atmospheric Sounding, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA
F. Kolonjari
Department of Physics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
T. Sugita
National Institute for Environmental Studies, Tsukuba, Japan
G. C. Toon
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA
K. A. Walker
Department of Chemistry, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Department of Physics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 10999–11009, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-10999-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-10999-2015, 2015
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E. Eckert, T. von Clarmann, M. Kiefer, G. P. Stiller, S. Lossow, N. Glatthor, D. A. Degenstein, L. Froidevaux, S. Godin-Beekmann, T. Leblanc, S. McDermid, M. Pastel, W. Steinbrecht, D. P. J. Swart, K. A. Walker, and P. F. Bernath
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Astrid Müller, Hiroshi Tanimoto, Takafumi Sugita, Prabir K. Patra, Shin-ichiro Nakaoka, Toshinobu Machida, Isamu Morino, André Butz, and Kei Shiomi
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2023-144, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2023-144, 2023
Preprint under review for AMT
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Satellite CH4 observations with high accuracy are needed to understand changes in atmospheric CH4 concentrations. But over oceans, reference data are limited. We combine various ship and aircraft observations with the help of atmospheric chemistry models to derive observation-based column-averaged mixing ratios of CH4 (obs. XCH4). We discuss three different approaches and demonstrate the applicability of the new reference dataset for carbon cycle studies and satellite evaluation.
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This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
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The transport circulation in the stratosphere is important for the distribution of tracers but its strength is difficult to measure. Mean transport times can be inferred from observations of trace gases with certain properties, such as SF6. However, this gas does have a chemical sink in the high atmosphere which can lead to substantial biases in inferred transport times. In this paper we present a method to correct mean transport times derived from SF6 for the effects of chemical sinks.
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This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
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This study uses in-situ field data collected from a Canadian high Arctic site to demonstrate that surface snow in early spring is a net sink of atmospheric bromine and nitrogen. In addition, surface snow bromide and nitrate are significantly correlated, one molecule bromide deposited is accompanied by 4–7 molecules nitrate, indicating the oxidation of reactive nitrogen is accelerated by reactive bromine. This is the first time such an effect was seen in snow chemistry on a time scale of one day.
Tanja J. Schuck, Johannes Degen, Eric Hintsa, Peter Hoor, Markus Jesswein, Timo Keber, Daniel Kunkel, Fred Moore, Florian Obersteiner, Matt Rigby, Thomas Wagenhäuser, Luke M. Western, Andreas Zahn, and Andreas Engel
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1824, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1824, 2023
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
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We study the interhemispheric gradient of sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), a strong long-lived greenhouse gas. Its emissions are stronger in the northern hemisphere, therefore mixing ratios in the southern hemisphere lag behind. Comparing the observations to results from a box model, the model predicts air in the southern hemisphere to be older. For a better agreement, the emissions used as model input need to be increased, their spatial pattern changed, and we need to modify north-south transport.
Gabriele P. Stiller, Thomas von Clarmann, Norbert Glatthor, Udo Grabowski, Sylvia Kellmann, Michael Kiefer, Alexandra Laeng, Andrea Linden, Bernd Funke, Maya Garcia-Comas, and Manuel Lopez-Puertas
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Bernd Funke, Thierry Dudok de Wit, Ilaria Ermolli, Margit Haberreiter, Doug Kinnison, Daniel Marsh, Hilde Nesse, Annika Seppälä, Miriam Sinnhuber, and Ilya Usoskin
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Preprint under review for GMD
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Karen De Los Ríos, Paulina Ordoñez, Gabriele P. Stiller, Piera Raspollini, Marco Gai, Kaley A. Walker, Cristina Peña-Ortiz, and Luis Acosta
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This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (AMT).
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This study examines newer versions of H2O and HDO retrievals from Envisat/MIPAS and SCISAT/ACE-FTS. Results reveal good agreement in stratospheric H2O and HDO profiles, with biases found in specific altitudes. The tape recorder signal is consistent across databases, showing differences in climatological δD composites impacting then in the interpretation of WV transport. These findings enhance our understanding of WV dynamics and highlight the need for intercomparisons to refine our insights.
Maya Garcia-Comas, Bernd Funke, Manuel Lopez-Puertas, Norbert Glatthor, Udo Grabowski, Sylvia Kellmann, Michael Kiefer, Andrea Linden, Belen Martinez-Mondejar, Gabriele P. Stiller, and Thomas von Clarmann
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2023-119, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2023-119, 2023
Revised manuscript accepted for AMT
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Victoria A. Flood, Kimberly Strong, Cynthia H. Whaley, Kaley A. Walker, Thomas Blumenstock, James W. Hannigan, Johan Mellqvist, Justus Notholt, Mathias Palm, Amelie N. Röhling, Stephen Arnold, Stephen Beagley, Rong-You Chien, Jesper Christensen, Makoto Deushi, Srdjan Dobricic, Xinyi Dong, Joshua S. Fu, Michael Gauss, Wanmin Gong, Joakim Langner, Kathy S. Law, Louis Marelle, Tatsuo Onishi, Naga Oshima, David A. Plummer, Luca Pozzoli, Jean-Christophe Raut, Manu A. Thomas, Svetlana Tsyro, and Steven Turnock
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It is important to understand the composition of the Arctic atmosphere and how it is changing. Atmospheric models provide simulations that can inform policy. This study examines simulations of CH4, CO, and O3 by 11 models. Model performance is assessed by comparing results matched in space and time to measurements from five high-latitude ground-based infrared spectrometers. This work finds that models are generally underpredicting the concentrations of these gases in the Arctic troposphere.
Jin Ma, Linda M. J. Kooijmans, Norbert Glatthor, Stephen A. Montzka, Marc von Hobe, Thomas Röckmann, and Maarten C. Krol
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1133, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1133, 2023
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
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The global budgets of atmospheric COS can be optimised by inverse modelling using TM5-4DVAR, with the co-constraints of NOAA surface observations and MIPAS satellite data. We found reduced COS biosphere uptake from inversions and improved land and ocean separation using MIPAS satellite data assimilation. Further improvements are expected from better quantification of COS ocean and biosphere fluxes.
Norbert Glatthor, Thomas von Clarmann, Bernd Funke, Maya Garcia-Comas, Udo Grabowski, Michael Höpfner, Sylvia Kellmann, Michael Kiefer, Alexandra Laeng, Andrea Linden, Manuel Lopez-Puertas, and Gabriele P. Stiller
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-919, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-919, 2023
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (AMT).
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We present global atmospheric methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) distributions retrieved from measurements of the MIPAS instrument onboard the ENVIronmental SATellite (ENVISAT) during 2002 to 2012. Monitoring of these gases is of scientific interest, because both of them are strong greenhouse gases. We analyse the latest, improved version of calibrated MIPAS measurements. Further, we apply a new retrieval scheme leading to an improved CH4 and N2O data product .
Manuel López-Puertas, Maya García-Comas, Bernd Funke, Thomas von Clarmann, Norbert Glatthor, Udo Grabowski, Sylvia Kellmann, Michael Kiefer, Alexandra Laeng, Andrea Linden, and Gabriele P. Stiller
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2023-118, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2023-118, 2023
Revised manuscript accepted for AMT
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This paper describes a new version (V8) of O3 data from MIPAS middle atmosphere spectra. The dataset comprises high-quality O3 profiles from 20 to 100 km, with a pole-to-pole latitude coverage, day and night-time, and spanning from 2005 until 2012. An exhaustive treatment of errors has been performed. Compared to other satellite instruments, MIPAS ozone shows a positive bias of 5–8 % below 70 km. In the upper mesosphere, this new version agrees much better than previous ones (within 10 %).
Luis F. Millán, Gloria L. Manney, Harald Boenisch, Michaela I. Hegglin, Peter Hoor, Daniel Kunkel, Thierry Leblanc, Irina Petropavlovskikh, Kaley Walker, Krzysztof Wargan, and Andreas Zahn
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 2957–2988, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2957-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2957-2023, 2023
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The determination of atmospheric composition trends in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) is still highly uncertain. We present the creation of dynamical diagnostics to map several ozone datasets (ozonesondes, lidars, aircraft, and satellite measurements) in geophysically based coordinate systems. The diagnostics can also be used to analyze other greenhouse gases relevant to surface climate and UTLS chemistry.
Jianghanyang Li, Bianca C. Baier, Fred Moore, Tim Newberger, Sonja Wolter, Jack Higgs, Geoff Dutton, Eric Hintsa, Bradley Hall, and Colm Sweeney
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 2851–2863, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2851-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2851-2023, 2023
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Monitoring a suite of trace gases in the stratosphere will help us better understand the stratospheric circulation and its impact on the earth's radiation balance. However, such measurements are rare and usually expensive. We developed an instrument that can measure stratospheric trace gases using a low-cost sampling platform (AirCore). The results showed expected agreement with aircraft measurements, demonstrating this technique provides a low-cost and robust way to observe the stratosphere.
Kimberlee Dubé, Susann Tegtmeier, Adam Bourassa, Daniel Zawada, Douglas Degenstein, Patrick E. Sheese, Kaley A. Walker, and William Randel
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1028, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1028, 2023
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This paper presents a technique for understanding the causes of long-term changes in stratospheric composition. By using N2O as a proxy for stratospheric circulation in the model used to calculated trends it is possible to separate the effects of dynamics and chemistry on observed trace gas trends. We find that observed HCl increases are due to changes in the stratospheric circulation, as are O3 decreases above 30 hPa in the Northern Hemisphere.
Andrea Pazmino, Florence Goutail, Sophie Godin-Beekmann, Alain Hauchecorne, Jean-Pierre Pommereau, Martyn P. Chipperfield, Wuhu Feng, Franck Lefèvre, Audrey Lecouffe, Michel Van Roozendael, Nis Jepsen, Georg Hansen, Rigel Kivi, Kimberly Strong, Kaley A. Walker, and Steve Colwell
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-788, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-788, 2023
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The vortex-averaged ozone loss over the last three decades is evaluated for both polar regions using the passive ozone tracer of the chemical transport model TOMCAT/SLIMCAT and total ozone observations from SAOZ network and MSR2 reanalysis. Three metrics were developed to compute ozone trend since 2000. The study confirms the ozone recovery in the Antarctic and shows a first quantitative detection of ozone recovery in the Arctic that needs to be robustly confirmed in the future.
Bernd Funke, Maya García-Comas, Norbert Glatthor, Udo Grabowski, Sylvia Kellmann, Michael Kiefer, Andrea Linden, Manuel López-Puertas, Gabriele P. Stiller, and Thomas von Clarmann
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 2167–2196, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2167-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2167-2023, 2023
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New global nitric oxide (NO) volume-mixing-ratio and lower-thermospheric temperature data products, retrieved from Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) spectra with the IMK-IAA MIPAS data processor, have been released. The dataset covers the entire Envisat mission lifetime and includes retrieval results from all MIPAS observation modes. The data are based on ESA version 8 calibration and were processed using an improved retrieval approach.
Michael Kiefer, Dale F. Hurst, Gabriele P. Stiller, Stefan Lossow, Holger Vömel, John Anderson, Faiza Azam, Jean-Loup Bertaux, Laurent Blanot, Klaus Bramstedt, John P. Burrows, Robert Damadeo, Bianca Maria Dinelli, Patrick Eriksson, Maya García-Comas, John C. Gille, Mark Hervig, Yasuko Kasai, Farahnaz Khosrawi, Donal Murtagh, Gerald E. Nedoluha, Stefan Noël, Piera Raspollini, William G. Read, Karen H. Rosenlof, Alexei Rozanov, Christopher E. Sioris, Takafumi Sugita, Thomas von Clarmann, Kaley A. Walker, and Katja Weigel
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2023-86, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2023-86, 2023
Revised manuscript accepted for AMT
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We quantify biases and drifts (and their uncertainties) between the stratospheric water vapor measurement records of 15 satellite-based instruments (SATs, with 31 different retrievals) and balloon-borne frost point hygrometers (FPs) launched at 27 globally distributed stations. These comparisons of measurements during the period 2000-2016 are made using robust, consistent statistical methods. With some exceptions, the biases and drifts determined for most SAT-FP pairs are < 10 % and < 1 % yr−1.
Viktoria F. Sofieva, Monika Szelag, Johanna Tamminen, Carlo Arosio, Alexei Rozanov, Mark Weber, Doug Degenstein, Adam Bourassa, Daniel Zawada, Michael Kiefer, Alexandra Laeng, Kaley A. Walker, Patrick Sheese, Daan Hubert, Michel van Roozendael, Christian Retscher, Robert Damadeo, and Jerry D. Lumpe
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 1881–1899, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1881-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1881-2023, 2023
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The paper presents the updated SAGE-CCI-OMPS+ climate data record of monthly zonal mean ozone profiles. This dataset covers the stratosphere and combines measurements by nine limb and occultation satellite instruments (SAGE II, OSIRIS, MIPAS, SCIAMACHY, GOMOS, ACE-FTS, OMPS-LP, POAM III, and SAGE III/ISS). The update includes new versions of MIPAS, ACE-FTS, and OSIRIS datasets and introduces data from additional sensors (POAM III and SAGE III/ISS) and retrieval processors (OMPS-LP).
Thomas Wagenhäuser, Markus Jesswein, Timo Keber, Tanja Schuck, and Andreas Engel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 3887–3903, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-3887-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-3887-2023, 2023
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A common assumption to derive mean age from trace gas observations is that all air enters the stratosphere through the tropical tropopause. Using SF6 as an age tracer, this leads to negative mean age values close to the Northern Hemispheric extra-tropical tropopause. Our improved method also considers extra-tropical input into the stratosphere. More realistic values are derived using this method. Interhemispheric differences in mean age are found when comparing data from two aircraft campaigns.
Michael Kiefer, Thomas von Clarmann, Bernd Funke, Maya García-Comas, Norbert Glatthor, Udo Grabowski, Michael Höpfner, Sylvia Kellmann, Alexandra Laeng, Andrea Linden, Manuel López-Puertas, and Gabriele P. Stiller
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 1443–1460, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1443-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1443-2023, 2023
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A new ozone data set, derived from radiation measurements of the space-borne instrument MIPAS, is presented. It consists of more than 2 million single ozone profiles from 2002–2012, covering virtually all latitudes and altitudes between 5 and 70 km. Progress in data calibration and processing methods allowed for significant improvement of the data quality, compared to previous data versions. Hence, the data set will help to better understand e.g. the time evolution of ozone in the stratosphere.
Monali Borthakur, Miriam Sinnhuber, Alexandra Laeng, Thomas Reddmann, Peter Braesicke, Gabriele Stiller, Thomas von Clarmann, Bernd Funke, Ilya Usoskin, Jan Maik Wissing, and Olesya Yakovchuk
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-427, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-427, 2023
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Reduced ozone levels as a result of ozone depletion means more exposure to UV radiation which has various effects on human health. We analysed solar events to see what influence it has on the chemistry of the earth's atmosphere and how this atmospheric chemistry change can affect the ozone. To do that we used an atmospheric model, considering only chemistry and compared it with satellite data. The focus was mainly on the contribution of chlorine and we found about 10–20 % ozone loss due to that.
Nasrin Mostafavi Pak, Jacob K. Hedelius, Sébastien Roche, Liz Cunningham, Bianca Baier, Colm Sweeney, Coleen Roehl, Joshua Laughner, Geoffrey Toon, Paul Wennberg, Harrison Parker, Colin Arrowsmith, Joseph Mendonca, Pierre Fogal, Tyler Wizenberg, Beatriz Herrera, Kimberly Strong, Kaley A. Walker, Felix Vogel, and Debra Wunch
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 1239–1261, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1239-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1239-2023, 2023
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Ground-based remote sensing instruments in the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON) measure greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Consistency between TCCON measurements is crucial to accurately infer changes in atmospheric composition. We use portable remote sensing instruments (EM27/SUN) to evaluate biases between TCCON stations in North America. We also improve the retrievals of EM27/SUN instruments and evaluate the previous (GGG2014) and newest (GGG2020) retrieval algorithms.
Joshua L. Laughner, Sébastien Roche, Matthäus Kiel, Geoffrey C. Toon, Debra Wunch, Bianca C. Baier, Sébastien Biraud, Huilin Chen, Rigel Kivi, Thomas Laemmel, Kathryn McKain, Pierre-Yves Quéhé, Constantina Rousogenous, Britton B. Stephens, Kaley Walker, and Paul O. Wennberg
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 1121–1146, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1121-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-1121-2023, 2023
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Observations using sunlight to measure surface-to-space total column of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere need an initial guess of the vertical distribution of those gases to start from. We have developed an approach to provide those initial guess profiles that uses readily available meteorological data as input. This lets us make these guesses without simulating them with a global model. The profiles generated this way match independent observations well.
Lei Hu, Deborah Ottinger, Stephanie Bogle, Stephen A. Montzka, Philip L. DeCola, Ed Dlugokencky, Arlyn Andrews, Kirk Thoning, Colm Sweeney, Geoff Dutton, Lauren Aepli, and Andrew Crotwell
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 1437–1448, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-1437-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-1437-2023, 2023
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Effective mitigation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions relies on an accurate understanding of emissions. Here we demonstrate the added value of using inventory- and atmosphere-based approaches for estimating US emissions of SF6, the most potent GHG known. The results suggest a large decline in US SF6 emissions, shed light on the possible processes causing the differences between the independent estimates, and identify opportunities for substantial additional emission reductions.
Jennifer Schallock, Christoph Brühl, Christine Bingen, Michael Höpfner, Landon Rieger, and Jos Lelieveld
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 1169–1207, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-1169-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-1169-2023, 2023
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We characterized the influence of volcanic aerosols for the period 1990–2019 and established a volcanic SO2 emission inventory that includes more than 500 eruptions. From limb-based satellite observations of SO2 and extinction, we derive 3D plumes of SO2 perturbations and injected mass by a novel method. We calculate instantaneous radiative forcing with a comprehensive chemisty climate model. Our results show that smaller eruptions can also contribute to the stratospheric aerosol forcing.
Hao Guo, Clare M. Flynn, Michael J. Prather, Sarah A. Strode, Stephen D. Steenrod, Louisa Emmons, Forrest Lacey, Jean-Francois Lamarque, Arlene M. Fiore, Gus Correa, Lee T. Murray, Glenn M. Wolfe, Jason M. St. Clair, Michelle Kim, John Crounse, Glenn Diskin, Joshua DiGangi, Bruce C. Daube, Roisin Commane, Kathryn McKain, Jeff Peischl, Thomas B. Ryerson, Chelsea Thompson, Thomas F. Hanisco, Donald Blake, Nicola J. Blake, Eric C. Apel, Rebecca S. Hornbrook, James W. Elkins, Eric J. Hintsa, Fred L. Moore, and Steven C. Wofsy
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 99–117, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-99-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-99-2023, 2023
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We have prepared a unique and unusual result from the recent ATom aircraft mission: a measurement-based derivation of the production and loss rates of ozone and methane over the ocean basins. These are the key products of chemistry models used in assessments but have thus far lacked observational metrics. It also shows the scales of variability of atmospheric chemical rates and provides a major challenge to the atmospheric models.
Thomas von Clarmann, Norbert Glatthor, Udo Grabowski, Bernd Funke, Michael Kiefer, Anne Kleinert, Gabriele P. Stiller, Andrea Linden, and Sylvia Kellmann
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 6991–7018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6991-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6991-2022, 2022
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Errors of profiles of temperature and mixing ratios retrieved from spectra recorded with the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding are estimated. All known and quantified sources of uncertainty are considered. Some ongoing uncertaities contribute to both the random and to the systematic errors. In some cases, one source of uncertainty propagates onto the error budget via multiple pathways. Problems arise when the correlations of errors to be propagated are unknown.
Markus Jesswein, Rafael P. Fernandez, Lucas Berná, Alfonso Saiz-Lopez, Jens-Uwe Grooß, Ryan Hossaini, Eric C. Apel, Rebecca S. Hornbrook, Elliot L. Atlas, Donald R. Blake, Stephen Montzka, Timo Keber, Tanja Schuck, Thomas Wagenhäuser, and Andreas Engel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 15049–15070, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-15049-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-15049-2022, 2022
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This study presents the global and seasonal distribution of the two major brominated short-lived substances CH2Br2 and CHBr3 in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere based on observations from several aircraft campaigns. They show similar seasonality for both hemispheres, except in the respective hemispheric autumn lower stratosphere. A comparison with the TOMCAT and CAM-Chem models shows good agreement in the annual mean but larger differences in the seasonal consideration.
Ali Jalali, Kaley A. Walker, Kimberly Strong, Rebecca R. Buchholz, Merritt N. Deeter, Debra Wunch, Sébastien Roche, Tyler Wizenberg, Erik Lutsch, Erin McGee, Helen M. Worden, Pierre Fogal, and James R. Drummond
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 6837–6863, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6837-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6837-2022, 2022
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This study validates MOPITT version 8 carbon monoxide measurements over the Canadian high Arctic for the period 2006 to 2019. The MOPITT products from different detector pixels and channels are compared with ground-based measurements from the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory (PEARL) in Eureka, Nunavut, Canada. These results show good consistency between the satellite and ground-based measurements and provide guidance on the usage of these MOPITT data at high latitudes.
Gerald Wetzel, Michael Höpfner, Hermann Oelhaf, Felix Friedl-Vallon, Anne Kleinert, Guido Maucher, Miriam Sinnhuber, Janna Abalichin, Angelika Dehn, and Piera Raspollini
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 6669–6704, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6669-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6669-2022, 2022
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Satellite measurements of stratospheric trace gases are essential for monitoring distributions and trends of these species on a global scale. Here, we compare the final MIPAS ESA Level 2 version 8 data (temperature and trace gases) with measurements obtained with the balloon version of MIPAS in terms of data agreement of both sensors, including combined errors. For most gases, we find a 5 % to 20 % agreement of the retrieved vertical profiles of both MIPAS instruments in the lower stratosphere.
Paul S. Jeffery, Kaley A. Walker, Chris E. Sioris, Chris D. Boone, Doug Degenstein, Gloria L. Manney, C. Thomas McElroy, Luis Millán, David A. Plummer, Niall J. Ryan, Patrick E. Sheese, and Jiansheng Zou
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 14709–14734, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14709-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14709-2022, 2022
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The upper troposphere–lower stratosphere is one of the most variable regions in the atmosphere. To improve our understanding of water vapour and ozone concentrations in this region, climatologies have been developed from 14 years of measurements from three Canadian satellite instruments. Horizontal and vertical coordinates have been chosen to minimize the effects of variability. To aid in analysis, model simulations have been used to characterize differences between instrument climatologies.
Kimberlee Dubé, Daniel Zawada, Adam Bourassa, Doug Degenstein, William Randel, David Flittner, Patrick Sheese, and Kaley Walker
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 6163–6180, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6163-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-6163-2022, 2022
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Satellite observations are important for monitoring changes in atmospheric composition. Here we describe an improved version of the NO2 retrieval for the Optical Spectrograph and InfraRed Imager System. The resulting NO2 profiles are compared to those from the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment – Fourier Transform Spectrometer and the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment III on the International Space Station. All datasets agree within 20 % throughout the stratosphere.
Carlo Arosio, Alexei Rozanov, Victor Gorshelev, Alexandra Laeng, and John P. Burrows
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 5949–5967, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-5949-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-5949-2022, 2022
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This paper characterizes the uncertainties affecting the ozone profiles retrieved at the University of Bremen through OMPS limb satellite observations. An accurate knowledge of the uncertainties is relevant for the validation of the product and to correctly interpret the retrieval results. We investigate several sources of uncertainties, estimate a total random and systematic component, and verify the consistency of the combined OMPS-MLS total uncertainty.
Xin Yang, Kimberly Strong, Alison S. Criscitiello, Marta Santos-Garcia, Kristof Bognar, Xiaoyi Zhao, Pierre Fogal, Kaley A. Walker, Sara M. Morris, and Peter Effertz
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-696, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-696, 2022
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Snow pack in high Arctic plays a key role in polar atmospheric chemistry, especially in spring when photochemistry becomes active. By sampling surface snow from a Canadian high Arctic location at Eureka, Nunavut (80° N, 86° W), we demonstrate that surface snow is a net sink rather than a source of atmospheric reactive bromine and nitrate. This finding is new and opposite to previous conclusions that snowpack is a large and direct source of reactive bromine in polar spring.
Luke M. Western, Alison L. Redington, Alistair J. Manning, Cathy M. Trudinger, Lei Hu, Stephan Henne, Xuekun Fang, Lambert J. M. Kuijpers, Christina Theodoridi, David S. Godwin, Jgor Arduini, Bronwyn Dunse, Andreas Engel, Paul J. Fraser, Christina M. Harth, Paul B. Krummel, Michela Maione, Jens Mühle, Simon O'Doherty, Hyeri Park, Sunyoung Park, Stefan Reimann, Peter K. Salameh, Daniel Say, Roland Schmidt, Tanja Schuck, Carolina Siso, Kieran M. Stanley, Isaac Vimont, Martin K. Vollmer, Dickon Young, Ronald G. Prinn, Ray F. Weiss, Stephen A. Montzka, and Matthew Rigby
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 9601–9616, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-9601-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-9601-2022, 2022
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The production of ozone-destroying gases is being phased out. Even though production of one of the main ozone-depleting gases, called HCFC-141b, has been declining for many years, the amount that is being released to the atmosphere has been increasing since 2017. We do not know for sure why this is. A possible explanation is that HCFC-141b that was used to make insulating foams many years ago is only now escaping to the atmosphere, or a large part of its production is not being reported.
Vivienne H. Payne, Susan S. Kulawik, Emily V. Fischer, Jared F. Brewer, L. Gregory Huey, Kazuyuki Miyazaki, John R. Worden, Kevin W. Bowman, Eric J. Hintsa, Fred Moore, James W. Elkins, and Julieta Juncosa Calahorrano
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 3497–3511, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3497-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3497-2022, 2022
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We compare new satellite measurements of peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN) with reference aircraft measurements from two different instruments flown on the same platform. While there is a systematic difference between the two aircraft datasets, both show the same large-scale distribution of PAN and the discrepancy between aircraft datasets is small compared to the satellite uncertainties. The satellite measurements show skill in capturing large-scale variations in PAN.
William G. Read, Gabriele Stiller, Stefan Lossow, Michael Kiefer, Farahnaz Khosrawi, Dale Hurst, Holger Vömel, Karen Rosenlof, Bianca M. Dinelli, Piera Raspollini, Gerald E. Nedoluha, John C. Gille, Yasuko Kasai, Patrick Eriksson, Christopher E. Sioris, Kaley A. Walker, Katja Weigel, John P. Burrows, and Alexei Rozanov
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 3377–3400, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3377-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-3377-2022, 2022
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This paper attempts to provide an assessment of the accuracy of 21 satellite-based instruments that remotely measure atmospheric humidity in the upper troposphere of the Earth's atmosphere. The instruments made their measurements from 1984 to the present time; however, most of these instruments began operations after 2000, and only a few are still operational. The objective of this study is to quantify the accuracy of each satellite humidity data set.
Irina Mironova, Miriam Sinnhuber, Galina Bazilevskaya, Mark Clilverd, Bernd Funke, Vladimir Makhmutov, Eugene Rozanov, Michelle L. Santee, Timofei Sukhodolov, and Thomas Ulich
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 6703–6716, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-6703-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-6703-2022, 2022
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From balloon measurements, we detected unprecedented, extremely powerful, electron precipitation over the middle latitudes. The robustness of this event is confirmed by satellite observations of electron fluxes and chemical composition, as well as by ground-based observations of the radio signal propagation. The applied chemistry–climate model shows the almost complete destruction of ozone in the mesosphere over the region where high-energy electrons were observed.
Cynthia H. Whaley, Rashed Mahmood, Knut von Salzen, Barbara Winter, Sabine Eckhardt, Stephen Arnold, Stephen Beagley, Silvia Becagli, Rong-You Chien, Jesper Christensen, Sujay Manish Damani, Xinyi Dong, Konstantinos Eleftheriadis, Nikolaos Evangeliou, Gregory Faluvegi, Mark Flanner, Joshua S. Fu, Michael Gauss, Fabio Giardi, Wanmin Gong, Jens Liengaard Hjorth, Lin Huang, Ulas Im, Yugo Kanaya, Srinath Krishnan, Zbigniew Klimont, Thomas Kühn, Joakim Langner, Kathy S. Law, Louis Marelle, Andreas Massling, Dirk Olivié, Tatsuo Onishi, Naga Oshima, Yiran Peng, David A. Plummer, Olga Popovicheva, Luca Pozzoli, Jean-Christophe Raut, Maria Sand, Laura N. Saunders, Julia Schmale, Sangeeta Sharma, Ragnhild Bieltvedt Skeie, Henrik Skov, Fumikazu Taketani, Manu A. Thomas, Rita Traversi, Kostas Tsigaridis, Svetlana Tsyro, Steven Turnock, Vito Vitale, Kaley A. Walker, Minqi Wang, Duncan Watson-Parris, and Tahya Weiss-Gibbons
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 5775–5828, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-5775-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-5775-2022, 2022
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Air pollutants, like ozone and soot, play a role in both global warming and air quality. Atmospheric models are often used to provide information to policy makers about current and future conditions under different emissions scenarios. In order to have confidence in those simulations, in this study we compare simulated air pollution from 18 state-of-the-art atmospheric models to measured air pollution in order to assess how well the models perform.
Alexandra Laeng, Thomas von Clarmann, Quentin Errera, Udo Grabowski, and Shawn Honomichl
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 2407–2416, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2407-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2407-2022, 2022
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In validation exercises, a universal excuse used to explain the residual discrepancy between the data is the natural atmospheric variability due to imperfect co-locations. This work is the first attempt to quantify this atmospheric variability for a large sample of atmospheric constituents and to provide the user with a tool to substract the natural atmospheric variability portion from the residual variability.
Merritt Deeter, Gene Francis, John Gille, Debbie Mao, Sara Martínez-Alonso, Helen Worden, Dan Ziskin, James Drummond, Róisín Commane, Glenn Diskin, and Kathryn McKain
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 2325–2344, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2325-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2325-2022, 2022
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The MOPITT (Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere) satellite instrument uses remote sensing to obtain retrievals (measurements) of carbon monoxide (CO) in the atmosphere. This paper describes the latest MOPITT data product, Version 9. Globally, the number of daytime MOPITT retrievals over land has increased by 30 %–40 % compared to the previous product. The reported improvements in the MOPITT product should benefit a wide variety of applications including studies of pollution sources.
Piera Raspollini, Enrico Arnone, Flavio Barbara, Massimo Bianchini, Bruno Carli, Simone Ceccherini, Martyn P. Chipperfield, Angelika Dehn, Stefano Della Fera, Bianca Maria Dinelli, Anu Dudhia, Jean-Marie Flaud, Marco Gai, Michael Kiefer, Manuel López-Puertas, David P. Moore, Alessandro Piro, John J. Remedios, Marco Ridolfi, Harjinder Sembhi, Luca Sgheri, and Nicola Zoppetti
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 1871–1901, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1871-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1871-2022, 2022
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The MIPAS instrument onboard the ENVISAT satellite provided 10 years of measurements of the atmospheric emission al limb that allow for the retrieval of latitude- and altitude-resolved atmospheric composition. We describe the improvements implemented in the retrieval algorithm used for the full mission reanalysis, which allows for the generation of the global distributions of 21 atmospheric constituents plus temperature with increased accuracy with respect to previously generated data.
Helmut Ziereis, Peter Hoor, Jens-Uwe Grooß, Andreas Zahn, Greta Stratmann, Paul Stock, Michael Lichtenstern, Jens Krause, Vera Bense, Armin Afchine, Christian Rolf, Wolfgang Woiwode, Marleen Braun, Jörn Ungermann, Andreas Marsing, Christiane Voigt, Andreas Engel, Björn-Martin Sinnhuber, and Hermann Oelhaf
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 3631–3654, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3631-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3631-2022, 2022
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Airborne observations were conducted in the lowermost Arctic stratosphere during the winter of 2015/2016. The observed distribution of reactive nitrogen shows clear indications of nitrification in mid-winter and denitrification in late winter. This was caused by the formation of polar stratospheric cloud particles, which were observed during several flights. The sedimentation and evaporation of these particles and the descent of air masses cause a redistribution of reactive nitrogen.
Sören Johansson, Gerald Wetzel, Felix Friedl-Vallon, Norbert Glatthor, Michael Höpfner, Anne Kleinert, Tom Neubert, Björn-Martin Sinnhuber, and Jörn Ungermann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 3675–3691, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3675-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3675-2022, 2022
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We present GLORIA airborne cross sections of PAN, C2H6, HCOOH, CH3OH, and C2H4 in the South Atlantic UTLS in September/October 2019. Filamentary structures and a large plume were observed. Backward trajectories indicate that measured pollutants come from South America and central Africa. Comparisons to CAMS show structural agreement of the measured distributions. PAN absolute VMRs agree with the GLORIA measurements, C2H6 and HCOOH are simulated too low, and CH3OH and C2H4 are too high.
Patrick E. Sheese, Kaley A. Walker, Chris D. Boone, Adam E. Bourassa, Doug A. Degenstein, Lucien Froidevaux, C. Thomas McElroy, Donal Murtagh, James M. Russell III, and Jiansheng Zou
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 1233–1249, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1233-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1233-2022, 2022
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This study analyzes the quality of two versions (v3.6 and v4.1) of ozone concentration measurements from the ACE-FTS (Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier Transform Spectrometer), by comparing with data from five satellite instruments between 2004 and 2020. It was found that although the v3.6 data exhibit a better agreement than v4.1 with respect to the other instruments, v4.1 exhibits much better stability over time than v3.6. The stability of v4.1 makes it suitable for ozone trend studies.
Thomas von Clarmann, Steven Compernolle, and Frank Hase
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 1145–1157, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1145-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-1145-2022, 2022
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Contrary to the claims put forward in
Evaluation of measurement data – Guide to the expression of uncertainty in measurementissued by the JCGM, the error concept and the uncertainty concept are the same. Arguments in favor of the contrary were found not to be compelling. Neither was any evidence presented that
errorsand
uncertaintiesdefine a different relation between the measured and true values, nor is a Bayesian concept beyond the mere subjective probability referred to.
Florian Haenel, Wolfgang Woiwode, Jennifer Buchmüller, Felix Friedl-Vallon, Michael Höpfner, Sören Johansson, Farahnaz Khosrawi, Oliver Kirner, Anne Kleinert, Hermann Oelhaf, Johannes Orphal, Roland Ruhnke, Björn-Martin Sinnhuber, Jörn Ungermann, Michael Weimer, and Peter Braesicke
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 2843–2870, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2843-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2843-2022, 2022
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We compare remote sensing observations of H2O, O3, HNO3 and clouds in the upper troposphere–lowermost stratosphere during an Arctic winter long-range research flight with simulations by two different state-of-the-art model systems. We find good agreement for dynamical structures, trace gas distributions and clouds. We investigate model biases and sensitivities, with the goal of aiding model development and improving our understanding of processes in the upper troposphere–lowermost stratosphere.
Lei Hu, Stephen A. Montzka, Fred Moore, Eric Hintsa, Geoff Dutton, M. Carolina Siso, Kirk Thoning, Robert W. Portmann, Kathryn McKain, Colm Sweeney, Isaac Vimont, David Nance, Bradley Hall, and Steven Wofsy
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 2891–2907, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2891-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2891-2022, 2022
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The unexpected increase in CFC-11 emissions between 2012 and 2017 resulted in concerns about delaying the stratospheric ozone recovery. Although the subsequent decline of CFC-11 emissions indicated a mitigation in part to this problem, the regions fully responsible for these large emission changes were unclear. Here, our new estimate, based on atmospheric measurements from two global campaigns and from NOAA, suggests Asia primarily contributed to the global CFC-11 emission rise during 2012–2017.
Michael T. Kiefer, Warren E. Heilman, Shiyuan Zhong, Joseph J. Charney, Xindi Bian, Nicholas S. Skowronski, Kenneth L. Clark, Michael R. Gallagher, John L. Hom, and Matthew Patterson
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 1713–1734, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-1713-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-1713-2022, 2022
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We examine methods used to represent wildland fire sensible heat release in atmospheric models. A set of simulations are evaluated using observations from a low-intensity prescribed fire in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. The comparison is motivated by the need for guidance regarding the representation of low-intensity fire sensible heating in atmospheric models. Such fires are prevalent during prescribed fire operations and can impact the health and safety of fire personnel and the public.
Matthias Schneider, Benjamin Ertl, Christopher J. Diekmann, Farahnaz Khosrawi, Andreas Weber, Frank Hase, Michael Höpfner, Omaira E. García, Eliezer Sepúlveda, and Douglas Kinnison
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 709–742, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-709-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-709-2022, 2022
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We present atmospheric H2O, HDO / H2O ratio, N2O, CH4, and HNO3 data generated by the MUSICA IASI processor using thermal nadir spectra measured by the IASI satellite instrument. The data have global daily coverage and are available for the period between October 2014 and June 2021. Multiple possibilities of data reuse are offered by providing each individual data product together with information about retrieval settings and the products' uncertainty and vertical representativeness.
Heba S. Marey, James R. Drummond, Dylan B. A. Jones, Helen Worden, Merritt N. Deeter, John Gille, and Debbie Mao
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 701–719, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-701-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-701-2022, 2022
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In this study, an analysis has been performed to understand the improvements in observational coverage over Canada in the new MOPITT V9 product. Temporal and spatial analysis of V9 indicates a general coverage gain of 15–20 % relative to V8, which varies regionally and seasonally; e.g., the number of successful MOPITT retrievals in V9 was doubled over Canada in winter. Also, comparison with the corresponding IASI instrument indicated generally good agreement, with about a 5–10 % positive bias.
Sheena Loeffel, Roland Eichinger, Hella Garny, Thomas Reddmann, Frauke Fritsch, Stefan Versick, Gabriele Stiller, and Florian Haenel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 1175–1193, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-1175-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-1175-2022, 2022
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SF6-derived trends of stratospheric AoA from observations and model simulations disagree in sign. SF6 experiences chemical degradation, which we explicitly integrate in a global climate model. In our simulations, the AoA trend changes sign when SF6 sinks are considered; thus, the process has the potential to reconcile simulated with observed AoA trends. We show that the positive AoA trend is due to the SF6 sinks themselves and provide a first approach for a correction to account for SF6 loss.
Bianca Maria Dinelli, Piera Raspollini, Marco Gai, Luca Sgheri, Marco Ridolfi, Simone Ceccherini, Flavio Barbara, Nicola Zoppetti, Elisa Castelli, Enzo Papandrea, Paolo Pettinari, Angelika Dehn, Anu Dudhia, Michael Kiefer, Alessandro Piro, Jean-Marie Flaud, Manuel López-Puertas, David Moore, John Remedios, and Massimo Bianchini
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 7975–7998, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7975-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7975-2021, 2021
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The level-2 v8 database from the measurements of the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS), aboard the European Space Agency Envisat satellite, containing atmospheric fields of pressure, temperature, and volume mixing ratio of 21 trace gases, is described in this paper. The database covers all the measurements acquired by MIPAS (from July 2002 to April 2012). The number of species included makes it of particular importance for the studies of stratospheric chemistry.
Paolo Pettinari, Flavio Barbara, Simone Ceccherini, Bianca Maria Dinelli, Marco Gai, Piera Raspollini, Luca Sgheri, Massimo Valeri, Gerald Wetzel, Nicola Zoppetti, and Marco Ridolfi
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 7959–7974, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7959-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7959-2021, 2021
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Phosgene (COCl2) is a toxic gas whose presence is a consequence of human activity. Besides its direct injection in the troposphere, stratospheric COCl2 is produced from the decomposition of CCl4, an anthropogenic gas regulated by the Montreal Protocol. As a consequence, COCl2 negative trends characterize the lower and part of the middle stratosphere. However, we find positive trends in the upper troposphere, demonstrating the non-negligible role of other Cl-containing species not yet regulated.
Michael Höpfner, Oliver Kirner, Gerald Wetzel, Björn-Martin Sinnhuber, Florian Haenel, Sören Johansson, Johannes Orphal, Roland Ruhnke, Gabriele Stiller, and Thomas von Clarmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 18433–18464, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-18433-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-18433-2021, 2021
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BrONO2 is an important reservoir gas for inorganic stratospheric bromine linked to the chemical cycles of stratospheric ozone depletion. Presently infrared limb sounding is the only way to measure BrONO2 in the atmosphere. We provide global distributions of BrONO2 derived from MIPAS observations 2002–2012. Comparisons with EMAC atmospheric modelling show an overall agreement and enable us to derive an independent estimate of stratospheric bromine of 21.2±1.4pptv based on the BrONO2 measurements.
Tyler Wizenberg, Kimberly Strong, Kaley Walker, Erik Lutsch, Tobias Borsdorff, and Jochen Landgraf
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 7707–7728, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7707-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7707-2021, 2021
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CO is an important atmospheric gas that influences both air quality and the climate. Here, we compare CO measurements from TROPOMI with those from ACE-FTS and an Arctic ground-based FTS at Eureka, Nunavut, to further characterize the accuracy of TROPOMI measurements. CO columns from the instruments agree well but show larger differences at high latitudes. Despite this, the results fall within the TROPOMI accuracy target, indicating good data quality at high latitudes.
Markus Jesswein, Heiko Bozem, Hans-Christoph Lachnitt, Peter Hoor, Thomas Wagenhäuser, Timo Keber, Tanja Schuck, and Andreas Engel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 17225–17241, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-17225-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-17225-2021, 2021
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This study presents and compares inorganic chlorine (Cly) derived from observations with the HALO research aircraft in the Antarctic late winter–early fall 2019 and the Arctic winter 2015–2016. Trend-corrected correlations from the Northern Hemisphere show excellent agreement with those from the Southern Hemisphere. After observation allocation inside and outside the vortex based on N2O measurements, results of the two campaigns reveal substantial differences in Cly within the respective vortex.
Paul D. Hamer, Virginie Marécal, Ryan Hossaini, Michel Pirre, Gisèle Krysztofiak, Franziska Ziska, Andreas Engel, Stephan Sala, Timo Keber, Harald Bönisch, Elliot Atlas, Kirstin Krüger, Martyn Chipperfield, Valery Catoire, Azizan A. Samah, Marcel Dorf, Phang Siew Moi, Hans Schlager, and Klaus Pfeilsticker
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 16955–16984, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16955-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16955-2021, 2021
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Bromoform is a stratospheric ozone-depleting gas released by seaweed and plankton transported to the stratosphere via convection in the tropics. We study the chemical interactions of bromoform and its derivatives within convective clouds using a cloud-scale model and observations. Our findings are that soluble bromine gases are efficiently washed out and removed within the convective clouds and that most bromine is transported vertically to the upper troposphere in the form of bromoform.
Eric J. Hintsa, Fred L. Moore, Dale F. Hurst, Geoff S. Dutton, Bradley D. Hall, J. David Nance, Ben R. Miller, Stephen A. Montzka, Laura P. Wolton, Audra McClure-Begley, James W. Elkins, Emrys G. Hall, Allen F. Jordan, Andrew W. Rollins, Troy D. Thornberry, Laurel A. Watts, Chelsea R. Thompson, Jeff Peischl, Ilann Bourgeois, Thomas B. Ryerson, Bruce C. Daube, Yenny Gonzalez Ramos, Roisin Commane, Gregory W. Santoni, Jasna V. Pittman, Steven C. Wofsy, Eric Kort, Glenn S. Diskin, and T. Paul Bui
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 6795–6819, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-6795-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-6795-2021, 2021
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We built UCATS to study atmospheric chemistry and transport. It has measured trace gases including CFCs, N2O, SF6, CH4, CO, and H2 with gas chromatography, as well as ozone and water vapor. UCATS has been part of missions to study the tropical tropopause; transport of air into the stratosphere; greenhouse gases, transport, and chemistry in the troposphere; and ozone chemistry, on both piloted and unmanned aircraft. Its design, capabilities, and some results are shown and described here.
Meike K. Rotermund, Vera Bense, Martyn P. Chipperfield, Andreas Engel, Jens-Uwe Grooß, Peter Hoor, Tilman Hüneke, Timo Keber, Flora Kluge, Benjamin Schreiner, Tanja Schuck, Bärbel Vogel, Andreas Zahn, and Klaus Pfeilsticker
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 15375–15407, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15375-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15375-2021, 2021
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Airborne total bromine (Brtot) and tracer measurements suggest Brtot-rich air masses persistently protruded into the lower stratosphere (LS), creating a high Brtot region over the North Atlantic in fall 2017. The main source is via isentropic transport by the Asian monsoon and to a lesser extent transport across the extratropical tropopause as quantified by a Lagrange model. The transport of Brtot via Central American hurricanes is also observed. Lastly, the impact of Brtot on LS O3 is assessed.
Nathaniel J. Livesey, William G. Read, Lucien Froidevaux, Alyn Lambert, Michelle L. Santee, Michael J. Schwartz, Luis F. Millán, Robert F. Jarnot, Paul A. Wagner, Dale F. Hurst, Kaley A. Walker, Patrick E. Sheese, and Gerald E. Nedoluha
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 15409–15430, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15409-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15409-2021, 2021
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The Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS), an instrument on NASA's Aura mission launched in 2004, measures vertical profiles of the temperature and composition of Earth's "middle atmosphere" (the region from ~12 to ~100 km altitude). We describe how, among the 16 trace gases measured by MLS, the measurements of water vapor (H2O) and nitrous oxide (N2O) have started to drift since ~2010. The paper also discusses the origins of this drift and work to ameliorate it in a new version of the MLS dataset.
Hélène Angot, Connor Davel, Christine Wiedinmyer, Gabrielle Pétron, Jashan Chopra, Jacques Hueber, Brendan Blanchard, Ilann Bourgeois, Isaac Vimont, Stephen A. Montzka, Ben R. Miller, James W. Elkins, and Detlev Helmig
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 15153–15170, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15153-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15153-2021, 2021
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After a multidecadal global decline in atmospheric abundance of ethane and propane (precursors of tropospheric ozone and aerosols), previous work showed a reversal of this trend in 2009–2015 in the Northern Hemisphere due to the growth in oil and natural gas production in North America. Here we show a temporary pause in the growth of atmospheric ethane and propane in 2015–2018 and highlight the critical need for additional top-down studies to further constrain ethane and propane emissions.
Hao Guo, Clare M. Flynn, Michael J. Prather, Sarah A. Strode, Stephen D. Steenrod, Louisa Emmons, Forrest Lacey, Jean-Francois Lamarque, Arlene M. Fiore, Gus Correa, Lee T. Murray, Glenn M. Wolfe, Jason M. St. Clair, Michelle Kim, John Crounse, Glenn Diskin, Joshua DiGangi, Bruce C. Daube, Roisin Commane, Kathryn McKain, Jeff Peischl, Thomas B. Ryerson, Chelsea Thompson, Thomas F. Hanisco, Donald Blake, Nicola J. Blake, Eric C. Apel, Rebecca S. Hornbrook, James W. Elkins, Eric J. Hintsa, Fred L. Moore, and Steven Wofsy
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 13729–13746, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13729-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13729-2021, 2021
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The NASA Atmospheric Tomography (ATom) mission built a climatology of the chemical composition of tropospheric air parcels throughout the middle of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The level of detail allows us to reconstruct the photochemical budgets of O3 and CH4 over these vast, remote regions. We find that most of the chemical heterogeneity is captured at the resolution used in current global chemistry models and that the majority of reactivity occurs in the
hottest20 % of parcels.
Francesco Grieco, Kristell Pérot, Donal Murtagh, Patrick Eriksson, Bengt Rydberg, Michael Kiefer, Maya Garcia-Comas, Alyn Lambert, and Kaley A. Walker
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 5823–5857, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-5823-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-5823-2021, 2021
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We present improved Odin/SMR mesospheric H2O concentration and temperature data sets, reprocessed assuming a bigger sideband leakage of the instrument. The validation study shows how the improved SMR data sets agree better with other instruments' observations than the old SMR version did. Given their unique time extension and geographical coverage, and H2O being a good tracer of mesospheric circulation, the new data sets are valuable for the study of dynamical processes and multi-year trends.
Alistair J. Manning, Alison L. Redington, Daniel Say, Simon O'Doherty, Dickon Young, Peter G. Simmonds, Martin K. Vollmer, Jens Mühle, Jgor Arduini, Gerard Spain, Adam Wisher, Michela Maione, Tanja J. Schuck, Kieran Stanley, Stefan Reimann, Andreas Engel, Paul B. Krummel, Paul J. Fraser, Christina M. Harth, Peter K. Salameh, Ray F. Weiss, Ray Gluckman, Peter N. Brown, John D. Watterson, and Tim Arnold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 12739–12755, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12739-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12739-2021, 2021
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This paper estimates UK emissions of important greenhouse gases (hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)) using high-quality atmospheric observations and atmospheric modelling. We compare these estimates with those submitted by the UK to the United Nations. We conclude that global concentrations of these gases are still increasing. Our estimates for the UK are 73 % of those reported and that the UK emissions are now falling, demonstrating an impact of UK government policy.
Rebecca D. Kutzner, Juan Cuesta, Pascale Chelin, Jean-Eudes Petit, Mokhtar Ray, Xavier Landsheere, Benoît Tournadre, Jean-Charles Dupont, Amandine Rosso, Frank Hase, Johannes Orphal, and Matthias Beekmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 12091–12111, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12091-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12091-2021, 2021
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Our work investigates the diurnal evolution of atmospheric ammonia concentrations during a major pollution event. It analyses it in regard of both chemical (gas–particle conversion) and physical (vertical mixing, meteorology) processes in the atmosphere. These mechanisms are key for understanding the evolution of the physicochemical state of the atmosphere; therefore, it clearly fits into the scope of Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.
Yenny Gonzalez, Róisín Commane, Ethan Manninen, Bruce C. Daube, Luke D. Schiferl, J. Barry McManus, Kathryn McKain, Eric J. Hintsa, James W. Elkins, Stephen A. Montzka, Colm Sweeney, Fred Moore, Jose L. Jimenez, Pedro Campuzano Jost, Thomas B. Ryerson, Ilann Bourgeois, Jeff Peischl, Chelsea R. Thompson, Eric Ray, Paul O. Wennberg, John Crounse, Michelle Kim, Hannah M. Allen, Paul A. Newman, Britton B. Stephens, Eric C. Apel, Rebecca S. Hornbrook, Benjamin A. Nault, Eric Morgan, and Steven C. Wofsy
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 11113–11132, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-11113-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-11113-2021, 2021
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Vertical profiles of N2O and a variety of chemical species and aerosols were collected nearly from pole to pole over the oceans during the NASA Atmospheric Tomography mission. We observed that tropospheric N2O variability is strongly driven by the influence of stratospheric air depleted in N2O, especially at middle and high latitudes. We also traced the origins of biomass burning and industrial emissions and investigated their impact on the variability of tropospheric N2O.
Ilya Stanevich, Dylan B. A. Jones, Kimberly Strong, Martin Keller, Daven K. Henze, Robert J. Parker, Hartmut Boesch, Debra Wunch, Justus Notholt, Christof Petri, Thorsten Warneke, Ralf Sussmann, Matthias Schneider, Frank Hase, Rigel Kivi, Nicholas M. Deutscher, Voltaire A. Velazco, Kaley A. Walker, and Feng Deng
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 9545–9572, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-9545-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-9545-2021, 2021
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We explore the utility of a weak-constraint (WC) four-dimensional variational (4D-Var) data assimilation scheme for mitigating systematic errors in methane simulation in the GEOS-Chem model. We use data from the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT) and show that, compared to the traditional 4D-Var approach, the WC scheme improves the agreement between the model and independent observations. We find that the WC corrections to the model provide insight into the source of the errors.
Fides Lefrancois, Markus Jesswein, Markus Thoma, Andreas Engel, Kieran Stanley, and Tanja Schuck
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 4669–4687, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-4669-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-4669-2021, 2021
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Synthetic halocarbons can contribute to stratospheric ozone depletion or to climate change. In many applications they have been replaced over the last years. The presented non-target analysis shows an application approach to quantify those replacements retrospectively, using recorded data of air measurements with gas chromatography coupled to time-of-flight mass spectrometry. We focus on the retrospective analysis of the fourth-generation halocarbons, detected at Taunus Observatory in Germany.
Thomas von Clarmann, Udo Grabowski, Gabriele P. Stiller, Beatriz M. Monge-Sanz, Norbert Glatthor, and Sylvia Kellmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 8823–8843, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-8823-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-8823-2021, 2021
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Measurements of long-lived trace gases (SF6, CFC-11, CFC-12, HCFC-12, CCl4, N2O, CH4, H2O, and CO) performed with the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) have been used to infer the stratospheric and mesospheric meridional circulation. The MIPAS data set covers the time period from July 2002 to April 2012. The method used for this purpose was the direct inversion of the two-dimensional continuity equation. Multiannual monthly mean circulation fields are presented.
Michael Kiefer, Thomas von Clarmann, Bernd Funke, Maya García-Comas, Norbert Glatthor, Udo Grabowski, Sylvia Kellmann, Anne Kleinert, Alexandra Laeng, Andrea Linden, Manuel López-Puertas, Daniel R. Marsh, and Gabriele P. Stiller
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 4111–4138, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-4111-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-4111-2021, 2021
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An improved dataset of vertical temperature profiles of the Earth's atmosphere in the altitude range 5–70 km is presented. These profiles are derived from measurements of the MIPAS instrument onboard ESA's Envisat satellite. The overall improvements are based on upgrades in the input data and several improvements in the data processing approach. Both of these are discussed, and an extensive error discussion is included. Enhancements of the new dataset are demonstrated by means of examples.
Felix Ploeger, Mohamadou Diallo, Edward Charlesworth, Paul Konopka, Bernard Legras, Johannes C. Laube, Jens-Uwe Grooß, Gebhard Günther, Andreas Engel, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 8393–8412, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-8393-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-8393-2021, 2021
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We investigate the global stratospheric circulation (Brewer–Dobson circulation) in the new ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis based on age of air simulations, and we compare it to results from the preceding ERA-Interim reanalysis. Our results show a slower stratospheric circulation and higher age for ERA5. The age of air trend in ERA5 over the 1989–2018 period is negative throughout the stratosphere, related to multi-annual variability and a potential contribution from changes in the reanalysis system.
Astrid Müller, Hiroshi Tanimoto, Takafumi Sugita, Toshinobu Machida, Shin-ichiro Nakaoka, Prabir K. Patra, Joshua Laughner, and David Crisp
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 8255–8271, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-8255-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-8255-2021, 2021
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Over oceans, high uncertainties in satellite CO2 retrievals exist due to limited reference data. We combine commercial ship and aircraft observations and, with the aid of model calculations, obtain column-averaged mixing ratios of CO2 (XCO2) data over the Pacific Ocean. This new dataset has great potential as a robust reference for XCO2 measured from space and can help to better understand changes in the carbon cycle in response to climate change using satellite observations.
Thomas Wagenhäuser, Andreas Engel, and Robert Sitals
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 3923–3934, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-3923-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-3923-2021, 2021
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AirCore samplers are increasingly deployed to weather balloons to collect continuous atmospheric samples. We introduce a technique that can be used in situ to evaluate different data processing methods that are required to derive vertical trace gas profiles from AirCore measurements after sample recovery. Results from two test flights with a specific AirCore configuration provide evidence for systematic deviations in altitude attribution for the upper levels, which can be empirically corrected.
Gerald Wetzel, Felix Friedl-Vallon, Norbert Glatthor, Jens-Uwe Grooß, Thomas Gulde, Michael Höpfner, Sören Johansson, Farahnaz Khosrawi, Oliver Kirner, Anne Kleinert, Erik Kretschmer, Guido Maucher, Hans Nordmeyer, Hermann Oelhaf, Johannes Orphal, Christof Piesch, Björn-Martin Sinnhuber, Jörn Ungermann, and Bärbel Vogel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 8213–8232, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-8213-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-8213-2021, 2021
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Measurements of the pollutants C2H6, C2H2, HCOOH, and PAN were performed in the North Atlantic UTLS region with the airborne limb imager GLORIA in 2017. Enhanced amounts of these species were detected in the upper troposphere and even in the lowermost stratosphere (PAN). Main sources of these gases are forest fires in North America and anthropogenic pollution in South Asia. Simulations of EMAC and CAMS are qualitatively able to reproduce the measured data but underestimate the absolute amounts.
Michaela I. Hegglin, Susann Tegtmeier, John Anderson, Adam E. Bourassa, Samuel Brohede, Doug Degenstein, Lucien Froidevaux, Bernd Funke, John Gille, Yasuko Kasai, Erkki T. Kyrölä, Jerry Lumpe, Donal Murtagh, Jessica L. Neu, Kristell Pérot, Ellis E. Remsberg, Alexei Rozanov, Matthew Toohey, Joachim Urban, Thomas von Clarmann, Kaley A. Walker, Hsiang-Jui Wang, Carlo Arosio, Robert Damadeo, Ryan A. Fuller, Gretchen Lingenfelser, Christopher McLinden, Diane Pendlebury, Chris Roth, Niall J. Ryan, Christopher Sioris, Lesley Smith, and Katja Weigel
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 1855–1903, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-1855-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-1855-2021, 2021
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An overview of the SPARC Data Initiative is presented, to date the most comprehensive assessment of stratospheric composition measurements spanning 1979–2018. Measurements of 26 chemical constituents obtained from an international suite of space-based limb sounders were compiled into vertically resolved, zonal monthly mean time series. The quality and consistency of these gridded datasets are then evaluated using a climatological validation approach and a range of diagnostics.
Viktoria F. Sofieva, Monika Szeląg, Johanna Tamminen, Erkki Kyrölä, Doug Degenstein, Chris Roth, Daniel Zawada, Alexei Rozanov, Carlo Arosio, John P. Burrows, Mark Weber, Alexandra Laeng, Gabriele P. Stiller, Thomas von Clarmann, Lucien Froidevaux, Nathaniel Livesey, Michel van Roozendael, and Christian Retscher
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 6707–6720, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6707-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6707-2021, 2021
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The MErged GRIdded Dataset of Ozone Profiles is a long-term (2001–2018) stratospheric ozone profile climate data record with resolved longitudinal structure that combines the data from six limb satellite instruments. The dataset can be used for various analyses, some of which are discussed in the paper. In particular, regionally and vertically resolved ozone trends are evaluated, including trends in the polar regions.
Irene Bartolome Garcia, Reinhold Spang, Jörn Ungermann, Sabine Griessbach, Martina Krämer, Michael Höpfner, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 3153–3168, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-3153-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-3153-2021, 2021
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Cirrus clouds contribute to the general radiation budget of the Earth. Measuring optically thin clouds is challenging but the IR limb sounder GLORIA possesses the necessary technical characteristics to make it possible. This study analyses data from the WISE campaign obtained with GLORIA. We developed a cloud detection method and derived characteristics of the observed cirrus-like cloud top, cloud bottom or position with respect to the tropopause.
Robert Wagner, Baptiste Testa, Michael Höpfner, Alexei Kiselev, Ottmar Möhler, Harald Saathoff, Jörn Ungermann, and Thomas Leisner
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 1977–1991, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1977-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1977-2021, 2021
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During the Asian summer monsoon period, air pollutants are transported from layers near the ground to high altitudes of 13 to 18 km in the atmosphere. Infrared measurements have shown that particles composed of solid ammonium nitrate are a major part of these pollutants. To enable the quantitative analysis of the infrared spectra, we have determined for the first time accurate optical constants of ammonium nitrate for the low-temperature conditions of the upper atmosphere.
Jin Ma, Linda M. J. Kooijmans, Ara Cho, Stephen A. Montzka, Norbert Glatthor, John R. Worden, Le Kuai, Elliot L. Atlas, and Maarten C. Krol
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 3507–3529, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-3507-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-3507-2021, 2021
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Carbonyl sulfide is an important trace gas in the atmosphere and useful to estimating gross primary productivity in ecosystems, but its sources and sinks remain highly uncertain. Therefore, we applied inverse model system TM5-4DVAR to better constrain the global budget. Our finding is in line with earlier studies, pointing to missing sources in the tropics and more uptake in high latitudes. We also stress the necessity of more ground-based observations and satellite data assimilation in future.
Patrick E. Sheese, Kaley A. Walker, Chris D. Boone, Doug A. Degenstein, Felicia Kolonjari, David Plummer, Douglas E. Kinnison, Patrick Jöckel, and Thomas von Clarmann
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 1425–1438, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1425-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1425-2021, 2021
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Output from climate chemistry models (CMAM, EMAC, and WACCM) is used to estimate the expected geophysical variability of ozone concentrations between coincident satellite instrument measurement times and geolocations. We use the Canadian ACE-FTS and OSIRIS instruments as a case study. Ensemble mean estimates are used to optimize coincidence criteria between the two instruments, allowing for the use of more coincident profiles while providing an estimate of the geophysical variation.
Emily M. Gordon, Annika Seppälä, Bernd Funke, Johanna Tamminen, and Kaley A. Walker
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 2819–2836, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-2819-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-2819-2021, 2021
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Energetic particle precipitation (EPP) is the rain of solar energetic particles into the Earth's atmosphere. EPP is known to deplete O3 in the polar mesosphere–upper stratosphere via the formation of NOx. NOx also causes chlorine deactivation in the lower stratosphere and has, thus, been proposed to potentially result in reduced ozone depletion in the spring. We provide the first evidence to show that NOx formed by EPP is able to remove active chlorine, resulting in enhanced total ozone column.
Thomas von Clarmann and Udo Grabowski
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 2509–2526, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-2509-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-2509-2021, 2021
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The direct inversion of the 2D continuity equation allows us to infer the effective meridional transport velocity of trace gases in the middle stratosphere. This method exploits the information both given by the displacement of patterns in measured trace gas distributions and by the approximate balance between sinks and horizontal as well as vertical advection. The robustness of this method has been tested and characterized using model recovery tests and sensitivity studies.
Jörn Ungermann, Irene Bartolome, Sabine Griessbach, Reinhold Spang, Christian Rolf, Martina Krämer, Michael Höpfner, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 7025–7045, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-7025-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-7025-2020, 2020
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This study examines the potential of new IR limb imager instruments and tomographic methods for cloud detection purposes. Simple color-ratio-based methods are examined and compared against more involved nonlinear convex optimization. In a second part, 3-D measurements of the airborne limb sounder GLORIA taken during the Wave-driven ISentropic Exchange campaign are used to exemplarily derive the location and extent of small-scale cirrus clouds with high spatial accuracy.
Seidai Nara, Tomohiro O. Sato, Takayoshi Yamada, Tamaki Fujinawa, Kota Kuribayashi, Takeshi Manabe, Lucien Froidevaux, Nathaniel J. Livesey, Kaley A. Walker, Jian Xu, Franz Schreier, Yvan J. Orsolini, Varavut Limpasuvan, Nario Kuno, and Yasuko Kasai
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 6837–6852, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-6837-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-6837-2020, 2020
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In the atmosphere, more than 80 % of chlorine compounds are anthropogenic. Hydrogen chloride (HCl), the main stratospheric chlorine reservoir, is useful to estimate the total budget of the atmospheric chlorine compounds. We report, for the first time, the HCl vertical distribution from the middle troposphere to the lower thermosphere using a high-sensitivity SMILES measurement; the data quality is quantified by comparisons with other measurements and via theoretical error analysis.
Wolfgang Woiwode, Andreas Dörnbrack, Inna Polichtchouk, Sören Johansson, Ben Harvey, Michael Höpfner, Jörn Ungermann, and Felix Friedl-Vallon
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 15379–15387, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15379-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15379-2020, 2020
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The lowermost-stratosphere moist bias in ECMWF analyses and 12 h forecasts is diagnosed for the Arctic winter-spring 2016 period by using two-dimensional GLORIA water vapor observations. The bias is already present in the initial conditions (i.e., the analyses), and sensitivity forecasts on time scales of < 12 h show hardly any sensitivity to modified spatial resolution and output frequency.
Sören Johansson, Michael Höpfner, Oliver Kirner, Ingo Wohltmann, Silvia Bucci, Bernard Legras, Felix Friedl-Vallon, Norbert Glatthor, Erik Kretschmer, Jörn Ungermann, and Gerald Wetzel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 14695–14715, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-14695-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-14695-2020, 2020
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We present high-resolution measurements of pollutant trace gases (PAN, C2H2, and HCOOH) in the Asian monsoon UTLS from the airborne limb imager GLORIA during StratoClim 2017. Enhancements are observed up to 16 km altitude, and PAN and C2H2 even up to 18 km. Two atmospheric models, CAMS and EMAC, reproduce the pollutant's large-scale structures but not finer structures. Convection is investigated using backward trajectories of the models ATLAS and TRACZILLA with advanced detection of convection.
Isabell Krisch, Manfred Ern, Lars Hoffmann, Peter Preusse, Cornelia Strube, Jörn Ungermann, Wolfgang Woiwode, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 11469–11490, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-11469-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-11469-2020, 2020
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In 2016, a scientific research flight above Scandinavia acquired various atmospheric data (temperature, gas composition, etc.). Through advanced 3-D reconstruction methods, a superposition of multiple gravity waves was identified. An in-depth analysis enabled the characterisation of these waves as well as the identification of their sources. This work will enable a better understanding of atmosphere dynamics and could lead to improved climate projections.
Leonie Bernet, Elmar Brockmann, Thomas von Clarmann, Niklaus Kämpfer, Emmanuel Mahieu, Christian Mätzler, Gunter Stober, and Klemens Hocke
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 11223–11244, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-11223-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-11223-2020, 2020
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With global warming, water vapour increases in the atmosphere. Water vapour is an important gas because it is a natural greenhouse gas and affects the formation of clouds, rain and snow. How much water vapour increases can vary in different regions of the world. To verify if it increases as expected on a regional scale, we analysed water vapour measurements in Switzerland. We found that water vapour generally increases as expected from temperature changes, except in winter.
Francesco Grieco, Kristell Pérot, Donal Murtagh, Patrick Eriksson, Peter Forkman, Bengt Rydberg, Bernd Funke, Kaley A. Walker, and Hugh C. Pumphrey
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 5013–5031, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-5013-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-5013-2020, 2020
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We present a unique – by time extension and geographical coverage – dataset of satellite observations of carbon monoxide (CO) in the mesosphere which will allow us to study dynamical processes, since CO is a very good tracer of circulation in the mesosphere. Previously, the dataset was unusable due to instrumental artefacts that affected the measurements. We identify the cause of the artefacts, eliminate them and prove the quality of the results by comparing with other instrument measurements.
Ilann Bourgeois, Jeff Peischl, Chelsea R. Thompson, Kenneth C. Aikin, Teresa Campos, Hannah Clark, Róisín Commane, Bruce Daube, Glenn W. Diskin, James W. Elkins, Ru-Shan Gao, Audrey Gaudel, Eric J. Hintsa, Bryan J. Johnson, Rigel Kivi, Kathryn McKain, Fred L. Moore, David D. Parrish, Richard Querel, Eric Ray, Ricardo Sánchez, Colm Sweeney, David W. Tarasick, Anne M. Thompson, Valérie Thouret, Jacquelyn C. Witte, Steve C. Wofsy, and Thomas B. Ryerson
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 10611–10635, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-10611-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-10611-2020, 2020
W. Richard Leaitch, John K. Kodros, Megan D. Willis, Sarah Hanna, Hannes Schulz, Elisabeth Andrews, Heiko Bozem, Julia Burkart, Peter Hoor, Felicia Kolonjari, John A. Ogren, Sangeeta Sharma, Meng Si, Knut von Salzen, Allan K. Bertram, Andreas Herber, Jonathan P. D. Abbatt, and Jeffrey R. Pierce
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 10545–10563, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-10545-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-10545-2020, 2020
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Black carbon is a factor in the warming of the Arctic atmosphere due to its ability to absorb light, but the uncertainty is high and few observations have been made in the high Arctic above 80° N. We combine airborne and ground-based observations in the springtime Arctic, at and above 80° N, with simulations from a global model to show that light absorption by black carbon may be much larger than modelled. However, the uncertainty remains high.
Ilya Stanevich, Dylan B. A. Jones, Kimberly Strong, Robert J. Parker, Hartmut Boesch, Debra Wunch, Justus Notholt, Christof Petri, Thorsten Warneke, Ralf Sussmann, Matthias Schneider, Frank Hase, Rigel Kivi, Nicholas M. Deutscher, Voltaire A. Velazco, Kaley A. Walker, and Feng Deng
Geosci. Model Dev., 13, 3839–3862, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-3839-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-3839-2020, 2020
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Systematic errors in atmospheric models pose a challenge for inverse modeling studies of methane (CH4) emissions. We evaluated the CH4 simulation in the GEOS-Chem model at the horizontal resolutions of 4° × 5° and 2° × 2.5°. Our analysis identified resolution-dependent biases in the model, which we attributed to discrepancies between the two model resolutions in vertical transport in the troposphere and in stratosphere–troposphere exchange.
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.
Temesgen Yirdaw Berhe, Gizaw Mengistu Tsidu, Thomas Blumenstock, Frank Hase, and Gabriele P. Stiller
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 4079–4096, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-4079-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-4079-2020, 2020
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The retrieved CH4 and N2O VMR and column amounts from Addis Ababa, tropical site, are found to exhibit very good agreement with all coincident satellite observations (MIPAS, MLS, and AIRS). Furthermore, the bias obtained from the comparison is comparable to the precision of FTIR measurement, which allows the use of data in further scientific studies as it represents a unique environment of tropical Africa, a region poorly investigated in the past.
Marius Hauck, Harald Bönisch, Peter Hoor, Timo Keber, Felix Ploeger, Tanja J. Schuck, and Andreas Engel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 8763–8785, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-8763-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-8763-2020, 2020
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This study features an extended inversion method that includes transport across the extratropical tropopause to derive age spectra in the lowermost stratosphere from in situ trace gas measurements. The refined method is validated in a model setup and applied to data gained with the HALO research aircraft. Results are congruent with the findings of previous studies so that the method provides a promising toolset for the analysis of stratospheric dynamics based on observations in the future.
Frauke Fritsch, Hella Garny, Andreas Engel, Harald Bönisch, and Roland Eichinger
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 8709–8725, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-8709-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-8709-2020, 2020
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We test two methods to derive age of air as a diagnostic of the Brewer–Dobson circulation from non-linear increasing trace gases such as SF6 using a chemistry-climate model and observations. Both the model and the observations show systematic variation of the age of air trend dependent on the chosen assumptions that are required when deriving age of air from measurements. This provides insight into the differences in age of air trends of observations and models.
Rocco Sedona, Lars Hoffmann, Reinhold Spang, Gabriele Cavallaro, Sabine Griessbach, Michael Höpfner, Matthias Book, and Morris Riedel
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 3661–3682, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-3661-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-3661-2020, 2020
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Polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) play a key role in polar ozone depletion in the stratosphere. In this paper, we explore the potential of applying machine learning (ML) methods to classify PSC observations of infrared spectra to classify PSC types. ML methods have proved to reach results in line with those obtained using well-established approaches. Among the considered ML methods, random forest (RF) seems to be the most promising one, being able to produce explainable classification results.
Rostislav Kouznetsov, Mikhail Sofiev, Julius Vira, and Gabriele Stiller
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 5837–5859, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-5837-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-5837-2020, 2020
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Estimates of the age of stratospheric air (AoA), its distribution, and trends, obtained by different experimental methods, differ among each other. AoA derived form MIPAS satellite observations, the richest observational dataset on sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) in the stratosphere, are a clear outlier. With multi-decade simulations of AoA and SF6 in the stratosphere, we show that the origin of the discrepancy is in a methodology of deriving AoA from observations rather than in observational data.
Timo Keber, Harald Bönisch, Carl Hartick, Marius Hauck, Fides Lefrancois, Florian Obersteiner, Akima Ringsdorf, Nils Schohl, Tanja Schuck, Ryan Hossaini, Phoebe Graf, Patrick Jöckel, and Andreas Engel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 4105–4132, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-4105-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-4105-2020, 2020
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In this paper we summarize observations of short-lived halocarbons in the tropopause region. We show that, especially during winter, the levels of short-lived bromine gases at the extratropical tropopause are higher than at the tropical tropopause. We discuss the impact of the distributions on stratospheric bromine levels and compare our observations to two models with four different emission scenarios.
Alexander B. Thames, William H. Brune, David O. Miller, Hannah M. Allen, Eric C. Apel, Donald R. Blake, T. Paul Bui, Roisin Commane, John D. Crounse, Bruce C. Daube, Glenn S. Diskin, Joshua P. DiGangi, James W. Elkins, Samuel R. Hall, Thomas F. Hanisco, Reem A. Hannun, Eric Hintsa, Rebecca S. Hornbrook, Michelle J. Kim, Kathryn McKain, Fred L. Moore, Julie M. Nicely, Jeffrey Peischl, Thomas B. Ryerson, Jason M. St. Clair, Colm Sweeney, Alex Teng, Chelsea R. Thompson, Kirk Ullmann, Paul O. Wennberg, and Glenn M. Wolfe
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 4013–4029, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-4013-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-4013-2020, 2020
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Oceans and the atmosphere exchange volatile gases that react with the hydroxyl radical (OH). During a NASA airborne study, measurements of the total frequency of OH reactions, called the OH reactivity, were made in the marine boundary layer of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The measured OH reactivity often exceeded the OH reactivity calculated from measured chemical species. This missing OH reactivity appears to be from unmeasured volatile organic compounds coming out of the ocean.
Ellis Remsberg, V. Lynn Harvey, Arlin Krueger, Larry Gordley, John C. Gille, and James M. Russell III
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 3663–3668, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-3663-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-3663-2020, 2020
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The Nimbus 7 limb infrared monitor of the stratosphere (LIMS) instrument operated from October 25, 1978, through May 28, 1979. This note focuses on the lower stratosphere of the southern hemisphere, subpolar regions in relation to the position of the polar vortex. Both LIMS ozone and nitric acid show reductions within the edge of the polar vortex at 46 hPa near 60° S from late October through mid-November 1978, indicating that there was a chemical loss of Antarctic ozone some weeks earlier.
Zhipeng Qu, Yi Huang, Paul A. Vaillancourt, Jason N. S. Cole, Jason A. Milbrandt, Man-Kong Yau, Kaley Walker, and Jean de Grandpré
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 2143–2159, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-2143-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-2143-2020, 2020
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This study aims to better understand the mechanism of transport of water vapour through the mid-latitude tropopause. The results affirm the strong influence of overshooting convection on lower-stratospheric water vapour and highlight the importance of both dynamics and cloud microphysics in simulating water vapour distribution in the region of the upper troposphere–lower stratosphere.
Stefan Lossow, Charlotta Högberg, Farahnaz Khosrawi, Gabriele P. Stiller, Ralf Bauer, Kaley A. Walker, Sylvia Kellmann, Andrea Linden, Michael Kiefer, Norbert Glatthor, Thomas von Clarmann, Donal P. Murtagh, Jörg Steinwagner, Thomas Röckmann, and Roland Eichinger
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 287–308, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-287-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-287-2020, 2020
Tanja J. Schuck, Ann-Katrin Blank, Elisa Rittmeier, Jonathan Williams, Carl A. M. Brenninkmeijer, Andreas Engel, and Andreas Zahn
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 73–84, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-73-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-13-73-2020, 2020
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Air sample collection aboard aircraft is a tool to measure atmospheric trace gas mixing ratios at altitude. We present results on the stability of 28 halocarbons during storage of air samples collected in stainless-steel flasks inside an automated air sampling unit which is part of the CARIBIC instrument package. Selected fluorinated compounds grew during the experiments while short-lived compounds were depleted. Individual substances were additionally influenced by high mixing ratios of ozone.
Marleen Braun, Jens-Uwe Grooß, Wolfgang Woiwode, Sören Johansson, Michael Höpfner, Felix Friedl-Vallon, Hermann Oelhaf, Peter Preusse, Jörn Ungermann, Björn-Martin Sinnhuber, Helmut Ziereis, and Peter Braesicke
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 13681–13699, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-13681-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-13681-2019, 2019
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We analyse nitrification of the LMS in the Arctic winter 2015–2016 based on GLORIA measurements. Vertical cross sections of HNO3 for several flights show complex fine–scale structures and enhanced values down to 9 km. The extent of overall nitrification is quantified based on HNO3–O3 correlations and reaches between 5 ppbv and 7 ppbv at potential temperature levels between 350 and 380 K. Further, we compare our result with the atmospheric model CLaMS.
Quentin Errera, Simon Chabrillat, Yves Christophe, Jonas Debosscher, Daan Hubert, William Lahoz, Michelle L. Santee, Masato Shiotani, Sergey Skachko, Thomas von Clarmann, and Kaley Walker
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 13647–13679, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-13647-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-13647-2019, 2019
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BRAM2 is a 13-year reanalysis of the chemical composition from the upper troposphere to the lower mesosphere based on the assimilation of the Microwave Limb Sounder observations where eight species are assimilated: O3, H2O, N2O, HNO3, HCl, ClO, CH3Cl and CO. BRAM2 agrees generally well with independent observations in the middle stratosphere, the polar vortex and the upper troposphere–lower stratosphere but also shows several issues in the model and in the observations.
Maxime Prignon, Simon Chabrillat, Daniele Minganti, Simon O'Doherty, Christian Servais, Gabriele Stiller, Geoffrey C. Toon, Martin K. Vollmer, and Emmanuel Mahieu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 12309–12324, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-12309-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-12309-2019, 2019
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Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) are the first, but temporary, substitution products for the strong ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). In this work, we present and validate an improved method to retrieve the most abundant HCFC in the atmosphere, allowing its evolution to be monitored independently in the troposphere and stratosphere. These kinds of contributions are fundamental for scrutinizing the fulfilment of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.
Thomas von Clarmann and Norbert Glatthor
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 5155–5160, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-5155-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-5155-2019, 2019
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To avoid unnecessary data traffic it is sometimes desirable to apply mean averaging kernels to mean profiles of atmospheric state variables. Unfortunately, the application of individual averaging kernels to individual profiles and subsequent averaging will, in general, lead to different results than averaging of the original profiles prior to the application of the mean averaging kernels. This effect is investigated and a correction scheme is proposed.
Merritt N. Deeter, David P. Edwards, Gene L. Francis, John C. Gille, Debbie Mao, Sara Martínez-Alonso, Helen M. Worden, Dan Ziskin, and Meinrat O. Andreae
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 4561–4580, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-4561-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-4561-2019, 2019
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The MOPITT (Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere) satellite instrument has been making nearly continuous observations of atmospheric carbon monoxide (CO) since 2000. MOPITT CO retrievals are routinely used to analyze emissions from fossil fuels and biomass burning, as well as the atmospheric transport of those emissions. This paper describes recent enhancements to the MOPITT retrieval algorithm. New validation results illustrate clear improvements in the fidelity of the MOPITT product.
Andreas Marsing, Tina Jurkat-Witschas, Jens-Uwe Grooß, Stefan Kaufmann, Romy Heller, Andreas Engel, Peter Hoor, Jens Krause, and Christiane Voigt
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 10757–10772, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-10757-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-10757-2019, 2019
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We study the partitioning of inorganic chlorine into active (ozone-depleting) and reservoir species in the lowermost stratosphere of the Arctic polar vortex, using novel in situ aircraft measurements in winter 2015/2016. We observe a change in recovery pathways of the reservoirs HCl and ClONO2 with increasing potential temperature. A comparison with the CLaMS model relates the observations to the vortex-wide evolution and confirms unresolved discrepancies in the mid-winter HCl distribution.
Nils König, Peter Braesicke, and Thomas von Clarmann
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 4113–4129, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-4113-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-4113-2019, 2019
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Inference of the tropopause from temperature profiles of finite vertical resolution entails an uncertainty of the tropopause altitude. We assess this effect by degrading the resolution of the sonde data. The tropopause altitude inferred from coarse grid profiles was found to be lower than that inferred from the original profiles for tropical and midlatitudinal radiosonde profiles. The mean displacement of the lapse rate tropopause inferred from a 3 km resolution profile is −400 m for Hilo.
Pavle Arsenovic, Alessandro Damiani, Eugene Rozanov, Bernd Funke, Andrea Stenke, and Thomas Peter
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 9485–9494, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-9485-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-9485-2019, 2019
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Low-energy electrons (LEE) are the dominant source of odd nitrogen, which destroys ozone, in the mesosphere and stratosphere in polar winter in the geomagnetically active periods. However, the observed stratospheric ozone anomalies can be reproduced only when accounting for both low- and middle-range energy electrons (MEE) in the chemistry-climate model. Ozone changes may induce further dynamical and thermal changes in the atmosphere. We recommend including both LEE and MEE in climate models.
Dan Weaver, Kimberly Strong, Kaley A. Walker, Chris Sioris, Matthias Schneider, C. Thomas McElroy, Holger Vömel, Michael Sommer, Katja Weigel, Alexei Rozanov, John P. Burrows, William G. Read, Evan Fishbein, and Gabriele Stiller
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 4039–4063, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-4039-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-4039-2019, 2019
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This work assesses water vapour profiles acquired by Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE) satellite instruments in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) using comparisons to radiosondes and ground-based Fourier transform infrared spectrometer measurements acquired at a Canadian high Arctic measurement site in Eureka, Nunavut. Additional comparisons are made between these Eureka measurements and other water vapour satellite datasets for context, including AIRS, MLS, and others.
Ali Jalali, Shannon Hicks-Jalali, Robert J. Sica, Alexander Haefele, and Thomas von Clarmann
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 3943–3961, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-3943-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-3943-2019, 2019
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This paper builds upon the work in von Clarmann and Grabowski (2007) concerning the a priori profile influence in the optimal estimation method applied to active remote sensing measurements, with examples given for lidar retrievals of temperature and water vapor mixing ratio. The optimal estimation method is a new technique for many active remote sensing researchers. This study gives insight into understanding the effect on retrievals of the a priori information.
Sören Johansson, Michelle L. Santee, Jens-Uwe Grooß, Michael Höpfner, Marleen Braun, Felix Friedl-Vallon, Farahnaz Khosrawi, Oliver Kirner, Erik Kretschmer, Hermann Oelhaf, Johannes Orphal, Björn-Martin Sinnhuber, Ines Tritscher, Jörn Ungermann, Kaley A. Walker, and Wolfgang Woiwode
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 8311–8338, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-8311-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-8311-2019, 2019
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We present a study based on GLORIA aircraft and MLS/ACE-FTS/CALIOP satellite measurements during the Arctic winter 2015/16, which demonstrate (for the Arctic) unusual chlorine deactivation into HCl instead of ClONO2 due to low ozone abundances in the lowermost stratosphere, with a focus at 380 K potential temperature. The atmospheric models CLaMS and EMAC are evaluated, and measured ClONO2 is linked with transport and in situ deactivation in the lowermost stratosphere.
Mark E. Hervig, Benjamin T. Marshall, Scott M. Bailey, David E. Siskind, James M. Russell III, Charles G. Bardeen, Kaley A. Walker, and Bernd Funke
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 3111–3121, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-3111-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-3111-2019, 2019
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The Solar Occultation for Ice Experiment (SOFIE) has measured nitric oxide (NO) from satellite since 2007. The observations are validated through error analysis and comparisons with other satellite observations. Calculated SOFIE NO uncertainties are less than 50 % for altitudes from 40 to 140 km. SOFIE agrees with other measurements to within 50 % for altitudes from roughly 50 to 105 km for spacecraft sunrise and 50 to 140 km for sunsets.
Temesgen Yirdaw Berhe, Gizaw Mengistu Tsidu, Thomas Blumenstock, Frank Hase, Thomas von Clarmann, Justus Notholt, and Emmanuel Mahieu
Atmos. Meas. Tech. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2019-209, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-2019-209, 2019
Revised manuscript not accepted
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This study aims to assess the latitudinal variation of MIPAS version
V5R_CH4_220 and V5R_CH4_224 uncertainty. Furthermore, we analyze the relationship between these uncertainties and the variability of water vapor. Mainly, the high uncertainty found in tropics for MIPAS CH4 220 is highly associated with variability of water vapour. However, this effect has been reduced in the new updated MIPAS CH4 224 datasets due to jointly fitted water profile with methane.
Stefan Lossow, Farahnaz Khosrawi, Michael Kiefer, Kaley A. Walker, Jean-Loup Bertaux, Laurent Blanot, James M. Russell, Ellis E. Remsberg, John C. Gille, Takafumi Sugita, Christopher E. Sioris, Bianca M. Dinelli, Enzo Papandrea, Piera Raspollini, Maya García-Comas, Gabriele P. Stiller, Thomas von Clarmann, Anu Dudhia, William G. Read, Gerald E. Nedoluha, Robert P. Damadeo, Joseph M. Zawodny, Katja Weigel, Alexei Rozanov, Faiza Azam, Klaus Bramstedt, Stefan Noël, John P. Burrows, Hideo Sagawa, Yasuko Kasai, Joachim Urban, Patrick Eriksson, Donal P. Murtagh, Mark E. Hervig, Charlotta Högberg, Dale F. Hurst, and Karen H. Rosenlof
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 2693–2732, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-2693-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-2693-2019, 2019
Bärbel Vogel, Rolf Müller, Gebhard Günther, Reinhold Spang, Sreeharsha Hanumanthu, Dan Li, Martin Riese, and Gabriele P. Stiller
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 6007–6034, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-6007-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-6007-2019, 2019
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We identified the transport pathways of air masses from the region of the Asian monsoon (e.g. pollution and greenhouse gases caused by increasing population and growing industries in Asia) into the lower stratosphere. Even small changes of the chemical composition of the lower stratosphere have an impact on surface climate (e.g. surface temperatures). Therefore, it is important to identify transport pathways to the stratosphere to allow potential environmental risks to be assessed.
Felix Ploeger, Bernard Legras, Edward Charlesworth, Xiaolu Yan, Mohamadou Diallo, Paul Konopka, Thomas Birner, Mengchu Tao, Andreas Engel, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 6085–6105, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-6085-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-6085-2019, 2019
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We analyse the change in the circulation of the middle atmosphere based on current generation meteorological reanalysis data sets. We find that long-term changes from 1989 to 2015 are similar for the chosen reanalyses, mainly resembling the forced response in climate model simulations to climate change. For shorter periods circulation changes are less robust, and the representation of decadal variability appears to be a major uncertainty for modelling the circulation of the middle atmosphere.
Samantha Tremblay, Jean-Christophe Picard, Jill O. Bachelder, Erik Lutsch, Kimberly Strong, Pierre Fogal, W. Richard Leaitch, Sangeeta Sharma, Felicia Kolonjari, Christopher J. Cox, Rachel Y.-W. Chang, and Patrick L. Hayes
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 5589–5604, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-5589-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-5589-2019, 2019
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Atmospheric aerosols, tiny airborne particles, have an important impact on climate. However, a lack of understanding of the chemistry of aerosols is one of the largest contributors to uncertainty in predictions of climate change. Measurements of aerosols were carried out in the Arctic at Eureka Station, Canada, to better understand what role aerosols play in this fragile environment. It is found that organic aerosols, possibly originating from marine emissions, are ubiquitous during summertime.
Marius Hauck, Frauke Fritsch, Hella Garny, and Andreas Engel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 5269–5291, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-5269-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-5269-2019, 2019
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The paper presents a modified method to invert mixing ratios of chemically active tracers into stratospheric age spectra. It features an imposed seasonal cycle to include transport seasonality into the spectra. An idealized set of tracers from a model is used as proof of concept and results are in good agreement with the model reference, except for the lowermost stratosphere. Applicability is studied with focus on number of tracers and error tolerance, providing a starting point for future work.
Corinna Kloss, Marc von Hobe, Michael Höpfner, Kaley A. Walker, Martin Riese, Jörn Ungermann, Birgit Hassler, Stefanie Kremser, and Greg E. Bodeker
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 2129–2138, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-2129-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-2129-2019, 2019
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Are regional and seasonal averages from only a few satellite measurements, all aligned along a specific path, representative? Probably not. We present a method to adjust for the so-called
sampling biasand investigate its influence on derived long-term trends. The method is illustrated and validated for a long-lived trace gas (carbonyl sulfide), and it is shown that the influence of the sampling bias is too small to change scientific conclusions on long-term trends.
Leonie Bernet, Thomas von Clarmann, Sophie Godin-Beekmann, Gérard Ancellet, Eliane Maillard Barras, René Stübi, Wolfgang Steinbrecht, Niklaus Kämpfer, and Klemens Hocke
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 4289–4309, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-4289-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-4289-2019, 2019
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After severe ozone depletion, upper stratospheric ozone has started to recover in recent years. However, stratospheric ozone trends from various data sets still show differences. To partly explain such differences, we investigate how the trends are affected by different factors, for example, anomalies in the data. We show how trend estimates can be improved by considering such anomalies and present updated stratospheric ozone trends from ground data measured in central Europe.
Felix R. Vogel, Matthias Frey, Johannes Staufer, Frank Hase, Grégoire Broquet, Irène Xueref-Remy, Frédéric Chevallier, Philippe Ciais, Mahesh Kumar Sha, Pascale Chelin, Pascal Jeseck, Christof Janssen, Yao Té, Jochen Groß, Thomas Blumenstock, Qiansi Tu, and Johannes Orphal
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 3271–3285, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-3271-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-3271-2019, 2019
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Providing timely information on greenhouse gas emissions to stakeholders at sub-national scale is an emerging challenge and understanding urban CO2 levels is one key aspect. This study uses atmospheric observations of total column CO2 and compares them to numerical simulations to investigate CO2 levels in the Paris metropolitan area due to natural fluxes and anthropogenic emissions. Our measurements reveal the influence of locally added CO2, which our model is also able to predict.
Matthias Frey, Mahesh K. Sha, Frank Hase, Matthäus Kiel, Thomas Blumenstock, Roland Harig, Gregor Surawicz, Nicholas M. Deutscher, Kei Shiomi, Jonathan E. Franklin, Hartmut Bösch, Jia Chen, Michel Grutter, Hirofumi Ohyama, Youwen Sun, André Butz, Gizaw Mengistu Tsidu, Dragos Ene, Debra Wunch, Zhensong Cao, Omaira Garcia, Michel Ramonet, Felix Vogel, and Johannes Orphal
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 1513–1530, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-1513-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-1513-2019, 2019
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In a 3.5-year long study, the long-term performance of a mobile EM27/SUN spectrometer, used for greenhouse gas observations, is checked with respect to a co-located reference spectrometer. We find that the EM27/SUN is stable on timescales of several years, qualifying it for permanent carbon cycle studies.
The performance of an ensemble of 30 EM27/SUN spectrometers was also tested in the framework of the COllaborative Carbon Column Observing Network (COCCON) and found to be very uniform.
Jonathan P. D. Abbatt, W. Richard Leaitch, Amir A. Aliabadi, Allan K. Bertram, Jean-Pierre Blanchet, Aude Boivin-Rioux, Heiko Bozem, Julia Burkart, Rachel Y. W. Chang, Joannie Charette, Jai P. Chaubey, Robert J. Christensen, Ana Cirisan, Douglas B. Collins, Betty Croft, Joelle Dionne, Greg J. Evans, Christopher G. Fletcher, Martí Galí, Roya Ghahreman, Eric Girard, Wanmin Gong, Michel Gosselin, Margaux Gourdal, Sarah J. Hanna, Hakase Hayashida, Andreas B. Herber, Sareh Hesaraki, Peter Hoor, Lin Huang, Rachel Hussherr, Victoria E. Irish, Setigui A. Keita, John K. Kodros, Franziska Köllner, Felicia Kolonjari, Daniel Kunkel, Luis A. Ladino, Kathy Law, Maurice Levasseur, Quentin Libois, John Liggio, Martine Lizotte, Katrina M. Macdonald, Rashed Mahmood, Randall V. Martin, Ryan H. Mason, Lisa A. Miller, Alexander Moravek, Eric Mortenson, Emma L. Mungall, Jennifer G. Murphy, Maryam Namazi, Ann-Lise Norman, Norman T. O'Neill, Jeffrey R. Pierce, Lynn M. Russell, Johannes Schneider, Hannes Schulz, Sangeeta Sharma, Meng Si, Ralf M. Staebler, Nadja S. Steiner, Jennie L. Thomas, Knut von Salzen, Jeremy J. B. Wentzell, Megan D. Willis, Gregory R. Wentworth, Jun-Wei Xu, and Jacqueline D. Yakobi-Hancock
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 2527–2560, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-2527-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-2527-2019, 2019
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The Arctic is experiencing considerable environmental change with climate warming, illustrated by the dramatic decrease in sea-ice extent. It is important to understand both the natural and perturbed Arctic systems to gain a better understanding of how they will change in the future. This paper summarizes new insights into the relationships between Arctic aerosol particles and climate, as learned over the past five or so years by a large Canadian research consortium, NETCARE.
Charlotta Högberg, Stefan Lossow, Farahnaz Khosrawi, Ralf Bauer, Kaley A. Walker, Patrick Eriksson, Donal P. Murtagh, Gabriele P. Stiller, Jörg Steinwagner, and Qiong Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 2497–2526, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-2497-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-2497-2019, 2019
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Five δD (H2O) data sets obtained from satellite observations have been evaluated using profile-to-profile and climatological comparisons. The focus is on stratospheric altitudes, but results from the upper troposphere to the lower mesosphere are also provided. There are clear quantitative differences in the δD ratio in key areas of scientific interest, resulting in difficulties drawing robust conclusions on atmospheric processes affecting the water vapour budget and distribution.
Bradley D. Hall, Andrew M. Crotwell, Benjamin R. Miller, Michael Schibig, and James W. Elkins
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 517–524, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-517-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-517-2019, 2019
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We have used a one-step method for gravimetric preparation of CO2-in-air standards in aluminum cylinders. We consider both adsorption to stainless steel surfaces used in the transfer of highly pure CO2 and adsorption of CO2 to cylinder walls. This work compliments ongoing efforts to support atmospheric monitoring of CO2.
Debora Griffin, Kaley A. Walker, Ingo Wohltmann, Sandip S. Dhomse, Markus Rex, Martyn P. Chipperfield, Wuhu Feng, Gloria L. Manney, Jane Liu, and David Tarasick
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 577–601, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-577-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-577-2019, 2019
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Ozone in the stratosphere is important to protect the Earth from UV radiation. Using measurements taken by the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment satellite between 2005 and 2013, we examine different methods to calculate the ozone loss in the high Arctic and establish the altitude at which most of the ozone is destroyed. Our results show that the different methods agree within the uncertainties. Recommendations are made on which methods are most appropriate to use.
Mohamadou Diallo, Paul Konopka, Michelle L. Santee, Rolf Müller, Mengchu Tao, Kaley A. Walker, Bernard Legras, Martin Riese, Manfred Ern, and Felix Ploeger
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 425–446, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-425-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-425-2019, 2019
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This paper assesses the structural changes in the shallow and transition branches of the BDC induced by El Nino using the Lagrangian model simulations driven by ERAi and JRA-55 combined with MLS observations. We found a clear evidence of a weakening of the transition branch due to an upward shift in the dissipation height of the planetary and gravity waves and a strengthening of the shallow branch due to enhanced GW breaking in the tropics–subtropics and PW breaking at high latitudes.
Tanja J. Schuck, Fides Lefrancois, Franziska Gallmann, Danrong Wang, Markus Jesswein, Jesica Hoker, Harald Bönisch, and Andreas Engel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 16553–16569, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-16553-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-16553-2018, 2018
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We present the first results of regular halocarbon measurements at Taunus Observatory, Germany. Halogenated gases contribute to stratospheric ozone depletion and to radiative forcing. Time-of-flight mass spectrometry allows one to assess a large number of compounds; the measurements are expected to provide better constraints for European emission estimates. CFC-11 and CFC-12 show small unexpected differences regarding outlier occurrence and seasonality, indicating ongoing emissions of CFC-11.
Christiane Voigt, Andreas Dörnbrack, Martin Wirth, Silke M. Groß, Michael C. Pitts, Lamont R. Poole, Robert Baumann, Benedikt Ehard, Björn-Martin Sinnhuber, Wolfgang Woiwode, and Hermann Oelhaf
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 15623–15641, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-15623-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-15623-2018, 2018
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The 2015–2016 stratospheric winter was the coldest in the 36-year climatological data record. The extreme conditions promoted the formation of persistent Arctic polar stratospheric ice clouds. An extended ice PSC detected by airborne lidar in January 2016 shows a second mode with higher particle depolarization ratios. Back-trajectories from the high-depol ice matched to CALIOP PSC curtains provide evidence for ice nucleation on NAT. The novel data consolidate our understanding of PSC formation.
Wolfgang Woiwode, Andreas Dörnbrack, Martina Bramberger, Felix Friedl-Vallon, Florian Haenel, Michael Höpfner, Sören Johansson, Erik Kretschmer, Isabell Krisch, Thomas Latzko, Hermann Oelhaf, Johannes Orphal, Peter Preusse, Björn-Martin Sinnhuber, and Jörn Ungermann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 15643–15667, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-15643-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-15643-2018, 2018
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GLORIA observations during two crossings of the polar front jet stream resolve the fine mesoscale structure of a tropopause fold in high detail. Tracer–tracer correlations of H2O and O3 are presented as a function of potential temperature and reveal an active mixing region. Our study confirms conceptual models of tropopause folds, validates the high quality of ECMWF IFS forecasts, and suggests that mountain waves are capable of modulating exchange processes in the vicinity of tropopause folds.
Thomas von Clarmann and Sören Johansson
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 15363–15386, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-15363-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-15363-2018, 2018
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This review article compiles the characteristics of the gas chlorine nitrate and discusses its role in atmospheric chemistry. Chlorine nitrate is a reservoir of both stratospheric chlorine and nitrogen. Formation and sink processes are discussed, as well as spectral features and spectroscopic studies. Remote sensing, fluorescence, and mass spectroscopic measurement techniques are introduced, and global distributions and the annual cycle are discussed in the context of chlorine de-/activation.
Michael Höpfner, Terry Deshler, Michael Pitts, Lamont Poole, Reinhold Spang, Gabriele Stiller, and Thomas von Clarmann
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 5901–5923, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-5901-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-5901-2018, 2018
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Polar stratospheric clouds (PSC) have major relevance to the processes leading to polar ozone depletion. A good understanding of these particles is a prerequisite to predict their role in a changing climate. We present the first global set of PSC volume density profiles derived from the MIPAS satellite measurements covering the entire mission period between 2002 and 2012. A comparison to CALIOP lidar measurements is provided. The dataset can serve as a basis for evaluation of atmospheric models.
Simon Chabrillat, Corinne Vigouroux, Yves Christophe, Andreas Engel, Quentin Errera, Daniele Minganti, Beatriz M. Monge-Sanz, Arjo Segers, and Emmanuel Mahieu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 14715–14735, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-14715-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-14715-2018, 2018
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Mean age of stratospheric air is computed for the period 1989–2015 with a kinematic transport model which uses surface pressure and wind fields from five reanalyses: ERA-I, MERRA-2, MERRA, CFSR, JRA-55. The spread between the resulting datasets is as large as in climate model intercomparisons; the age trends have large disagreement and depend strongly on the considered period. We highlight the need for similar studies using diabatic transport models which also use temperature and heating rates.
Tobias Borsdorff, Joost aan de Brugh, Haili Hu, Otto Hasekamp, Ralf Sussmann, Markus Rettinger, Frank Hase, Jochen Gross, Matthias Schneider, Omaira Garcia, Wolfgang Stremme, Michel Grutter, Dietrich G. Feist, Sabrina G. Arnold, Martine De Mazière, Mahesh Kumar Sha, David F. Pollard, Matthäus Kiel, Coleen Roehl, Paul O. Wennberg, Geoffrey C. Toon, and Jochen Landgraf
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 5507–5518, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-5507-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-5507-2018, 2018
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On 13 October 2017, the S5-P satellite was launched with TROPOMI as its only payload. One of the primary products is atmospheric CO observed with daily global coverage and spatial resolution of 7 × 7 km2. The new dataset allows the sensing of CO enhancements above cities and industrial areas and can track pollution transport from biomass burning regions. Through validation with ground-based TCCON measurements we show that the CO data product is already well within the mission requirement.
Christian Borger, Matthias Schneider, Benjamin Ertl, Frank Hase, Omaira E. García, Michael Sommer, Michael Höpfner, Stephen A. Tjemkes, and Xavier Calbet
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 4981–5006, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-4981-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-4981-2018, 2018
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In this paper MUSICA IASI tropospheric water vapour profile retrievals are evaluated by performing theoretical error assessments and comparisons to GRUAN radiosonde measurements. We show that the vertical water vapour distribution is well captured from 1 km above the ground up to the tropopause. Largest error sources are unrecognized clouds and uncertainties in atmospheric temperature, which can reach about 25 %.
Sören Johansson, Wolfgang Woiwode, Michael Höpfner, Felix Friedl-Vallon, Anne Kleinert, Erik Kretschmer, Thomas Latzko, Johannes Orphal, Peter Preusse, Jörn Ungermann, Michelle L. Santee, Tina Jurkat-Witschas, Andreas Marsing, Christiane Voigt, Andreas Giez, Martina Krämer, Christian Rolf, Andreas Zahn, Andreas Engel, Björn-Martin Sinnhuber, and Hermann Oelhaf
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 4737–4756, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-4737-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-4737-2018, 2018
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We present two-dimensional cross sections of temperature, HNO3, O3, ClONO2, H2O and CFC-12 from measurements of the GLORIA infrared limb imager during the POLSTRACC/GW-LCYCLE/SALSA aircraft campaigns in the Arctic winter 2015/2016. GLORIA sounded the atmosphere between 5 and 14 km with vertical resolutions of 0.4–1 km. Estimated errors are in the range of 1–2 K (temperature) and 10 %–20 % (trace gases). Comparisons to in situ instruments onboard the aircraft and to Aura/MLS are shown.
Norbert Glatthor, Thomas von Clarmann, Gabriele P. Stiller, Michael Kiefer, Alexandra Laeng, Bianca M. Dinelli, Gerald Wetzel, and Johannes Orphal
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 4707–4723, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-4707-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-4707-2018, 2018
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We report differences in ozone retrievals in channels A and AB of the space-borne Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS), which amount to up to 8 %. We provide strong evidence that the bias is caused by inconsistencies in different spectroscopic databases (MIPAS, HITRAN, GEISA). We show that a major part of the differences can be attributed to inconsistent air-broadening coefficients of the ozone lines contained in the databases.
Alexandra Laeng, Ellen Eckert, Thomas von Clarmann, Michael Kiefer, Daan Hubert, Gabriele Stiller, Norbert Glatthor, Manuel López-Puertas, Bernd Funke, Udo Grabowski, Johannes Plieninger, Sylvia Kellmann, Andrea Linden, Stefan Lossow, Arne Babenhauserheide, Lucien Froidevaux, and Kaley Walker
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 4693–4705, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-4693-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-4693-2018, 2018
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MIPAS was an IR limb emission spectrometer on the Envisat platform. From 2002 to 2012, it performed pole-to-pole measurements of ozone during day and night. ESA recently released the new version 7 of Level 1 MIPAS spectra, which is expected to reduce the long-term drift of the MIPAS Level 2 data. We evaluate the long-term stability of ozone Level 2 data from the KIT IMK processor. Our results indicate that MIPAS data are now even more suited for trend studies, alone or as part of merged data.
Farahnaz Khosrawi, Stefan Lossow, Gabriele P. Stiller, Karen H. Rosenlof, Joachim Urban, John P. Burrows, Robert P. Damadeo, Patrick Eriksson, Maya García-Comas, John C. Gille, Yasuko Kasai, Michael Kiefer, Gerald E. Nedoluha, Stefan Noël, Piera Raspollini, William G. Read, Alexei Rozanov, Christopher E. Sioris, Kaley A. Walker, and Katja Weigel
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 4435–4463, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-4435-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-4435-2018, 2018
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Time series of stratospheric and lower mesospheric water vapour using 33 data sets from 15 satellite instruments were compared in the framework of the second SPARC water vapour assessment. We find that most data sets can be considered in observational and modelling studies addressing, e.g. stratospheric and lower mesospheric water vapour variability and trends if data-set-specific characteristics (e.g. a drift) and restrictions (e.g. temporal and spatial coverage) are taken into account.
Farahnaz Khosrawi, Oliver Kirner, Gabriele Stiller, Michael Höpfner, Michelle L. Santee, Sylvia Kellmann, and Peter Braesicke
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 8873–8892, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-8873-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-8873-2018, 2018
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An extensive assessment of the performance of the chemistry–climate model EMAC is given for Arctic winters 2009/2010 and 2010/2011. The EMAC simulations are compared to satellite observations. The comparisons between EMAC simulations and satellite observations show that model and measurements compare well for these two Arctic winters. However, differences between model and observations are found that need improvements in the model in the future.
Richard J. Pope, Martyn P. Chipperfield, Stephen R. Arnold, Norbert Glatthor, Wuhu Feng, Sandip S. Dhomse, Brian J. Kerridge, Barry G. Latter, and Richard Siddans
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 8389–8408, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-8389-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-8389-2018, 2018
Stefan Lossow, Dale F. Hurst, Karen H. Rosenlof, Gabriele P. Stiller, Thomas von Clarmann, Sabine Brinkop, Martin Dameris, Patrick Jöckel, Doug E. Kinnison, Johannes Plieninger, David A. Plummer, Felix Ploeger, William G. Read, Ellis E. Remsberg, James M. Russell, and Mengchu Tao
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 8331–8351, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-8331-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-8331-2018, 2018
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Trend estimates of lower stratospheric H2O derived from the FPH observations at Boulder and a merged zonal mean satellite data set clearly differ for the time period from the late 1980s to 2010. We investigate if a sampling bias between Boulder and the zonal mean around the Boulder latitude can explain these trend discrepancies. Typically they are small and not sufficient to explain the trend discrepancies in the observational database.
Thomas von Clarmann
Geosci. Commun. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/gc-2018-8, https://doi.org/10.5194/gc-2018-8, 2018
Preprint withdrawn
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The measurement of knowledge transfer is considered an important component of the overall performance assessment of research groups. It is, however, not a trivial task, because there is agreement on neither the definition nor on the logical structure of knowledge. In this paper related problems are summarized and approaches to the measurement of knowledge transfer are critically discussed.
Lianghai Wu, Otto Hasekamp, Haili Hu, Jochen Landgraf, Andre Butz, Joost aan de Brugh, Ilse Aben, Dave F. Pollard, David W. T. Griffith, Dietrich G. Feist, Dmitry Koshelev, Frank Hase, Geoffrey C. Toon, Hirofumi Ohyama, Isamu Morino, Justus Notholt, Kei Shiomi, Laura Iraci, Matthias Schneider, Martine de Mazière, Ralf Sussmann, Rigel Kivi, Thorsten Warneke, Tae-Young Goo, and Yao Té
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 3111–3130, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3111-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3111-2018, 2018
Felicia Kolonjari, David A. Plummer, Kaley A. Walker, Chris D. Boone, James W. Elkins, Michaela I. Hegglin, Gloria L. Manney, Fred L. Moore, Diane Pendlebury, Eric A. Ray, Karen H. Rosenlof, and Gabriele P. Stiller
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 6801–6828, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-6801-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-6801-2018, 2018
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We used satellite observations and model simulations of CFC-11, CFC-12, and N2O to investigate stratospheric transport, which is important for predicting the recovery of the ozone layer and future climate. We found that sampling can impact results and that the model consistently overestimates concentrations of these gases in the lower stratosphere, consistent with a too rapid Brewer–Dobson circulation. An issue with mixing in the tropical lower stratosphere in June–July–August was also found.
Natalya A. Kramarova, Pawan K. Bhartia, Glen Jaross, Leslie Moy, Philippe Xu, Zhong Chen, Matthew DeLand, Lucien Froidevaux, Nathaniel Livesey, Douglas Degenstein, Adam Bourassa, Kaley A. Walker, and Patrick Sheese
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 2837–2861, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-2837-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-2837-2018, 2018
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The Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) Limb Profiler (LP) is a newly designed research sensor aiming to continue high vertical resolution ozone records from space-borne sensors. In summer 2017 all LP measurements were processed with the new version 2.5 algorithm. In this paper we provide a description of the key changes implemented in the new algorithm and evaluate the quality of ozone retrievals by comparing with independent satellite profile measurements (MLS, ACE-FTS and OSIRIS).
Jens Krause, Peter Hoor, Andreas Engel, Felix Plöger, Jens-Uwe Grooß, Harald Bönisch, Timo Keber, Björn-Martin Sinnhuber, Wolfgang Woiwode, and Hermann Oelhaf
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 6057–6073, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-6057-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-6057-2018, 2018
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We present tracer measurements of CO and N2O measured during the POLSTRACC aircraft campaign in winter 2015–2016. We found enhanced CO values relative to N2O in the polar lower stratosphere in addition to the ageing of this region during winter. By using model simulations it was possible to link this enhancement to an increased mixing of the tropical tropopause. We thus conclude that the polar lower stratosphere in late winter is strongly influenced by quasi-isentropic mixing from the tropics.
Manfred Ern, Quang Thai Trinh, Peter Preusse, John C. Gille, Martin G. Mlynczak, James M. Russell III, and Martin Riese
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 10, 857–892, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-10-857-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-10-857-2018, 2018
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The gravity wave climatology based on atmospheric infrared limb emissions observed by satellite (GRACILE) is a global data set of gravity wave (GW) distributions in the stratosphere and the mesosphere observed by the infrared limb sounding satellite instruments HIRDLS and SABER. Typical distributions of multiple GW parameters are provided. Possible applications are scientific studies, comparison with other observations, or comparison with resolved or parametrized GW distributions in models.
Manuel López-Puertas, Maya García-Comas, Bernd Funke, Angela Gardini, Gabriele P. Stiller, Thomas von Clarmann, Norbert Glatthor, Alexandra Laeng, Martin Kaufmann, Viktoria F. Sofieva, Lucien Froidevaux, Kaley A. Walker, and Masato Shiotani
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 2187–2212, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-2187-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-2187-2018, 2018
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This paper describes the inversion of O3 data from MIPAS middle atmosphere spectra which requires non-LTE. The O3 dataset comprises from 20 to 100 km, has a pole-to-pole latitude coverage, day and nighttime, and span from 2005 until 2012. A validation of the data against other satellite measurements and an overall description of O3 is also presented. This is an important dataset for the community and describes the major characteristics of stratospheric and mesospheric O3.
Reinhold Spang, Lars Hoffmann, Rolf Müller, Jens-Uwe Grooß, Ines Tritscher, Michael Höpfner, Michael Pitts, Andrew Orr, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 5089–5113, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-5089-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-5089-2018, 2018
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This paper represents an unprecedented pole-covering day- and nighttime climatology of the polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) based on satellite measurements, their spatial distribution, and composition of different particle types. The climatology has a high potential for the validation and improvement of PSC schemes in chemical transport and chemistry–climate models, which is important for a better prediction of future polar ozone loss in a changing climate.
Carlo Arosio, Alexei Rozanov, Elizaveta Malinina, Kai-Uwe Eichmann, Thomas von Clarmann, and John P. Burrows
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 2135–2149, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-2135-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-2135-2018, 2018
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This paper describes the development of a retrieval algorithm at the University of Bremen which derives stratospheric ozone profiles from limb observations performed by the OMPS satellite instrument. Here we present the implementation of the algorithm and the validation of our results (1 year of data against independent satellite and ground-based measurements). Good agreement is generally found between 20 and 55 km, mostly within 10 % at all latitudes.
Luis F. Millán, Nathaniel J. Livesey, Michelle L. Santee, and Thomas von Clarmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 4187–4199, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-4187-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-4187-2018, 2018
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This study investigates orbital sampling biases and evaluates the additional impact caused by data quality screening for the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) and the Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS).
Emma C. Leedham Elvidge, Harald Bönisch, Carl A. M. Brenninkmeijer, Andreas Engel, Paul J. Fraser, Eileen Gallacher, Ray Langenfelds, Jens Mühle, David E. Oram, Eric A. Ray, Anna R. Ridley, Thomas Röckmann, William T. Sturges, Ray F. Weiss, and Johannes C. Laube
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 3369–3385, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-3369-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-3369-2018, 2018
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Chemical species measured in stratospheric air can be used as proxies for stratospheric circulation changes which cannot be measured directly. A range of tracers is important to understand changing stratospheric dynamics. We demonstrate the suitability of PFCs and HFCs as tracers and support recent work that reduces the current stratospheric lifetime of SF6. Updates to policy-relevant parameters (e.g. stratospheric lifetime) linked to this change are provided for O3-depleting substances.
W. Richard Leaitch, Lynn M. Russell, Jun Liu, Felicia Kolonjari, Desiree Toom, Lin Huang, Sangeeta Sharma, Alina Chivulescu, Dan Veber, and Wendy Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 3269–3287, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-3269-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-3269-2018, 2018
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Over 2 years of atmospheric aerosol organic functional group and microphysics measurements at the world's northernmost land observatory offer a unique high-latitude dataset. Lower organic mass (OM) concentrations and higher OM fractions accompany smaller particles during summer, with opposite results during winter to spring. Seasonally, the OM oxidation level is highest in winter, associated with primary marine alcohol groups. In summer, secondary processes dominate the marine influence on OM.
Minqiang Zhou, Bavo Langerock, Corinne Vigouroux, Pucai Wang, Christian Hermans, Gabriele Stiller, Kaley A. Walker, Geoff Dutton, Emmanuel Mahieu, and Martine De Mazière
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 651–662, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-651-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-651-2018, 2018
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SF6 total columns are successfully retrieved from FTIR measurements (Saint Denis and Maïdo) at Reunion Island (21° S, 55° E) between 2004 and 2016 using the SFIT4 algorithm: the retrieval strategy and the error budget are discussed. The trend of SF6 is analysed based on the FTIR retrievals at Reunion Island, the in situ measurements at America Samoa (SMO) and the collocated satellite measurements (MIPAS and ACE-FTS) in the southern tropics. The results show good agreement.
Annika Günther, Michael Höpfner, Björn-Martin Sinnhuber, Sabine Griessbach, Terry Deshler, Thomas von Clarmann, and Gabriele Stiller
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 1217–1239, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-1217-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-1217-2018, 2018
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Satellite-borne data of sulfur dioxide and a new data set of sulfate aerosol volume densities, as retrieved from MIPAS measurements, are studied in the upper-troposphere–lower-stratosphere region. General patterns of enhanced aerosol are in agreement with SO2. Via chemical transport model simulations for two volcanic eruptions in the Northern Hemisphere midlatitudes, we show that the volcanic enhancements in MIPAS SO2 and sulfate aerosol are consistent in terms of mass and transport patterns.
Miriam Sinnhuber, Uwe Berger, Bernd Funke, Holger Nieder, Thomas Reddmann, Gabriele Stiller, Stefan Versick, Thomas von Clarmann, and Jan Maik Wissing
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 1115–1147, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-1115-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-1115-2018, 2018
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Results from global models are used to analyze the impact of energetic particle precipitation on the middle atmosphere (10–80 km). Model results agree well with observations, and show strong enhancements of NOy, long-lasting ozone loss, and a net heating in the uppermost stratosphere (~35–45 km) during polar winter which changes sign in spring. Energetic particle precipitation therefore has the potential to impact atmospheric dynamics, starting from a warmer winter-time upper stratosphere.
Amirmahdi Zarboo, Stefan Bender, John P. Burrows, Johannes Orphal, and Miriam Sinnhuber
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 473–487, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-473-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-473-2018, 2018
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We present the retrieved volume emission rates (VERs) from the airglow of both the daytime and twilight O2(1Σ) band and O2(1Δ) band emissions in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT). We have investigated the daily mean latitudinal distributions and the time series of the retrieved VER in the altitude range from 53 to 149 km. These observations provide information about the chemistry and dynamics and can be used to infer ozone, solar heating rates, and temperature in the MLT.
Kelley C. Wells, Dylan B. Millet, Nicolas Bousserez, Daven K. Henze, Timothy J. Griffis, Sreelekha Chaliyakunnel, Edward J. Dlugokencky, Eri Saikawa, Gao Xiang, Ronald G. Prinn, Simon O'Doherty, Dickon Young, Ray F. Weiss, Geoff S. Dutton, James W. Elkins, Paul B. Krummel, Ray Langenfelds, and L. Paul Steele
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 735–756, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-735-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-735-2018, 2018
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This paper uses three different frameworks to derive nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions based on global surface observations. One of these frameworks employs a new approach that allows for fast computation and explores a larger solution space than other methods. Our results point to a few conclusions about the global N2O budget, including a larger contribution from tropical sources, an overestimate of natural soil emissions, and an underestimate of agricultural sources particularly in springtime.
Andreas Engel, Harald Bönisch, Jennifer Ostermöller, Martyn P. Chipperfield, Sandip Dhomse, and Patrick Jöckel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 601–619, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-601-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-601-2018, 2018
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We present a new method to derive equivalent effective stratospheric chlorine (EESC), which is based on an improved formulation of the propagation of trends of species with chemical loss from the troposphere to the stratosphere. EESC calculated with the new method shows much better agreement with model-derived ESC. Based on this new formulation, we expect the halogen impact on midlatitude stratospheric ozone to return to 1980 values about 10 years later, then using the current formulation.
Hugh C. Pumphrey, Norbert Glatthor, Peter F. Bernath, Christopher D. Boone, James W. Hannigan, Ivan Ortega, Nathaniel J. Livesey, and William G. Read
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 691–703, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-691-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-691-2018, 2018
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The Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) is a satellite instrument that has been measuring the amount of various gases in the atmosphere since 2004. In late 2015 and 2016 it observed unusual amounts of hydrogen cyanide (HCN), a gas produced when vegetation is burned. We compare the MLS observations to similar observations from other instruments. The excess HCN is shown to come from fires in Indonesia. There are more fires than usual in 2015–16 due to a drought caused by an El Niño event.
Robert P. Damadeo, Joseph M. Zawodny, Ellis E. Remsberg, and Kaley A. Walker
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 535–554, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-535-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-535-2018, 2018
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An ozone trend analysis that compensates for sampling biases is applied to sparsely sampled occultation data sets. International assessments have noted deficiencies in past trend analyses and this work addresses those sources of uncertainty. The nonuniform sampling patterns in data sets and drifts between data sets can affect derived recovery trends by up to 2 % decade−1. The limitations inherent to all techniques are also described and a potential path forward towards resolution is presented.
Sangeeta Sharma, W. Richard Leaitch, Lin Huang, Daniel Veber, Felicia Kolonjari, Wendy Zhang, Sarah J. Hanna, Allan K. Bertram, and John A. Ogren
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 15225–15243, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-15225-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-15225-2017, 2017
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A new and unique data set on BC properties at the highest latitude observatory in the world, at Alert, Canada, evaluates three techniques for estimating black carbon (BC) and gives seasonal best estimates of the BC mass concentrations and BC mass absorption coefficients (MAC) for 2.5 years of data. As a short-lived climate forcer, better estimates of the properties of BC are necessary to ensure accurate modelling of aerosol climate forcing of the Arctic atmosphere for mitigation purposes.
Takafumi Sugita, Hideharu Akiyoshi, Elián Wolfram, Jacobo Salvador, Hirofumi Ohyama, and Akira Mizuno
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 4947–4964, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-4947-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-4947-2017, 2017
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We present comparison of ozone profiles from DIAL, MLS, and chemical transport model simulations over Río Gallegos (52° S), Argentina, during the 2009 spring. Measurements were performed in the vicinity of the polar vortex and inside it on some occasions. The results show a good agreement between DIAL and MLS with mean differences of ±0.1 ppmv between 6 hPa and 56 hPa. MIROC-CTM also agrees with DIAL, with mean differences of ±0.3 ppmv between 10 hPa and 56 hPa.
Isabell Krisch, Peter Preusse, Jörn Ungermann, Andreas Dörnbrack, Stephen D. Eckermann, Manfred Ern, Felix Friedl-Vallon, Martin Kaufmann, Hermann Oelhaf, Markus Rapp, Cornelia Strube, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 14937–14953, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-14937-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-14937-2017, 2017
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Using the infrared limb imager GLORIA, the 3-D structure of mesoscale gravity waves in the lower stratosphere was measured for the first time, allowing for a complete 3-D characterization of the waves. This enables the precise determination of the sources of the waves in the mountain regions of Iceland with backward ray tracing. Forward ray tracing shows oblique propagation, an effect generally neglected in global atmospheric models.
Gerald Wetzel, Hermann Oelhaf, Michael Höpfner, Felix Friedl-Vallon, Andreas Ebersoldt, Thomas Gulde, Sebastian Kazarski, Oliver Kirner, Anne Kleinert, Guido Maucher, Hans Nordmeyer, Johannes Orphal, Roland Ruhnke, and Björn-Martin Sinnhuber
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 14631–14643, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-14631-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-14631-2017, 2017
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We report the first stratospheric measurements of the diurnal variation in the inorganic bromine (Bry) reservoir species BrONO2 around sunrise and sunset. The main goal of these observations was to check the current understanding of stratospheric bromine chemistry and to estimate the amount of lower-stratospheric Bry. The calculated temporal variation in BrONO2 largely reproduces the balloon-borne observations. The amount of Bry was estimated to be about 21–25 pptv in the lower stratosphere.
Gerald E. Nedoluha, Michael Kiefer, Stefan Lossow, R. Michael Gomez, Niklaus Kämpfer, Martin Lainer, Peter Forkman, Ole Martin Christensen, Jung Jin Oh, Paul Hartogh, John Anderson, Klaus Bramstedt, Bianca M. Dinelli, Maya Garcia-Comas, Mark Hervig, Donal Murtagh, Piera Raspollini, William G. Read, Karen Rosenlof, Gabriele P. Stiller, and Kaley A. Walker
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 14543–14558, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-14543-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-14543-2017, 2017
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As part of the second SPARC (Stratosphere–troposphere Processes And their Role in Climate) water vapor assessment (WAVAS-II), we present measurements taken from or coincident with seven sites from which ground-based microwave instruments measure water vapor in the middle atmosphere. In the lower mesosphere, we quantify instrumental differences in the observed trends and annual variations at six sites. We then present a range of observed trends in water vapor over the past 20 years.
Emily M. McCullough, Robert J. Sica, James R. Drummond, Graeme Nott, Christopher Perro, Colin P. Thackray, Jason Hopper, Jonathan Doyle, Thomas J. Duck, and Kaley A. Walker
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 4253–4277, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-4253-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-4253-2017, 2017
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CRL lidar in the Canadian High Arctic uses lasers and a telescope to study polar clouds, essential for understanding the changing global climate. Hardware added to CRL allows it to measure the polarization of returned laser light, indicating whether cloud particles are liquid or frozen. Calibrations show that traditional analysis methods work well, although CRL was not originally set up to make this type of measurement. CRL can now measure cloud particle phase every 5 min, every 37.5 m, 24h/day.
Margarita Yela, Manuel Gil-Ojeda, Mónica Navarro-Comas, David Gonzalez-Bartolomé, Olga Puentedura, Bernd Funke, Javier Iglesias, Santiago Rodríguez, Omaira García, Héctor Ochoa, and Guillermo Deferrari
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 13373–13389, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-13373-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-13373-2017, 2017
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The paper focuses on stratospheric trends of NO2, a species involved in the ozone equilibrium, using data from four NDACC stations. The global stratospheric NO2 trend has not yet been established conclusively. We analyse DOAS data from stations in the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere during 1993–2014. The most relevant finding is the hemispheric asymmetry found in the sign of the NO2 trend, providing further evidence of changes in the stratosphere dynamics on the global scale.
Farahnaz Khosrawi, Oliver Kirner, Björn-Martin Sinnhuber, Sören Johansson, Michael Höpfner, Michelle L. Santee, Lucien Froidevaux, Jörn Ungermann, Roland Ruhnke, Wolfgang Woiwode, Hermann Oelhaf, and Peter Braesicke
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 12893–12910, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-12893-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-12893-2017, 2017
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The 2015/2016 Arctic winter was one of the coldest winters in recent years, allowing extensive PSC formation and chlorine activation. Model simulations of the 2015/2016 Arctic winter were performed with the atmospheric chemistry–climate model ECHAM5/MESSy Atmospheric Chemistry (EMAC). We find that ozone loss was quite strong but not as strong as in 2010/2011; denitrification and dehydration were so far the strongest observed in the Arctic stratosphere in at least the past 10 years.
Viktoria F. Sofieva, Erkki Kyrölä, Marko Laine, Johanna Tamminen, Doug Degenstein, Adam Bourassa, Chris Roth, Daniel Zawada, Mark Weber, Alexei Rozanov, Nabiz Rahpoe, Gabriele Stiller, Alexandra Laeng, Thomas von Clarmann, Kaley A. Walker, Patrick Sheese, Daan Hubert, Michel van Roozendael, Claus Zehner, Robert Damadeo, Joseph Zawodny, Natalya Kramarova, and Pawan K. Bhartia
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 12533–12552, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-12533-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-12533-2017, 2017
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We present a merged dataset of ozone profiles from several satellite instruments: SAGE II, GOMOS, SCIAMACHY, MIPAS, OSIRIS, ACE-FTS and OMPS. For merging, we used the latest versions of the original ozone datasets.
The merged SAGE–CCI–OMPS dataset is used for evaluating ozone trends in the stratosphere through multiple linear regression. Negative ozone trends in the upper stratosphere are observed before 1997 and positive trends are found after 1997.
Kevin S. Olsen, Kimberly Strong, Kaley A. Walker, Chris D. Boone, Piera Raspollini, Johannes Plieninger, Whitney Bader, Stephanie Conway, Michel Grutter, James W. Hannigan, Frank Hase, Nicholas Jones, Martine de Mazière, Justus Notholt, Matthias Schneider, Dan Smale, Ralf Sussmann, and Naoko Saitoh
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 3697–3718, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-3697-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-3697-2017, 2017
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The primary instrument on the Greenhouse gases Observing SATellite (GOSAT) is the Thermal And Near infrared Sensor for carbon Observations (TANSO) Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS). TANSO-FTS has a thermal infrared channel to retrieve vertical profiles of CO2 and CH4 volume mixing ratios in the troposphere. We compare the retrieved vertical profiles of CH4 from TANSO-FTS with those from two other spaceborne FTSs and with ground-based FTS observatories to assess their quality.
Stefan Lossow, Hella Garny, and Patrick Jöckel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 11521–11539, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-11521-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-11521-2017, 2017
Gabriele P. Stiller, Federico Fierli, Felix Ploeger, Chiara Cagnazzo, Bernd Funke, Florian J. Haenel, Thomas Reddmann, Martin Riese, and Thomas von Clarmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 11177–11192, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-11177-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-11177-2017, 2017
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The discrepancy between modelled and observed 25-year trends of the strength of the stratospheric Brewer–Dobson circulation (BDC) is still not resolved. With our paper we trace the observed hemispheric dipole structure of age of air trends back to natural variability in shorter-term (decadal) time frames. Beyond this we demonstrate that after correction for the decadal natural variability the remaining trend for the first decade of the 21st century is consistent with model simulations.
Wolfgang Steinbrecht, Lucien Froidevaux, Ryan Fuller, Ray Wang, John Anderson, Chris Roth, Adam Bourassa, Doug Degenstein, Robert Damadeo, Joe Zawodny, Stacey Frith, Richard McPeters, Pawan Bhartia, Jeannette Wild, Craig Long, Sean Davis, Karen Rosenlof, Viktoria Sofieva, Kaley Walker, Nabiz Rahpoe, Alexei Rozanov, Mark Weber, Alexandra Laeng, Thomas von Clarmann, Gabriele Stiller, Natalya Kramarova, Sophie Godin-Beekmann, Thierry Leblanc, Richard Querel, Daan Swart, Ian Boyd, Klemens Hocke, Niklaus Kämpfer, Eliane Maillard Barras, Lorena Moreira, Gerald Nedoluha, Corinne Vigouroux, Thomas Blumenstock, Matthias Schneider, Omaira García, Nicholas Jones, Emmanuel Mahieu, Dan Smale, Michael Kotkamp, John Robinson, Irina Petropavlovskikh, Neil Harris, Birgit Hassler, Daan Hubert, and Fiona Tummon
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 10675–10690, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-10675-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-10675-2017, 2017
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Thanks to the 1987 Montreal Protocol and its amendments, ozone-depleting chlorine (and bromine) in the stratosphere has declined slowly since the late 1990s. Improved and extended long-term ozone profile observations from satellites and ground-based stations confirm that ozone is responding as expected and has increased by about 2 % per decade since 2000 in the upper stratosphere, around 40 km altitude. At lower altitudes, however, ozone has not changed significantly since 2000.
Debora Griffin, Kaley A. Walker, Stephanie Conway, Felicia Kolonjari, Kimberly Strong, Rebecca Batchelor, Chris D. Boone, Lin Dan, James R. Drummond, Pierre F. Fogal, Dejian Fu, Rodica Lindenmaier, Gloria L. Manney, and Dan Weaver
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 3273–3294, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-3273-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-3273-2017, 2017
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Measurements in the high Arctic from two ground-based and one space-borne infrared Fourier transform spectrometer agree well over an 8-year time period (2006–2013). These comparisons show no notable degradation, indicating the consistency of these data sets and suggesting that the space-borne measurements have been stable. Increasing ozone, as well as increases of some other atmospheric gases, has been found over this same time period.
Kohei Ikeda, Hiroshi Tanimoto, Takafumi Sugita, Hideharu Akiyoshi, Yugo Kanaya, Chunmao Zhu, and Fumikazu Taketani
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 10515–10533, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-10515-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-10515-2017, 2017
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Black carbon (BC), also known as soot particles, plays a key role in Arctic warming; hence, an understanding of the major source regions and types is important for its mitigation. We found that Russia was the dominant contributor to Arctic BC at the surface level, while the East Asian contribution was the largest in the middle troposphere and the burden over the Arctic, suggesting that BC emission reduction from Russia and East Asia can help mitigate warming in the Arctic.
Massimo Valeri, Flavio Barbara, Chris Boone, Simone Ceccherini, Marco Gai, Guido Maucher, Piera Raspollini, Marco Ridolfi, Luca Sgheri, Gerald Wetzel, and Nicola Zoppetti
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 10143–10162, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-10143-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-10143-2017, 2017
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Atmospheric emissions of CCl4 are regulated by the Montreal Protocol due to its role as a strong ozone-depleting substance. The molecule is the subject of recent increased interest as a consequence of the discrepancy between atmospheric observations and reported production and consumption. We use MIPAS/ENVISAT data (2002–2012) to estimate CCl4 trends and lifetime. At 50 hPa we find a decline of about 30–35 % per decade. In the lower stratosphere our lifetime estimate is 47 (39–61) years.
Maria A. Navarro, Alfonso Saiz-Lopez, Carlos A. Cuevas, Rafael P. Fernandez, Elliot Atlas, Xavier Rodriguez-Lloveras, Douglas Kinnison, Jean-Francois Lamarque, Simone Tilmes, Troy Thornberry, Andrew Rollins, James W. Elkins, Eric J. Hintsa, and Fred L. Moore
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 9917–9930, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-9917-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-9917-2017, 2017
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Inorganic bromine (Bry) plays an important role in ozone layer depletion. Based on aircraft observations of organic bromine species and chemistry simulations, we model the Bry abundances over the Pacific tropical tropopause. Our results show BrO and Br as the dominant species during daytime hours, and BrCl and BrONO2 as the nighttime dominant species over the western and eastern Pacific, respectively. The difference in the partitioning is due to changes in the abundance of O3, NO2, and Cly.
Dan Weaver, Kimberly Strong, Matthias Schneider, Penny M. Rowe, Chris Sioris, Kaley A. Walker, Zen Mariani, Taneil Uttal, C. Thomas McElroy, Holger Vömel, Alessio Spassiani, and James R. Drummond
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 2851–2880, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-2851-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-2851-2017, 2017
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We have compared techniques used by several PEARL instruments to measure atmospheric water vapour. No single instrument can comprehensively map the atmosphere. We documented how well these techniques perform and quantified the agreement and biases between them. This work showed that new FTIR datasets at PEARL capture accurate measurements of High Arctic water vapour.
Ellen Eckert, Thomas von Clarmann, Alexandra Laeng, Gabriele P. Stiller, Bernd Funke, Norbert Glatthor, Udo Grabowski, Sylvia Kellmann, Michael Kiefer, Andrea Linden, Arne Babenhauserheide, Gerald Wetzel, Christopher Boone, Andreas Engel, Jeremy J. Harrison, Patrick E. Sheese, Kaley A. Walker, and Peter F. Bernath
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 2727–2743, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-2727-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-2727-2017, 2017
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We retrieved vertical profiles of CCl4 from MIPAS Envisat IMK/IAA data. A detailed description of all characteristics is included in the paper as well as comparisons with historical measurements and comparisons with collocated measurements of instruments covering the same time span as MIPAS Envisat. A particular focus also lies on the usage of a new CCl4 spectroscopic dataset introduced recently, which leads to more realistic CCl4 volume mixing ratios.
Christopher J. Merchant, Frank Paul, Thomas Popp, Michael Ablain, Sophie Bontemps, Pierre Defourny, Rainer Hollmann, Thomas Lavergne, Alexandra Laeng, Gerrit de Leeuw, Jonathan Mittaz, Caroline Poulsen, Adam C. Povey, Max Reuter, Shubha Sathyendranath, Stein Sandven, Viktoria F. Sofieva, and Wolfgang Wagner
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 9, 511–527, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-9-511-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-9-511-2017, 2017
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Climate data records (CDRs) contain data describing Earth's climate and should address uncertainty in the data to communicate what is known about climate variability or change and what range of doubt exists. This paper discusses good practice for including uncertainty information in CDRs for the essential climate variables (ECVs) derived from satellite data. Recommendations emerge from the shared experience of diverse ECV projects within the European Space Agency Climate Change Initiative.
Merritt N. Deeter, David P. Edwards, Gene L. Francis, John C. Gille, Sara Martínez-Alonso, Helen M. Worden, and Colm Sweeney
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 2533–2555, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-2533-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-2533-2017, 2017
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This manuscript describes the methods used for deriving the latest version 7 product for atmospheric carbon monoxide (CO) from measurements made by the MOPITT (Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere) satellite instrument. Comparisons of MOPITT-retrieved CO vertical profiles with in situ data measured from aircraft are also presented, and they demonstrate clear improvements relative to earlier MOPITT products. The new CO product is appropriate for a wide variety of applications.
Cristen Adams, Adam E. Bourassa, Chris A. McLinden, Chris E. Sioris, Thomas von Clarmann, Bernd Funke, Landon A. Rieger, and Douglas A. Degenstein
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 8063–8080, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-8063-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-8063-2017, 2017
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We measured the relationship between volcanic aerosol and trace gases in the stratosphere using the OSIRIS and MIPAS satellite instruments between 2002 and 2014. We found that levels of stratospheric NO2 and N2O5 both decreased significantly in the presence of volcanic aerosol. These decreases were consistent with the modeling results.
Katja Matthes, Bernd Funke, Monika E. Andersson, Luke Barnard, Jürg Beer, Paul Charbonneau, Mark A. Clilverd, Thierry Dudok de Wit, Margit Haberreiter, Aaron Hendry, Charles H. Jackman, Matthieu Kretzschmar, Tim Kruschke, Markus Kunze, Ulrike Langematz, Daniel R. Marsh, Amanda C. Maycock, Stergios Misios, Craig J. Rodger, Adam A. Scaife, Annika Seppälä, Ming Shangguan, Miriam Sinnhuber, Kleareti Tourpali, Ilya Usoskin, Max van de Kamp, Pekka T. Verronen, and Stefan Versick
Geosci. Model Dev., 10, 2247–2302, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-10-2247-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-10-2247-2017, 2017
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The solar forcing dataset for climate model experiments performed for the upcoming IPCC report is described. This dataset provides the radiative and particle input of solar variability on a daily basis from 1850 through to 2300. With this dataset a better representation of natural climate variability with respect to the output of the Sun is provided which provides the most sophisticated and comprehensive respresentation of solar variability that has been used in climate model simulations so far.
Felix Ploeger, Paul Konopka, Kaley Walker, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 7055–7066, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-7055-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-7055-2017, 2017
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Pollution transport from the surface to the stratosphere within the Asian summer monsoon circulation may cause harmful effects on stratospheric chemistry and climate. We investigate air mass transport from the monsoon anticyclone into the stratosphere, combining model simulations with satellite trace gas measurements. We show evidence for two transport pathways from the monsoon: (i) into the tropical stratosphere and (ii) into the Northern Hemisphere extratropical lower stratosphere.
Olivier Membrive, Cyril Crevoisier, Colm Sweeney, François Danis, Albert Hertzog, Andreas Engel, Harald Bönisch, and Laurence Picon
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 2163–2181, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-2163-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-2163-2017, 2017
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A new high-resolution AirCore system is presented. This system flown with stratospheric balloons allows us to sample atmospheric air during the descent. The analysis of trace gases (CO2 and CH4 in this case) in the collected air sample provides information on the vertical distribution along the atmospheric column. The continuous vertical profiles retrieved may contribute to several research topics concerning the observation of greenhouse gases and, more generally, carbon cycle studies.
Andreas Engel, Harald Bönisch, Markus Ullrich, Robert Sitals, Olivier Membrive, Francois Danis, and Cyril Crevoisier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 6825–6838, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-6825-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-6825-2017, 2017
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AirCore is new technique for sampling stratospheric air. We present new observations of CO2 and CH4 using AirCore and derive stratospheric transport time, called the mean age of air. The purpose of using AirCore is to provide a cost-effective tool for deriving mean age. Mean age may serve as a proxy to investigate changes in stratospheric circulation. We show that there is no statistically significant trend in our 40-year time series of mean age, which is now extended using AirCore.
Rebecca R. Buchholz, Merritt N. Deeter, Helen M. Worden, John Gille, David P. Edwards, James W. Hannigan, Nicholas B. Jones, Clare Paton-Walsh, David W. T. Griffith, Dan Smale, John Robinson, Kimberly Strong, Stephanie Conway, Ralf Sussmann, Frank Hase, Thomas Blumenstock, Emmanuel Mahieu, and Bavo Langerock
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 1927–1956, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-1927-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-1927-2017, 2017
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The study presents the first systematic use of ground-based remote-sensing data from the Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC) to validate satellite-based Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT) total column carbon monoxide (CO). MOPITT generally shows low bias with respect to the ground-based instruments. The geographic and temporal dependence of validation results are determined. Our findings inform some recommendations for using MOPITT measurements.
Alexandra Laeng, Thomas von Clarmann, Gabriele Stiller, Bianca Maria Dinelli, Anu Dudhia, Piera Raspollini, Norbert Glatthor, Udo Grabowski, Viktoria Sofieva, Lucien Froidevaux, Kaley A. Walker, and Claus Zehner
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 1511–1518, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-1511-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-1511-2017, 2017
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A MIPAS instrument was flown in 2002–2012 on the Envisat satellite and measured atmospheric composition. There exist four processors retrieving atmospheric profiles from MIPAS spectra. We performed a mathematically clean merging of 2007–2008 datasets of ozone from these four processors. The merged product was compared with ozone datasets from ACE-FTS and MLS instruments. The advantages and the shortcomings of this merged product are discussed.
Mohamadou Diallo, Bernard Legras, Eric Ray, Andreas Engel, and Juan A. Añel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 3861–3878, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-3861-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-3861-2017, 2017
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We construct a new monthly zonal mean CO2 distribution from the upper troposphere to the stratosphere over the 2000–2010 period. The main features of the CO2 distribution are consistent with expected variability due to the transport of long-lived trace gases by the Brewer–Dobson circulation. The method used to construct this CO2 product is unique and should be useful for model and satellite validation in the upper troposphere and stratosphere.
Jennifer Ostermöller, Harald Bönisch, Patrick Jöckel, and Andreas Engel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 3785–3797, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-3785-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-3785-2017, 2017
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We analysed the temporal evolution of fractional release factors (FRFs) from EMAC model simulations for several halocarbons and nitrous oxide. The current formulation of FRFs yields values that depend on the tropospheric trend of the species. This is a problematic issue for the application of FRF in the calculation of steady-state quantities (e.g. ODP). Including a loss term in the calculation, we develop a new formulation of FRF and find that the time dependence can almost be compensated.
Stefan Lossow, Farahnaz Khosrawi, Gerald E. Nedoluha, Faiza Azam, Klaus Bramstedt, John. P. Burrows, Bianca M. Dinelli, Patrick Eriksson, Patrick J. Espy, Maya García-Comas, John C. Gille, Michael Kiefer, Stefan Noël, Piera Raspollini, William G. Read, Karen H. Rosenlof, Alexei Rozanov, Christopher E. Sioris, Gabriele P. Stiller, Kaley A. Walker, and Katja Weigel
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 1111–1137, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-1111-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-1111-2017, 2017
Jochen Stutz, Bodo Werner, Max Spolaor, Lisa Scalone, James Festa, Catalina Tsai, Ross Cheung, Santo F. Colosimo, Ugo Tricoli, Rasmus Raecke, Ryan Hossaini, Martyn P. Chipperfield, Wuhu Feng, Ru-Shan Gao, Eric J. Hintsa, James W. Elkins, Fred L. Moore, Bruce Daube, Jasna Pittman, Steven Wofsy, and Klaus Pfeilsticker
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 1017–1042, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-1017-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-1017-2017, 2017
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A new limb-scanning Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (DOAS) instrument was developed for NASA’s Global Hawk unmanned aerial system during the Airborne Tropical TRopopause EXperiment to study trace gases in the tropical tropopause layer. A new technique that uses in situ and DOAS O3 observations together with radiative transfer calculations allows the retrieval of mixing ratios from the slant column densities of BrO and NO2 at high accuracies of 0.5 ppt and 15 ppt, respectively.
Bernd Funke, William Ball, Stefan Bender, Angela Gardini, V. Lynn Harvey, Alyn Lambert, Manuel López-Puertas, Daniel R. Marsh, Katharina Meraner, Holger Nieder, Sanna-Mari Päivärinta, Kristell Pérot, Cora E. Randall, Thomas Reddmann, Eugene Rozanov, Hauke Schmidt, Annika Seppälä, Miriam Sinnhuber, Timofei Sukhodolov, Gabriele P. Stiller, Natalia D. Tsvetkova, Pekka T. Verronen, Stefan Versick, Thomas von Clarmann, Kaley A. Walker, and Vladimir Yushkov
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 3573–3604, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-3573-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-3573-2017, 2017
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Simulations from eight atmospheric models have been compared to tracer and temperature observations from seven satellite instruments in order to evaluate the energetic particle indirect effect (EPP IE) during the perturbed northern hemispheric (NH) winter 2008/2009. Models are capable to reproduce the EPP IE in dynamically and geomagnetically quiescent NH winter conditions. The results emphasize the need for model improvements in the dynamical representation of elevated stratopause events.
Norbert Glatthor, Michael Höpfner, Adrian Leyser, Gabriele P. Stiller, Thomas von Clarmann, Udo Grabowski, Sylvia Kellmann, Andrea Linden, Björn-Martin Sinnhuber, Gisèle Krysztofiak, and Kaley A. Walker
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 2631–2652, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-2631-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-2631-2017, 2017
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To date, information on the global distribution of atmospheric carbonyl sulfide (OCS) is still rather sparse.
However, detailed knowledge of the OCS distribution is of scientific interest, because this trace gas is on one of the major sources of atmospheric sulfur, which is a prerequisite of the stratospheric aerosol layer. Under this aspect we present a comprehensive space-borne data set of global OCS concentrations covering the period from June 2002 to April 2012.
Bodo Werner, Jochen Stutz, Max Spolaor, Lisa Scalone, Rasmus Raecke, James Festa, Santo Fedele Colosimo, Ross Cheung, Catalina Tsai, Ryan Hossaini, Martyn P. Chipperfield, Giorgio S. Taverna, Wuhu Feng, James W. Elkins, David W. Fahey, Ru-Shan Gao, Erik J. Hintsa, Troy D. Thornberry, Free Lee Moore, Maria A. Navarro, Elliot Atlas, Bruce C. Daube, Jasna Pittman, Steve Wofsy, and Klaus Pfeilsticker
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 1161–1186, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-1161-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-1161-2017, 2017
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The paper reports on inorganic and organic bromine measured in the tropical tropopause layer (TTL) over the eastern Pacific in early 2013. Bryinorg is found to increase from a mean of 2.63 ± 1.04 ppt for θ in the range of 350–360 K to 5.11 ± 1.57 ppt for θ=390 ± 400 K, whereas in the subtropical lower stratosphere, it reaches 7.66 ± 2.95 ppt for θ in the range of 390–400 K. Within the TTL, total bromine is found to range from 20.3 ppt to 22.3 ppt.
Tamás Kovács, Wuhu Feng, Anna Totterdill, John M. C. Plane, Sandip Dhomse, Juan Carlos Gómez-Martín, Gabriele P. Stiller, Florian J. Haenel, Christopher Smith, Piers M. Forster, Rolando R. García, Daniel R. Marsh, and Martyn P. Chipperfield
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 883–898, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-883-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-883-2017, 2017
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Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) is a very potent greenhouse gas, which is present in the atmosphere only through its industrial use, for example as an electrical insulator. To estimate accurately the impact of SF6 emissions on climate we need to know how long it persists in the atmosphere before being removed. Previous estimates of the SF6 lifetime indicate a large degree of uncertainty. Here we use a detailed atmospheric model to calculate a current best estimate of the SF6 lifetime.
Á. Aythami Jurado-Navarro, Manuel López-Puertas, Bernd Funke, Maya García-Comas, Angela Gardini, Francisco González-Galindo, Gabriele P. Stiller, Thomas von Clarmann, Udo Grabowski, and Andrea Linden
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 6081–6100, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-6081-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-6081-2016, 2016
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We present global distributions of CO2 concentrations in the upper atmosphere (70–140 km) derived from high-resolution 4.3 µm MIPAS spectra from 2005 to 2012. CO2 relative abundances have been measured at 120–140 km for the first time. The data have an unprecedented accuracy. CO2 shows a strong seasonal behaviour. CO2 largely controls the temperature of the upper atmosphere and its measurement is very important for understanding the impact of climate change in this region.
Martyn P. Chipperfield, Qing Liang, Matthew Rigby, Ryan Hossaini, Stephen A. Montzka, Sandip Dhomse, Wuhu Feng, Ronald G. Prinn, Ray F. Weiss, Christina M. Harth, Peter K. Salameh, Jens Mühle, Simon O'Doherty, Dickon Young, Peter G. Simmonds, Paul B. Krummel, Paul J. Fraser, L. Paul Steele, James D. Happell, Robert C. Rhew, James Butler, Shari A. Yvon-Lewis, Bradley Hall, David Nance, Fred Moore, Ben R. Miller, James W. Elkins, Jeremy J. Harrison, Chris D. Boone, Elliot L. Atlas, and Emmanuel Mahieu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 15741–15754, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-15741-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-15741-2016, 2016
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Carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) is a compound which, when released into the atmosphere, can cause depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer. Its emissions are controlled under the Montreal Protocol, and its atmospheric abundance is slowly decreasing. However, this decrease is not as fast as expected based on estimates of its emissions and its atmospheric lifetime. We have used an atmospheric model to look at the uncertainties in the CCl4 lifetime and to examine the impact on its atmospheric decay.
Bastiaan Jonkheid, Thomas Röckmann, Norbert Glatthor, Christof Janssen, Gabriele Stiller, and Thomas von Clarmann
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 6069–6079, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-6069-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-6069-2016, 2016
Christiane Voigt, Andreas Dörnbrack, Martin Wirth, Silke M. Groß, Robert Baumann, Benedikt Ehard, Michael C. Pitts, Lamont R. Poole, Björn-Martin Sinnhuber, and Hermann Oelhaf
Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2016-1082, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2016-1082, 2016
Revised manuscript not accepted
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The letter describes unprecedented observations of widespread and persistent polar stratospheric ice clouds (ice PSCs) in the exceptionally cold Arctic stratospheric winter 2015/16. The unique observations are of global relevance because trends in Arctic ozone loss and in polar temperatures are highly uncertain. The new observations at cold conditions serve to enhance our knowledge on ice PSC formation, Arctic ozone loss and polar stratrospheric temperatures in a changing climate.
Bärbel Vogel, Gebhard Günther, Rolf Müller, Jens-Uwe Grooß, Armin Afchine, Heiko Bozem, Peter Hoor, Martina Krämer, Stefan Müller, Martin Riese, Christian Rolf, Nicole Spelten, Gabriele P. Stiller, Jörn Ungermann, and Andreas Zahn
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 15301–15325, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-15301-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-15301-2016, 2016
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The identification of transport pathways from the Asian monsoon anticyclone into the lower stratosphere is unclear. Global simulations with the CLaMS model demonstrate that source regions in Asia and in the Pacific Ocean have a significant impact on the chemical composition of the lower stratosphere of the Northern Hemisphere by flooding the extratropical lower stratosphere with young moist air masses. Two main horizontal transport pathways from the Asian monsoon anticyclone are identified.
Quentin Errera, Simone Ceccherini, Yves Christophe, Simon Chabrillat, Michaela I. Hegglin, Alyn Lambert, Richard Ménard, Piera Raspollini, Sergey Skachko, Michiel van Weele, and Kaley A. Walker
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 5895–5909, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-5895-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-5895-2016, 2016
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When this study started, its goal was to provide a reanalysis of the stratospheric composition of methane and nitrous oxide, two important sources of hydrogen and nitrogen species in the stratosphere that influence the ozone abundance. However, the goal changed when several issues in the assimilated observations were discovered. Finally, this study illustrates how data assimilation methods can be used to add value to the observations as well as to diagnose their limitations.
Patrick E. Sheese, Kaley A. Walker, Chris D. Boone, Chris A. McLinden, Peter F. Bernath, Adam E. Bourassa, John P. Burrows, Doug A. Degenstein, Bernd Funke, Didier Fussen, Gloria L. Manney, C. Thomas McElroy, Donal Murtagh, Cora E. Randall, Piera Raspollini, Alexei Rozanov, James M. Russell III, Makoto Suzuki, Masato Shiotani, Joachim Urban, Thomas von Clarmann, and Joseph M. Zawodny
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 5781–5810, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-5781-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-5781-2016, 2016
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This study validates version 3.5 of the ACE-FTS NOy species data sets by comparing diurnally scaled ACE-FTS data to correlative data from 11 other satellite limb sounders. For all five species examined (NO, NO2, HNO3, N2O5, and ClONO2), there is good agreement between ACE-FTS and the other data sets in various regions of the atmosphere. In these validated regions, these NOy data products can be used for further investigation into the composition, dynamics, and climate of the stratosphere.
Minqiang Zhou, Corinne Vigouroux, Bavo Langerock, Pucai Wang, Geoff Dutton, Christian Hermans, Nicolas Kumps, Jean-Marc Metzger, Geoff Toon, and Martine De Mazière
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 5621–5636, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-5621-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-5621-2016, 2016
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Profiles of CFC-11, CFC-12 and HCFC-22 have been obtained from FTIR measurements above the Saint-Denis and Maïdo sites at Reunion Island (21° S, 55° E) with low vertical resolution. The trends derived from the FTIR measurements are −0.86 ± 0.12 % and 2.84 ± 0.06 % for CFC-11 and HCFC-22, respectively, for the period 2004 to 2016, and −0.76 ± 0.05 % for CFC-12 for 2009 to 2016, which are consistent with ground-based in situ observations. Our FTIR data and the collocated MIPAS data are in good agreement.
Thomas von Clarmann and Udo Grabowski
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 14563–14584, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-14563-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-14563-2016, 2016
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We present a method which uses global measurements of stable stratospheric trace species to infer stratospheric circulation. This method finds the circulation vectors which best satisfy the continuity equation for the given measurements. Some of the main disadvantages of more conventional methods are avoided. As a proof of concept, this method has been applied to measurements from the MIPAS instrument. Its adequacy has been proven since the inferred circulation shows the expected features.
Elisa Castelli, Marco Ridolfi, Massimo Carlotti, Björn-Martin Sinnhuber, Oliver Kirner, Michael Kiefer, and Bianca Maria Dinelli
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 5499–5508, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-5499-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-5499-2016, 2016
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MIPAS is a satellite-borne limb emission sounder. The algorithm used to infer atmospheric composition from its measurements exploits the assumption that the atmosphere is horizontally homogeneous. This assumption can cause significant errors. We use synthetic observations to quantify these errors. Furthermore we show that the inclusion of any kind of horizontal variability model improves all the retrieval targets and that the two-dimensional approach implies the smallest errors.
Michael Höpfner, Rainer Volkamer, Udo Grabowski, Michel Grutter, Johannes Orphal, Gabriele Stiller, Thomas von Clarmann, and Gerald Wetzel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 14357–14369, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-14357-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-14357-2016, 2016
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Ammonia (NH3) in the atmosphere is important because of its influence on aerosol and cloud formation and its increasing anthropogenic emissions. We report the first detection of NH3 in the upper troposphere by the analysis of infrared limb emission spectra measured by the MIPAS instrument on Envisat. We have found enhanced values of NH3 within the Asian summer monsoon upper troposphere, where it might contribute to the composition of the Asian tropopause aerosol layer.
Richard J. Pope, Nigel A. D. Richards, Martyn P. Chipperfield, David P. Moore, Sarah A. Monks, Stephen R. Arnold, Norbert Glatthor, Michael Kiefer, Tom J. Breider, Jeremy J. Harrison, John J. Remedios, Carsten Warneke, James M. Roberts, Glenn S. Diskin, Lewis G. Huey, Armin Wisthaler, Eric C. Apel, Peter F. Bernath, and Wuhu Feng
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 13541–13559, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-13541-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-13541-2016, 2016
Florian Obersteiner, Harald Bönisch, Timo Keber, Simon O'Doherty, and Andreas Engel
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 5265–5279, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-5265-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-5265-2016, 2016
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The analysis of trace gases in ambient air requires a preconcentration technique, in many cases to make the species of interest detectable and quantifiable. In this paper, such a preconcentration set-up is presented. Target species are trapped on adsorptive material cooled by a Stirling cooler which allows for a very low adsorption temperature but only requires electrical power. A simple and lightweight mechanical design guarantees very good suitability for remote-site field operation.
Laura E. Revell, Andrea Stenke, Eugene Rozanov, William Ball, Stefan Lossow, and Thomas Peter
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 13067–13080, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-13067-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-13067-2016, 2016
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Water vapour in the stratosphere plays an important role in atmospheric chemistry and the Earth's radiative balance. We have analysed trends in stratospheric water vapour through the 21st century as simulated by a coupled chemistry–climate model following a range of greenhouse gas emission scenarios. We have also quantified the contribution that methane oxidation in the stratosphere makes to projected water vapour trends.
Nathan P. Gillett, Hideo Shiogama, Bernd Funke, Gabriele Hegerl, Reto Knutti, Katja Matthes, Benjamin D. Santer, Daithi Stone, and Claudia Tebaldi
Geosci. Model Dev., 9, 3685–3697, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-9-3685-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-9-3685-2016, 2016
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Detection and attribution of climate change is the process of determining the causes of observed climate changes, which has underpinned key conclusions on the role of human influence on climate in the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This paper describes a coordinated set of climate model experiments that will form part of the Sixth Coupled Model Intercomparison Project and will support improved attribution of climate change in the next IPCC report.
Andreas Ostler, Ralf Sussmann, Prabir K. Patra, Sander Houweling, Marko De Bruine, Gabriele P. Stiller, Florian J. Haenel, Johannes Plieninger, Philippe Bousquet, Yi Yin, Marielle Saunois, Kaley A. Walker, Nicholas M. Deutscher, David W. T. Griffith, Thomas Blumenstock, Frank Hase, Thorsten Warneke, Zhiting Wang, Rigel Kivi, and John Robinson
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 4843–4859, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-4843-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-4843-2016, 2016
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Our evaluation of column-averaged methane (XCH4) in models and TCCON reveals latitudinal biases between 0.4 % and 2.1 % originating from an inter-model spread in stratospheric CH4. Substituting model stratospheric CH4 fields by satellite data significantly reduces the large XCH4 bias observed for one model. For other models, showing only minor biases, the impact is ambiguous; i.e., the satellite uncertainty range hinders a more accurate model evaluation needed to improve inverse modeling.
Niall J. Ryan, Kaley A. Walker, Uwe Raffalski, Rigel Kivi, Jochen Gross, and Gloria L. Manney
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 4503–4519, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-4503-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-4503-2016, 2016
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Atmospheric ozone concentrations above Kiruna, Sweden, within 16–54 km altitude, were obtained using measurements from two ground-based instruments, KIMRA and MIRA 2. The results were compared to satellite and balloon data for validation, revealing an oscillatory offset in KIMRA data between 18 and 35 km. KIMRA data from 2008 to 2013 show a local minimum in mid-stratospheric winter ozone concentrations that is likely due to dynamics related to the polar vortex.
Maya García-Comas, Francisco González-Galindo, Bernd Funke, Angela Gardini, Aythami Jurado-Navarro, Manuel López-Puertas, and William E. Ward
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 11019–11041, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-11019-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-11019-2016, 2016
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In this paper, for the first time, temperature longitudinal oscillations are derived from 20 to 150 km from a single instrument. A climatology of amplitudes and phases of zonal waves with odd daily frequencies is presented on a global scale. The interannual variability in amplitudes of the migrating modes shows a QBO in the MLT, which is probably originated in the stratosphere. The results are useful for testing general circulation models considering tidal effects in the MLT region.
Swagata Payra, Philippe Ricaud, Rachid Abida, Laaziz El Amraoui, Jean-Luc Attié, Emmanuel Rivière, Fabien Carminati, and Thomas von Clarmann
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 4355–4373, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-4355-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-4355-2016, 2016
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The study deals with the budget of water vapour (H2O) at the tropical tropopause. The MOCAGE-VALENTINA assimilation tool has been used to assimilate Microwave Limb Sounder H2O space-borne measurements within the 316–5 hPa range from August 2011 to March 2013. Diagnostics are developed to assess the quality of the analyses depending on several parameters. Sensitivity studies show the improvement on the analyses when assimilating measurements of better quality, mainly over the convective areas.
James H. Butler, Shari A. Yvon-Lewis, Jurgen M. Lobert, Daniel B. King, Stephen A. Montzka, John L. Bullister, Valentin Koropalov, James W. Elkins, Bradley D. Hall, Lei Hu, and Yina Liu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 10899–10910, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-10899-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-10899-2016, 2016
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This study was conducted to understand the influence of the ocean on the lifetime of atmospheric carbon tetrachloride, a strong, ozone-depleting gas. Data from 16 research cruises conducted between 1987 and 2010 show that, unlike the unreactive chlorofluorocarbons, carbon tetrachloride is undersaturated in surface waters regardless of temperature, wind, or biological regime, but with larger undersaturations with upwelling. Results suggest that the ocean consumes about 18 % of atmospheric CCl4.
Stefan Müller, Peter Hoor, Heiko Bozem, Ellen Gute, Bärbel Vogel, Andreas Zahn, Harald Bönisch, Timo Keber, Martina Krämer, Christian Rolf, Martin Riese, Hans Schlager, and Andreas Engel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 10573–10589, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-10573-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-10573-2016, 2016
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In situ airborne measurements performed during TACTS/ESMVal 2012 were analysed to investigate the chemical compostion of the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. N2O, CO and O3 data show an increase in tropospherically affected air masses within the extratropical stratosphere from August to September 2012, which originate from the Asian monsoon region. Thus, the Asian monsoon anticyclone significantly affected the chemical composition of the extratropical stratosphere during summer 2012.
Lorena Moreira, Klemens Hocke, Francisco Navas-Guzmán, Ellen Eckert, Thomas von Clarmann, and Niklaus Kämpfer
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 10455–10467, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-10455-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-10455-2016, 2016
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The GROMOS radiometer in Bern has been part of the NDACC since 1994. Our time series of stratospheric ozone profiles allow the assessment of natural oscillations, which are essential for the evaluation of detected stratospheric ozone trends. Among our new findings are the link between the upper stratospheric O3-SAO and the polar stratopause warmings in winter. We have also detected a strong peak amplitude of 5 % related to the solar activity cycle and the ENSO effect in ozone at midlatitudes.
Reinhold Spang, Lars Hoffmann, Michael Höpfner, Sabine Griessbach, Rolf Müller, Michael C. Pitts, Andrew M. W. Orr, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 3619–3639, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-3619-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-3619-2016, 2016
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We present a new classification approach for different polar stratospheric cloud types. The so-called Bayesian classifier estimates the most likely probability that one of the three PSC types (ice, NAT, or STS) dominates the characteristics of a measured infrared spectrum. The entire measurement period of the satellite instrument MIPAS from July 2002 to April 2013 is processed using the new classifier.
Manfred Ern, Quang Thai Trinh, Martin Kaufmann, Isabell Krisch, Peter Preusse, Jörn Ungermann, Yajun Zhu, John C. Gille, Martin G. Mlynczak, James M. Russell III, Michael J. Schwartz, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 9983–10019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-9983-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-9983-2016, 2016
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Sudden stratospheric warmings (SSWs) influence the atmospheric circulation over a large range of altitudes and latitudes. We investigate the global distribution of small-scale gravity waves (GWs) during SSWs as derived from 13 years of satellite observations.
We find that GWs may play an important role for triggering SSWs by preconditioning the polar vortex, as well as during long-lasting vortex recovery phases after SSWs. The GW distribution during SSWs displays strong day-to-day variability.
Wolfgang Woiwode, Michael Höpfner, Lei Bi, Michael C. Pitts, Lamont R. Poole, Hermann Oelhaf, Sergej Molleker, Stephan Borrmann, Marcus Klingebiel, Gennady Belyaev, Andreas Ebersoldt, Sabine Griessbach, Jens-Uwe Grooß, Thomas Gulde, Martina Krämer, Guido Maucher, Christof Piesch, Christian Rolf, Christian Sartorius, Reinhold Spang, and Johannes Orphal
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 9505–9532, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-9505-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-9505-2016, 2016
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The analysis of spectral signatures of a polar stratospheric cloud in airborne infrared remote sensing observations in the Arctic in combination with further collocated measurements supports the view that the observed cloud consisted of highly aspherical nitric acid trihydrate particles. A characteristic "shoulder-like" spectral signature may be exploited for identification of large, highly aspherical nitric acid trihydrate particles involved in denitrification of the polar winter stratosphere.
R. Hossaini, P. K. Patra, A. A. Leeson, G. Krysztofiak, N. L. Abraham, S. J. Andrews, A. T. Archibald, J. Aschmann, E. L. Atlas, D. A. Belikov, H. Bönisch, L. J. Carpenter, S. Dhomse, M. Dorf, A. Engel, W. Feng, S. Fuhlbrügge, P. T. Griffiths, N. R. P. Harris, R. Hommel, T. Keber, K. Krüger, S. T. Lennartz, S. Maksyutov, H. Mantle, G. P. Mills, B. Miller, S. A. Montzka, F. Moore, M. A. Navarro, D. E. Oram, K. Pfeilsticker, J. A. Pyle, B. Quack, A. D. Robinson, E. Saikawa, A. Saiz-Lopez, S. Sala, B.-M. Sinnhuber, S. Taguchi, S. Tegtmeier, R. T. Lidster, C. Wilson, and F. Ziska
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 9163–9187, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-9163-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-9163-2016, 2016
Markus Kunze, Peter Braesicke, Ulrike Langematz, and Gabriele Stiller
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 8695–8714, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-8695-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-8695-2016, 2016
Bernd Funke, Manuel López-Puertas, Gabriele P. Stiller, Stefan Versick, and Thomas von Clarmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 8667–8693, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-8667-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-8667-2016, 2016
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We present a semi-empirical model for the reconstruction of polar winter descent of reactive nitrogen (NOy) produced by energetic particle precipitation (EPP) into the stratosphere. It can be used to prescribe NOy in chemistry climate models with an upper lid below the EPP source region. We also found a significant reduction of the EPP-generated NOy during the last 30 years, likely affecting the long-term NOy trend by counteracting the expected increase caused by growing N2O emission.
Michael T. Kiefer, Warren E. Heilman, Shiyuan Zhong, Joseph J. Charney, and Xindi Bian
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 8499–8509, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-8499-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-8499-2016, 2016
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Studies of fire–atmosphere interactions in horizontally heterogeneous forests are limited in number. This study considers the sensitivity of fire-perturbed variables (e.g., vertical velocity, turbulent kinetic energy) to gaps in forest cover using ARPS-CANOPY, an atmospheric numerical model with a canopy sub-model. Results show that the atmosphere is most sensitive to the fire when the gap is centered on the fire and least sensitive when the gap is upstream of the fire.
Sabine Brinkop, Martin Dameris, Patrick Jöckel, Hella Garny, Stefan Lossow, and Gabriele Stiller
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 8125–8140, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-8125-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-8125-2016, 2016
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This study investigates the water vapour decline in the stratosphere beginning in the year 2000 and other similarly strong stratospheric water vapour reductions. The driving forces are tropical sea surface temperature (SST) changes due to coincidence with a preceding ENSO event and supported by the west to east change of the QBO.
There are indications that both SSTs and the specific dynamical state of the atmosphere contribute to the long period of low water vapour values from 2001 to 2006.
Daan Hubert, Jean-Christopher Lambert, Tijl Verhoelst, José Granville, Arno Keppens, Jean-Luc Baray, Adam E. Bourassa, Ugo Cortesi, Doug A. Degenstein, Lucien Froidevaux, Sophie Godin-Beekmann, Karl W. Hoppel, Bryan J. Johnson, Erkki Kyrölä, Thierry Leblanc, Günter Lichtenberg, Marion Marchand, C. Thomas McElroy, Donal Murtagh, Hideaki Nakane, Thierry Portafaix, Richard Querel, James M. Russell III, Jacobo Salvador, Herman G. J. Smit, Kerstin Stebel, Wolfgang Steinbrecht, Kevin B. Strawbridge, René Stübi, Daan P. J. Swart, Ghassan Taha, David W. Tarasick, Anne M. Thompson, Joachim Urban, Joanna A. E. van Gijsel, Roeland Van Malderen, Peter von der Gathen, Kaley A. Walker, Elian Wolfram, and Joseph M. Zawodny
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 2497–2534, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-2497-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-2497-2016, 2016
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A more detailed understanding of satellite O3 profile data records is vital for further progress in O3 research. To this end, we made a comprehensive assessment of 14 limb/occultation profilers using ground-based reference data. The mutual consistency of satellite O3 in terms of bias, short-term variability and decadal stability is generally good over most of the stratosphere. However, we identified some exceptions that impact the quality of recently merged data sets and ozone trend assessments.
Maya García-Comas, Manuel López-Puertas, Bernd Funke, Á. Aythami Jurado-Navarro, Angela Gardini, Gabriele P. Stiller, Thomas von Clarmann, and Michael Höpfner
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 6701–6719, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-6701-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-6701-2016, 2016
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We have analysed IR measurements of PMCs in the NH and SH from 2005 to 2012. This technique is sensitive to the total ice volume independent of particle size. For the first time, we have measured the total ice volume from the midlatitudes to the poles. The data indicate a layer of ice from 81 to 89 km and from the poles to 50–60º in each hemisphere, increasing near the poles. The ice density is larger in the NH than in the SH and located 1 km lower. PMCs also show a diurnal variation.
Frank Hase, Matthias Frey, Matthäus Kiel, Thomas Blumenstock, Roland Harig, Axel Keens, and Johannes Orphal
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 2303–2313, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-2303-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-2303-2016, 2016
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We describe an extension of a portable FTIR (Fourier transform infrafed) spectrometer dedicated to the measurement of column-averaged abundances of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The measurement principle is based on a spectrally resolved solar absorption observation (trace gas amounts are deduced from the strength of near-infrared absorption bands). The dual-channel set-up presented here allows co-observing CO while maintaining the highly favourable characteristics of the original device.
Ugo Cortesi, Samuele Del Bianco, Simone Ceccherini, Marco Gai, Bianca Maria Dinelli, Elisa Castelli, Hermann Oelhaf, Wolfgang Woiwode, Michael Höpfner, and Daniel Gerber
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 2267–2289, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-2267-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-2267-2016, 2016
Gerrit Holl, Kaley A. Walker, Stephanie Conway, Naoko Saitoh, Chris D. Boone, Kimberly Strong, and James R. Drummond
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 1961–1980, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-1961-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-1961-2016, 2016
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Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, and we need to measure it globally with satellite instruments. We compare measurements from two satellites with measurements from the ground in Eureka, Nunavut, Canada to assess their different strengths and weaknesses. The differences between measurements are discussed and assessed considering the details of each measurement technique and processing. Recommendations are provided for utilization of these data sets for monitoring methane in the high Arctic.
M. Chirkov, G. P. Stiller, A. Laeng, S. Kellmann, T. von Clarmann, C. D. Boone, J. W. Elkins, A. Engel, N. Glatthor, U. Grabowski, C. M. Harth, M. Kiefer, F. Kolonjari, P. B. Krummel, A. Linden, C. R. Lunder, B. R. Miller, S. A. Montzka, J. Mühle, S. O'Doherty, J. Orphal, R. G. Prinn, G. Toon, M. K. Vollmer, K. A. Walker, R. F. Weiss, A. Wiegele, and D. Young
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 3345–3368, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-3345-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-3345-2016, 2016
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HCFC-22 global distributions from MIPAS measurements for 2005 to 2012 are presented. Tropospheric trends are in good agreement with ground-based observations. A layer of enhanced HCFC-22 in the upper tropospheric tropics and northern subtropics is identified to come from Asian sources uplifted in the Asian monsoon. Stratospheric distributions provide show seasonal, semi-annual, and QBO-related variations. Hemispheric asymmetries of trends hint towards a change in the stratospheric circulation.
Andreas Engel, Harald Bönisch, Tim Schwarzenberger, Hans-Peter Haase, Katja Grunow, Jana Abalichin, and Stephan Sala
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 1051–1062, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-1051-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-1051-2016, 2016
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We present a validation of MIPAS-ENVISAT vertical profiles (ESA operational retrieval version 6.0) of N2O, CH4, CFC-12, and CFC-11. The geophysical validation is performed using data from a balloon-borne cryogenic whole air sampler and trajectory matching. We show that the validation results are different for the period prior to 2005 compared to the post 2005 period. N2O, CH4, and CFC-12 show partly good agreement while CFC-11 data from this retrieval cannot be used for scientific studies.
Johannes Plieninger, Alexandra Laeng, Stefan Lossow, Thomas von Clarmann, Gabriele P. Stiller, Sylvia Kellmann, Andrea Linden, Michael Kiefer, Kaley A. Walker, Stefan Noël, Mark E. Hervig, Martin McHugh, Alyn Lambert, Joachim Urban, James W. Elkins, and Donal Murtagh
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 765–779, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-765-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-765-2016, 2016
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We compare concentration profiles of methane and nitrous oxide measured from MIPAS-ENVISAT and derived with a new retrieval setup to those measured by other satellite instruments and to surface measurements. For methane we use profiles measured by ACE-FTS, HALOE and SCIAMACHY; for nitrous oxide we use profiles measured by ACE-FTS, Aura-MLS and Odin-SMR for the comparisons. We give a quantitative bias estimation and compare the estimated errors provided by the instruments.
S. Tegtmeier, M. I. Hegglin, J. Anderson, B. Funke, J. Gille, A. Jones, L. Smith, T. von Clarmann, and K. A. Walker
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 8, 61–78, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-8-61-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-8-61-2016, 2016
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The first comprehensive intercomparison of CFC-11, CFC-12, HF, and SF6 satellite data was performed as part of the SPARC Data Initiative following a new "top-down" concept of satellite measurement validation and thus providing a global picture of the data characteristics. The comparisons will provide basic information on quality and consistency of the various data sets and will serve as a guide for their use in empirical studies of climate and variability, and in model-measurement comparisons.
F. Obersteiner, H. Bönisch, and A. Engel
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 179–194, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-179-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-179-2016, 2016
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We present the characterization and application of a new gas chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry instrument, with focus on quantitative analysis of halocarbons in air samples. The applicability of the TOFMS technique, e.g. to form the basis of a "digital air archieve", is supported by the findings of this work: very high sensitivity, high measurement precision, a large dynamical range and an open data format which allows in-depth analysis of the data.