Articles | Volume 19, issue 12
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-8311-2019
© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-8311-2019
© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
27 Jun 2019
Research article |
| 27 Jun 2019
| 27 Jun 2019
Unusual chlorine partitioning in the 2015/16 Arctic winter lowermost stratosphere: observations and simulations
Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
Michelle L. Santee
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA
Jens-Uwe Grooß
Institute of Energy and Climate Research – Stratosphere (IEK-7), Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich, Germany
Michael Höpfner
Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
Marleen Braun
Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
Felix Friedl-Vallon
Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
Farahnaz Khosrawi
Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
Oliver Kirner
Steinbuch Centre for Computing, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
Erik Kretschmer
Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
Hermann Oelhaf
Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
Johannes Orphal
Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
Björn-Martin Sinnhuber
Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
Ines Tritscher
Institute of Energy and Climate Research – Stratosphere (IEK-7), Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich, Germany
Jörn Ungermann
Institute of Energy and Climate Research – Stratosphere (IEK-7), Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich, Germany
Kaley A. Walker
Department of Physics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Wolfgang Woiwode
Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
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Sören Johansson, Michael Höpfner, Felix Friedl-Vallon, Norbert Glatthor, Thomas Gulde, Vincent Huijnen, Anne Kleinert, Erik Kretschmer, Guido Maucher, Tom Neubert, Hans Nordmeyer, Christof Piesch, Peter Preusse, Martin Riese, Björn-Martin Sinnhuber, Jörn Ungermann, Gerald Wetzel, and Wolfgang Woiwode
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Ozone measurements from the ACE-FTS satellite instrument have been compared to worldwide balloon-borne ozonesonde profiles using pairs of closely-spaced profiles and monthly averaged profiles. ACE-FTS typically measures more ozone in the stratosphere by up to 10 %. The long-term stability of the ACE-FTS ozone data is good exhibiting small (but not significant) drifts of less than 3 % per decade in the stratosphere. Lower in the profiles, the calculated drifts are larger (up to 10 % per decade).
Sandra Graßl, Christoph Ritter, Ines Tritscher, and Bärbel Vogel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 7535–7557, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-7535-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-7535-2024, 2024
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Arctic lidar data for 1 year are compared with global modeling of aerosol tracers in the stratosphere. A trend in the aerosol backscatter can be found. These observations are further compared with a model study to investigate the aerosol origin of the observed arctic aerosol. We found a correlation with increased backscatter signal during summer and early autumn and pathways from the Southeast Asian monsoon region and remains of the Asian tropopause aerosol layer in the Arctic.
Karen De Los Ríos, Paulina Ordoñez, Gabriele P. Stiller, Piera Raspollini, Marco Gai, Kaley A. Walker, Cristina Peña-Ortiz, and Luis Acosta
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 3401–3418, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3401-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-3401-2024, 2024
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This study examines newer versions of H2O and HDO retrievals from Envisat/MIPAS and SCISAT/ACE-FTS. Results reveal a better agreement in stratospheric H2O profiles than in HDO profiles. The H2O tape recorder signal is consistent across databases, but δD tape recorder composites show differences that impact the interpretation of water vapour transport. These findings enhance the need for intercomparisons to refine our insights.
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
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 5863–5886, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-5863-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-5863-2024, 2024
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This study uses snow samples collected from a Canadian high Arctic site, Eureka, to demonstrate that surface snow in early spring is a net sink of atmospheric bromine and nitrogen. Surface snow bromide and nitrate are significantly correlated, indicating the oxidation of reactive nitrogen is accelerated by reactive bromine. In addition, we show evidence that snow photochemical release of reactive bromine is very weak, and its emission flux is much smaller than the deposition flux of bromide.
Christina V. Brodowsky, Timofei Sukhodolov, Gabriel Chiodo, Valentina Aquila, Slimane Bekki, Sandip S. Dhomse, Michael Höpfner, Anton Laakso, Graham W. Mann, Ulrike Niemeier, Giovanni Pitari, Ilaria Quaglia, Eugene Rozanov, Anja Schmidt, Takashi Sekiya, Simone Tilmes, Claudia Timmreck, Sandro Vattioni, Daniele Visioni, Pengfei Yu, Yunqian Zhu, and Thomas Peter
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 5513–5548, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-5513-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-5513-2024, 2024
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The aerosol layer is an essential part of the climate system. We characterize the sulfur budget in a volcanically quiescent (background) setting, with a special focus on the sulfate aerosol layer using, for the first time, a multi-model approach. The aim is to identify weak points in the representation of the atmospheric sulfur budget in an intercomparison of nine state-of-the-art coupled global circulation models.
Norbert Glatthor, Thomas von Clarmann, Bernd Funke, Maya García-Comas, Udo Grabowski, Michael Höpfner, Sylvia Kellmann, Michael Kiefer, Alexandra Laeng, Andrea Linden, Manuel López-Puertas, and Gabriele P. Stiller
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2849–2871, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2849-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2849-2024, 2024
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We present global atmospheric methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) distributions retrieved from measurements of the MIPAS instrument on board 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 analyze the latest, improved version of calibrated MIPAS measurements. Further, we apply a new retrieval scheme leading to an improved CH4 and N2O data product .
Qiansi Tu, Frank Hase, Kai Qin, Jason Blake Cohen, Farahnaz Khosrawi, Xinrui Zou, Matthias Schneider, and Fan Lu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 4875–4894, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4875-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4875-2024, 2024
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Four-year satellite observations of XCH4 are used to derive CH4 emissions in three regions of China’s coal-rich Shanxi province. The wind-assigned anomalies for two opposite wind directions are calculated, and the estimated emission rates are comparable to the current bottom-up inventory but lower than the CAMS and EDGAR inventories. This research enhances the understanding of emissions in Shanxi and supports climate mitigation strategies by validating emission inventories.
Felicia Kolonjari, Patrick E. Sheese, Kaley A. Walker, Chris D. Boone, David A. Plummer, Andreas Engel, Stephen A. Montzka, David E. Oram, Tanja Schuck, Gabriele P. Stiller, and Geoffrey C. Toon
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 2429–2449, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2429-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-2429-2024, 2024
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The Canadian Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier transform spectrometer (ACE-FTS) satellite instrument is currently providing the only vertically resolved chlorodifluoromethane (HCFC-22) measurements from space. This study assesses the most current ACE-FTS HCFC-22 data product in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere, as well as modelled HCFC-22 from a 39-year run of the Canadian Middle Atmosphere Model (CMAM39) in the same region.
Paul S. Jeffery, James R. Drummond, Jiansheng Zou, and Kaley A. Walker
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 4253–4263, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4253-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-4253-2024, 2024
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The MOPITT instrument has been monitoring carbon monoxide (CO) since March 2000. This dataset has been used for many applications; however, episodic emission events, which release large amounts of CO into the atmosphere, are a major source of uncertainty. This study presents a method for identifying these events by determining measurements that are unlikely to have typically arisen. The distribution and frequency of these flagged measurements in the MOPITT dataset are presented and discussed.
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
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 1079–1118, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-1079-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-1079-2024, 2024
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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 generally underpredict the concentrations of these gases in the Arctic troposphere.
Bärbel Vogel, C. Michael Volk, Johannes Wintel, Valentin Lauther, Jan Clemens, Jens-Uwe Grooß, Gebhard Günther, Lars Hoffmann, Johannes C. Laube, Rolf Müller, Felix Ploeger, and Fred Stroh
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 317–343, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-317-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-317-2024, 2024
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Over the Indian subcontinent, polluted air is rapidly uplifted to higher altitudes during the Asian monsoon season. We present an assessment of vertical transport in this region using different wind data provided by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), as well as high-resolution aircraft measurements. In general, our findings confirm that the newest ECMWF reanalysis product, ERA5, yields a better representation of transport compared to the predecessor, ERA-Interim.
Andrea Pazmiño, 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, and Kaley A. Walker
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 15655–15670, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-15655-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-15655-2023, 2023
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The vortex-averaged ozone loss over the last 3 decades is evaluated for both polar regions using the passive ozone tracer of the chemical transport model TOMCAT/SLIMCAT and total ozone observations from the SAOZ network and MSR2 reanalysis. Three metrics were developed to compute ozone trends since 2000. The study confirms the ozone recovery in the Antarctic and shows a potential sign of quantitative detection of ozone recovery in the Arctic that needs to be robustly confirmed in the future.
Konstantin Ntokas, Jörn Ungermann, Martin Kaufmann, Tom Neubert, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 5681–5696, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5681-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-5681-2023, 2023
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A nanosatellite was developed to obtain 1-D vertical temperature profiles in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere, which can be used to derive wave parameters needed for atmospheric models. A new processing method is shown, which allows one to extract two 1-D temperature profiles. The location of the two profiles is analyzed, as it is needed for deriving wave parameters. We show that this method is feasible, which however will increase the requirements of an accurate calibration and processing.
Kimberlee Dubé, Susann Tegtmeier, Adam Bourassa, Daniel Zawada, Douglas Degenstein, Patrick E. Sheese, Kaley A. Walker, and William Randel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 13283–13300, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13283-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13283-2023, 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.
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., 16, 4589–4642, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4589-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-4589-2023, 2023
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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.
Manfred Ern, Mohamadou A. Diallo, Dina Khordakova, Isabell Krisch, Peter Preusse, Oliver Reitebuch, Jörn Ungermann, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 9549–9583, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9549-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-9549-2023, 2023
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Quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) of the stratospheric tropical winds is an important mode of climate variability but is not well reproduced in free-running climate models. We use the novel global wind observations by the Aeolus satellite and radiosondes to show that the QBO is captured well in three modern reanalyses (ERA-5, JRA-55, and MERRA-2). Good agreement is also found also between Aeolus and reanalyses for large-scale tropical wave modes in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere.
Sebastian Rhode, Peter Preusse, Manfred Ern, Jörn Ungermann, Lukas Krasauskas, Julio Bacmeister, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 7901–7934, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-7901-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-7901-2023, 2023
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Gravity waves (GWs) transport energy vertically and horizontally within the atmosphere and thereby affect wind speeds far from their sources. Here, we present a model that identifies orographic GW sources and predicts the pathways of the excited GWs through the atmosphere for a better understanding of horizontal GW propagation. We use this model to explain physical patterns in satellite observations (e.g., low GW activity above the Himalaya) and predict seasonal patterns of GW propagation.
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.
Frank Werner, Nathaniel J. Livesey, Luis F. Millán, William G. Read, Michael J. Schwartz, Paul A. Wagner, William H. Daffer, Alyn Lambert, Sasha N. Tolstoff, and Michelle L. Santee
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 2733–2751, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2733-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2733-2023, 2023
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The algorithm that produces the near-real-time data products of the Aura Microwave Limb Sounder has been updated. The new algorithm is based on machine learning techniques and yields data products with much improved accuracy. It is shown that the new algorithm outperforms the previous versions, even when it is trained on only a few years of satellite observations. This confirms the potential of applying machine learning to the near-real-time efforts of other current and future mission concepts.
Qiansi Tu, Frank Hase, Zihan Chen, Matthias Schneider, Omaira García, Farahnaz Khosrawi, Shuo Chen, Thomas Blumenstock, Fang Liu, Kai Qin, Jason Cohen, Qin He, Song Lin, Hongyan Jiang, and Dianjun Fang
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 16, 2237–2262, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2237-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-16-2237-2023, 2023
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Four-year TROPOMI observations are used to derive tropospheric NO2 emissions in two mega(cities) with high anthropogenic activity. Wind-assigned anomalies are calculated, and the emission rates and spatial patterns are estimated based on a machine learning algorithm. The results are in reasonable agreement with previous studies and the inventory. Our method is quite robust and can be used as a simple method to estimate the emissions of NO2 as well as other gases in other regions.
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).
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.
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.
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.
Farahnaz Khosrawi, Kinya Toride, Kei Yoshimura, Christopher Diekmann, Benjamin Ertl, Frank Hase, and Matthias Schneider
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-1408, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2022-1408, 2022
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We assess with an Observation System Simulation Experiment the potential of mid-tropospheric water isotopologue data for constraining uncertainties in meteorological analysis fields in the tropics. Our assimilation experiments indicate that isotopologue observations have the potential to reduce the uncertainties of diabatic heating rates and precipitation in the tropics and in consequence offer potential for improving meteorological analysis in the tropical regions.
Reimar Bauer, Jens-Uwe Grooß, Jörn Ungermann, May Bär, Markus Geldenhuys, and Lars Hoffmann
Geosci. Model Dev., 15, 8983–8997, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-8983-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-8983-2022, 2022
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The Mission Support System (MSS) is an open source software package that has been used for planning flight tracks of scientific aircraft in multiple measurement campaigns during the last decade. Here, we describe the MSS software and its use during the SouthTRAC measurement campaign in 2019. As an example for how the MSS software is used in conjunction with many datasets, we describe the planning of a single flight probing orographic gravity waves propagating up into the lower mesosphere.
Qiuyu Chen, Konstantin Ntokas, Björn Linder, Lukas Krasauskas, Manfred Ern, Peter Preusse, Jörn Ungermann, Erich Becker, Martin Kaufmann, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 7071–7103, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-7071-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-7071-2022, 2022
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Observations of phase speed and direction spectra as well as zonal mean net gravity wave momentum flux are required to understand how gravity waves reach the mesosphere–lower thermosphere and how they there interact with background flow. To this end we propose flying two CubeSats, each deploying a spatial heterodyne spectrometer for limb observation of the airglow. End-to-end simulations demonstrate that individual gravity waves are retrieved faithfully for the expected instrument performance.
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.
Bernard Legras, Clair Duchamp, Pasquale Sellitto, Aurélien Podglajen, Elisa Carboni, Richard Siddans, Jens-Uwe Grooß, Sergey Khaykin, and Felix Ploeger
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 14957–14970, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14957-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14957-2022, 2022
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The long-duration atmospheric impact of the Tonga eruption in January 2022 is a plume of water and sulfate aerosols in the stratosphere that persisted for more than 6 months. We study this evolution using several satellite instruments and analyse the unusual behaviour of this plume as sulfates and water first moved down rapidly and then separated into two layers. We also report the self-organization in compact and long-lived patches.
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.
Mohamadou A. Diallo, Felix Ploeger, Michaela I. Hegglin, Manfred Ern, Jens-Uwe Grooß, Sergey Khaykin, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 14303–14321, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14303-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-14303-2022, 2022
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The quasi-biennial oacillation disruption events in both 2016 and 2020 decreased lower-stratospheric water vapour and ozone. Differences in the strength and depth of the anomalous lower-stratospheric circulation and ozone are due to differences in tropical upwelling and cold-point temperature induced by lower-stratospheric planetary and gravity wave breaking. The differences in water vapour are due to higher cold-point temperature in 2020 induced by Australian wildfire.
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.
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.
Qiansi Tu, Matthias Schneider, Frank Hase, Farahnaz Khosrawi, Benjamin Ertl, Jaroslaw Necki, Darko Dubravica, Christopher J. Diekmann, Thomas Blumenstock, and Dianjun Fang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 9747–9765, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-9747-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-9747-2022, 2022
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Three-year satellite observations and high-resolution model forecast of XCH4 are used to derive CH4 emissions in the USCB region, Poland – a region of intense coal mining activities. The wind-assigned anomalies for two opposite wind directions are calculated and the estimated emission rates are very close to the inventories and in reasonable agreement with the previous studies. Our method is quite robust and can serve as a simple method to estimate CH4 or CO2 emissions for other regions.
Matthias Schneider, Benjamin Ertl, Qiansi Tu, Christopher J. Diekmann, Farahnaz Khosrawi, Amelie N. Röhling, Frank Hase, Darko Dubravica, Omaira E. García, Eliezer Sepúlveda, Tobias Borsdorff, Jochen Landgraf, Alba Lorente, André Butz, Huilin Chen, Rigel Kivi, Thomas Laemmel, Michel Ramonet, Cyril Crevoisier, Jérome Pernin, Martin Steinbacher, Frank Meinhardt, Kimberly Strong, Debra Wunch, Thorsten Warneke, Coleen Roehl, Paul O. Wennberg, Isamu Morino, Laura T. Iraci, Kei Shiomi, Nicholas M. Deutscher, David W. T. Griffith, Voltaire A. Velazco, and David F. Pollard
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 4339–4371, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4339-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-4339-2022, 2022
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We present a computationally very efficient method for the synergetic use of level 2 remote-sensing data products. We apply the method to IASI vertical profile and TROPOMI total column space-borne methane observations and thus gain sensitivity for the tropospheric methane partial columns, which is not achievable by the individual use of TROPOMI and IASI. These synergetic effects are evaluated theoretically and empirically by inter-comparisons to independent references of TCCON, AirCore, and GAW.
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.
Jörn Ungermann, Anne Kleinert, Guido Maucher, Irene Bartolomé, Felix Friedl-Vallon, Sören Johansson, Lukas Krasauskas, and Tom Neubert
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 2503–2530, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2503-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2503-2022, 2022
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GLORIA is a 2-D infrared imaging spectrometer operated on two high-flying research aircraft. This paper details our instrument calibration and characterization efforts, which in particular leverage in-flight data almost exclusively and often exploit the novel 2-D nature of the measurements. We show that the instrument surpasses the original instrument specifications and conclude by analyzing how the derived errors affect temperature and ozone retrievals, two of our main derived quantities.
Carlos Alberti, Qiansi Tu, Frank Hase, Maria V. Makarova, Konstantin Gribanov, Stefani C. Foka, Vyacheslav Zakharov, Thomas Blumenstock, Michael Buchwitz, Christopher Diekmann, Benjamin Ertl, Matthias M. Frey, Hamud Kh. Imhasin, Dmitry V. Ionov, Farahnaz Khosrawi, Sergey I. Osipov, Maximilian Reuter, Matthias Schneider, and Thorsten Warneke
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 2199–2229, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2199-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-2199-2022, 2022
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Satellite and ground-based observations at high latitudes are much sparser than at low or mid latitudes, which makes direct coincident comparisons between remote-sensing observations more difficult. Therefore, a method of scaling continuous CAMS model data to the ground-based observations is developed and used for creating virtual COCCON observations. These adjusted CAMS data are then used for satellite inter-comparison, showing good agreement in both Peterhof and Yekaterinburg cities.
Lucien Froidevaux, Douglas E. Kinnison, Michelle L. Santee, Luis F. Millán, Nathaniel J. Livesey, William G. Read, Charles G. Bardeen, John J. Orlando, and Ryan A. Fuller
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 4779–4799, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-4779-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-4779-2022, 2022
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We analyze satellite-derived distributions of chlorine monoxide (ClO) and hypochlorous acid (HOCl) in the upper atmosphere. For 2005–2020, from 50°S to 50°N and over ~30 to 45 km, ClO and HOCl decreased by −0.7 % and −0.4 % per year, respectively. A detailed model of chemistry and dynamics agrees with the results. These decreases confirm the effectiveness of the 1987 Montreal Protocol, which limited emissions of chlorine- and bromine-containing source gases, in order to protect the ozone layer.
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.
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.
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.
Dina Khordakova, Christian Rolf, Jens-Uwe Grooß, Rolf Müller, Paul Konopka, Andreas Wieser, Martina Krämer, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 1059–1079, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-1059-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-1059-2022, 2022
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Extreme storms transport humidity from the troposphere to the stratosphere. Here it has a strong impact on the climate. With ongoing global warming, we expect more storms and, hence, an enhancement of this effect. A case study was performed in order to measure the impact of the direct injection of water vapor into the lower stratosphere. The measurements displayed a significant transport of water vapor into the lower stratosphere, and this was supported by satellite and reanalysis data.
Sandip S. Dhomse, Martyn P. Chipperfield, Wuhu Feng, Ryan Hossaini, Graham W. Mann, Michelle L. Santee, and Mark Weber
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 903–916, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-903-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-903-2022, 2022
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Solar flux variations associated with 11-year sunspot cycle is believed to exert important external climate forcing. As largest variations occur at shorter wavelengths such as ultra-violet part of the solar spectrum, associated changes in stratospheric ozone are thought to provide direct evidence for solar climate interaction. Until now, most of the studies reported double-peak structured solar cycle signal (SCS), but relatively new satellite data suggest only single-peak-structured SCS.
Qiansi Tu, Frank Hase, Matthias Schneider, Omaira García, Thomas Blumenstock, Tobias Borsdorff, Matthias Frey, Farahnaz Khosrawi, Alba Lorente, Carlos Alberti, Juan J. Bustos, André Butz, Virgilio Carreño, Emilio Cuevas, Roger Curcoll, Christopher J. Diekmann, Darko Dubravica, Benjamin Ertl, Carme Estruch, Sergio Fabián León-Luis, Carlos Marrero, Josep-Anton Morgui, Ramón Ramos, Christian Scharun, Carsten Schneider, Eliezer Sepúlveda, Carlos Toledano, and Carlos Torres
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 295–317, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-295-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-295-2022, 2022
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We use different methane ground- and space-based remote sensing data sets for investigating the emission strength of three waste disposal sites close to Madrid. We present a method that uses wind-assigned anomalies for deriving emission strengths from satellite data and estimate their uncertainty to 9–14 %. The emission strengths estimated from the remote sensing data sets are significantly larger than the values published in the official register.
Manuel Baumgartner, Christian Rolf, Jens-Uwe Grooß, Julia Schneider, Tobias Schorr, Ottmar Möhler, Peter Spichtinger, and Martina Krämer
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 65–91, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-65-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-65-2022, 2022
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An important mechanism for the appearance of ice particles in the upper troposphere at low temperatures is homogeneous nucleation. This process is commonly described by the
Koop line, predicting the humidity at freezing. However, laboratory measurements suggest that the freezing humidities are above the Koop line, motivating the present study to investigate the influence of different physical parameterizations on the homogeneous freezing with the help of a detailed numerical model.
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.
Frank Werner, Nathaniel J. Livesey, Michael J. Schwartz, William G. Read, Michelle L. Santee, and Galina Wind
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 7749–7773, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7749-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-7749-2021, 2021
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In this study we present an improved cloud detection scheme for the Microwave Limb Sounder, which is based on a feedforward artificial neural network. This new algorithm is shown not only to reliably detect high and mid-level convection containing even small amounts of cloud water but also to distinguish between high-reaching and mid-level to low convection.
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.
Hugh C. Pumphrey, Michael J. Schwartz, Michelle L. Santee, George P. Kablick III, Michael D. Fromm, and Nathaniel J. Livesey
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 16645–16659, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16645-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16645-2021, 2021
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Forest fires in British Columbia in August 2017 caused an unusual phenomonon: smoke and gases from the fires rose quickly to a height of 10 km. From there, the pollution continued to rise more slowly for many weeks, travelling around the world as it did so. In this paper, we describe how we used data from a satellite instrument to observe this polluted volume of air. The satellite has now been working for 16 years but has observed only three events of this type.
Christopher J. Diekmann, Matthias Schneider, Benjamin Ertl, Frank Hase, Omaira García, Farahnaz Khosrawi, Eliezer Sepúlveda, Peter Knippertz, and Peter Braesicke
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 5273–5292, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-5273-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-13-5273-2021, 2021
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The joint analysis of different stable water isotopes in water vapour is a powerful tool for investigating atmospheric moisture pathways. This paper presents a novel global and multi-annual dataset of H2O and HDO in mid-tropospheric water vapour by using data from the satellite sensor Metop/IASI. Due to its unique combination of coverage and resolution in space and time, this dataset is highly promising for studying the hydrological cycle and its representation in weather and climate models.
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.
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.
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.
Farahnaz Khosrawi, Kinya Toride, Kei Yoshimura, Christopher J. Diekmann, Benjamin Ertl, Frank Hase, and Matthias Schneider
Weather Clim. Dynam. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-2021-49, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-2021-49, 2021
Revised manuscript not accepted
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We assess with an Observation System Simulation Experiment the potential of mid-tropospheric water isotopologue data for constraining uncertainties in meteorological analysis fields in the tropics. Our assimilation experiments indicate that isotopologue observations have the potential to reduce the uncertainties of diabatic heating rates and meteorological variables in the tropics and in consequence offer potential for improving meteorological analysis in the tropical regions.
Markus Geldenhuys, Peter Preusse, Isabell Krisch, Christoph Zülicke, Jörn Ungermann, Manfred Ern, Felix Friedl-Vallon, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 10393–10412, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10393-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10393-2021, 2021
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A large-scale gravity wave (GW) was observed spanning the whole of Greenland. The GWs proposed in this paper come from a new jet–topography mechanism. The topography compresses the flow and triggers a change in u- and
v-wind components. The jet becomes out of geostrophic balance and sheds energy in the form of GWs to restore the balance. This topography–jet interaction was not previously considered by the community, rendering the impact of the gravity waves largely unaccounted for.
Lukas Krasauskas, Jörn Ungermann, Peter Preusse, Felix Friedl-Vallon, Andreas Zahn, Helmut Ziereis, Christian Rolf, Felix Plöger, Paul Konopka, Bärbel Vogel, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 10249–10272, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10249-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10249-2021, 2021
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A Rossby wave (RW) breaking event was observed over the North Atlantic during the WISE measurement campaign in October 2017. Infrared limb sounding measurements of trace gases in the lower stratosphere, including high-resolution 3-D tomographic reconstruction, revealed complex spatial structures in stratospheric tracers near the polar jet related to previous RW breaking events. Backward-trajectory analysis and tracer correlations were used to study mixing and stratosphere–troposphere exchange.
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.
Michael Weimer, Jennifer Buchmüller, Lars Hoffmann, Ole Kirner, Beiping Luo, Roland Ruhnke, Michael Steiner, Ines Tritscher, and Peter Braesicke
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 9515–9543, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-9515-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-9515-2021, 2021
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We show that we are able to directly simulate polar stratospheric clouds formed locally in a mountain wave and represent their effect on the ozone chemistry with the global atmospheric chemistry model ICON-ART. Thus, we show the first simulations that close the gap between directly resolved mountain-wave-induced polar stratospheric clouds and their representation at coarse global resolutions.
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.
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.
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.
Qiansi Tu, Frank Hase, Thomas Blumenstock, Matthias Schneider, Andreas Schneider, Rigel Kivi, Pauli Heikkinen, Benjamin Ertl, Christopher Diekmann, Farahnaz Khosrawi, Michael Sommer, Tobias Borsdorff, and Uwe Raffalski
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 1993–2011, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1993-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1993-2021, 2021
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We compare column-averaged dry-air mole fractions of water vapor (XH2O) retrievals from the COllaborative Carbon Column Observing Network (COCCON) with two co-located ground-based spectrometers as references at two boreal sites. Our study supports the assumption that COCCON also delivers a well-characterized XH2O data product. This is the first published study applying COCCON for MUSICA IASI and TROPOMI validation.
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.
Johannes Schneider, Ralf Weigel, Thomas Klimach, Antonis Dragoneas, Oliver Appel, Andreas Hünig, Sergej Molleker, Franziska Köllner, Hans-Christian Clemen, Oliver Eppers, Peter Hoppe, Peter Hoor, Christoph Mahnke, Martina Krämer, Christian Rolf, Jens-Uwe Grooß, Andreas Zahn, Florian Obersteiner, Fabrizio Ravegnani, Alexey Ulanovsky, Hans Schlager, Monika Scheibe, Glenn S. Diskin, Joshua P. DiGangi, John B. Nowak, Martin Zöger, and Stephan Borrmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 989–1013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-989-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-989-2021, 2021
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During five aircraft missions, we detected aerosol particles containing meteoric material in the lower stratosphere. The stratospheric measurements span a latitude range from 15 to 68° N, and we find that at potential temperature levels of more than 40 K above the tropopause; particles containing meteoric material occur at similar abundance fractions across latitudes and seasons. We conclude that meteoric material is efficiently distributed between high and low latitudes by isentropic mixing.
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.
Joram J. D. Hooghiem, Maria Elena Popa, Thomas Röckmann, Jens-Uwe Grooß, Ines Tritscher, Rolf Müller, Rigel Kivi, and Huilin Chen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 13985–14003, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-13985-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-13985-2020, 2020
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Wildfires release a large quantity of pollutants that can reach the stratosphere through pyro-convection events. In September 2017, a stratospheric plume was accidentally sampled during balloon soundings in northern Finland. The source of the plume was identified to be wildfire smoke based on in situ measurements of carbon monoxide (CO) and stable isotope analysis of CO. Furthermore, the age of the plume was estimated using backwards transport modelling to be ~24 d, with its origin in Canada.
Yuanhong Zhao, Marielle Saunois, Philippe Bousquet, Xin Lin, Antoine Berchet, Michaela I. Hegglin, Josep G. Canadell, Robert B. Jackson, Makoto Deushi, Patrick Jöckel, Douglas Kinnison, Ole Kirner, Sarah Strode, Simone Tilmes, Edward J. Dlugokencky, and Bo Zheng
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 13011–13022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-13011-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-13011-2020, 2020
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Decadal trends and variations in OH are critical for understanding atmospheric CH4 evolution. We quantify the impacts of OH trends and variations on the CH4 budget by conducting CH4 inversions on a decadal scale with an ensemble of OH fields. We find the negative OH anomalies due to enhanced fires can reduce the optimized CH4 emissions by up to 10 Tg yr−1 during El Niño years and the positive OH trend from 1986 to 2010 results in a ∼ 23 Tg yr−1 additional increase in optimized CH4 emissions.
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.
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.
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.
Matt Amos, Paul J. Young, J. Scott Hosking, Jean-François Lamarque, N. Luke Abraham, Hideharu Akiyoshi, Alexander T. Archibald, Slimane Bekki, Makoto Deushi, Patrick Jöckel, Douglas Kinnison, Ole Kirner, Markus Kunze, Marion Marchand, David A. Plummer, David Saint-Martin, Kengo Sudo, Simone Tilmes, and Yousuke Yamashita
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 9961–9977, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-9961-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-9961-2020, 2020
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We present an updated projection of Antarctic ozone hole recovery using an ensemble of chemistry–climate models. To do so, we employ a method, more advanced and skilful than the current multi-model mean standard, which is applicable to other ensemble analyses. It calculates the performance and similarity of the models, which we then use to weight the model. Calculating model similarity allows us to account for models which are constructed from similar components.
Johannes C. Laube, Emma C. Leedham Elvidge, Karina E. Adcock, Bianca Baier, Carl A. M. Brenninkmeijer, Huilin Chen, Elise S. Droste, Jens-Uwe Grooß, Pauli Heikkinen, Andrew J. Hind, Rigel Kivi, Alexander Lojko, Stephen A. Montzka, David E. Oram, Steve Randall, Thomas Röckmann, William T. Sturges, Colm Sweeney, Max Thomas, Elinor Tuffnell, and Felix Ploeger
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 9771–9782, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-9771-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-9771-2020, 2020
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We demonstrate that AirCore technology, which is based on small low-cost balloons, can provide access to trace gas measurements such as CFCs at ultra-low abundances. This is a new way to quantify ozone-depleting, and related, substances in the stratosphere, which is largely inaccessible to aircraft. We show two potential uses: (a) tracking the stratospheric circulation, which is predicted to change, and (b) assessing three common meteorological reanalyses driving a global stratospheric model.
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.
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
Yuanhong Zhao, Marielle Saunois, Philippe Bousquet, Xin Lin, Antoine Berchet, Michaela I. Hegglin, Josep G. Canadell, Robert B. Jackson, Didier A. Hauglustaine, Sophie Szopa, Ann R. Stavert, Nathan Luke Abraham, Alex T. Archibald, Slimane Bekki, Makoto Deushi, Patrick Jöckel, Béatrice Josse, Douglas Kinnison, Ole Kirner, Virginie Marécal, Fiona M. O'Connor, David A. Plummer, Laura E. Revell, Eugene Rozanov, Andrea Stenke, Sarah Strode, Simone Tilmes, Edward J. Dlugokencky, and Bo Zheng
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 13701–13723, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-13701-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-13701-2019, 2019
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The role of hydroxyl radical changes in methane trends is debated, hindering our understanding of the methane cycle. This study quantifies how uncertainties in the hydroxyl radical may influence methane abundance in the atmosphere based on the inter-model comparison of hydroxyl radical fields and model simulations of CH4 abundance with different hydroxyl radical scenarios during 2000–2016. We show that hydroxyl radical changes could contribute up to 54 % of model-simulated methane biases.
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.
Daniel Kunkel, Peter Hoor, Thorsten Kaluza, Jörn Ungermann, Björn Kluschat, Andreas Giez, Hans-Christoph Lachnitt, Martin Kaufmann, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 12607–12630, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-12607-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-12607-2019, 2019
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In this study we present a mixing process around the tropopause in extratropical baroclinic waves. We analyze airborne data from a flight during the WISE campaign in autumn 2017 over the North Atlantic. We use idealized experiments to study the mixing process. Although the process occurs on a small geographical scale, it might be of importance due to its relation to a frequent feature of the extratropical UTLS. The process is relevant for STE but is not fully included in climatologies.
Andreas Chrysanthou, Amanda C. Maycock, Martyn P. Chipperfield, Sandip Dhomse, Hella Garny, Douglas Kinnison, Hideharu Akiyoshi, Makoto Deushi, Rolando R. Garcia, Patrick Jöckel, Oliver Kirner, Giovanni Pitari, David A. Plummer, Laura Revell, Eugene Rozanov, Andrea Stenke, Taichu Y. Tanaka, Daniele Visioni, and Yousuke Yamashita
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 11559–11586, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-11559-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-11559-2019, 2019
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We perform the first multi-model comparison of the impact of nudged meteorology on the stratospheric residual circulation (RC) in chemistry–climate models. Nudging meteorology does not constrain the mean strength of RC compared to free-running simulations, and despite the lack of agreement in the mean circulation, nudging tightly constrains the inter-annual variability in the tropical upward mass flux in the lower stratosphere. In summary, nudging strongly affects the representation of RC.
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.
Kévin Lamy, Thierry Portafaix, Béatrice Josse, Colette Brogniez, Sophie Godin-Beekmann, Hassan Bencherif, Laura Revell, Hideharu Akiyoshi, Slimane Bekki, Michaela I. Hegglin, Patrick Jöckel, Oliver Kirner, Ben Liley, Virginie Marecal, Olaf Morgenstern, Andrea Stenke, Guang Zeng, N. Luke Abraham, Alexander T. Archibald, Neil Butchart, Martyn P. Chipperfield, Glauco Di Genova, Makoto Deushi, Sandip S. Dhomse, Rong-Ming Hu, Douglas Kinnison, Michael Kotkamp, Richard McKenzie, Martine Michou, Fiona M. O'Connor, Luke D. Oman, Giovanni Pitari, David A. Plummer, John A. Pyle, Eugene Rozanov, David Saint-Martin, Kengo Sudo, Taichu Y. Tanaka, Daniele Visioni, and Kohei Yoshida
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 10087–10110, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-10087-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-10087-2019, 2019
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In this study, we simulate the ultraviolet radiation evolution during the 21st century on Earth's surface using the output from several numerical models which participated in the Chemistry-Climate Model Initiative. We present four possible futures which depend on greenhouse gases emissions. The role of ozone-depleting substances, greenhouse gases and aerosols are investigated. Our results emphasize the important role of aerosols for future ultraviolet radiation in the Northern Hemisphere.
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.
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.
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
Sabine Robrecht, Bärbel Vogel, Jens-Uwe Grooß, Karen Rosenlof, Troy Thornberry, Andrew Rollins, Martina Krämer, Lance Christensen, and Rolf Müller
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 5805–5833, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-5805-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-5805-2019, 2019
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The potential destruction of stratospheric ozone in the mid-latitudes has been discussed recently. We analysed this ozone loss mechanism and its sensitivities. In a certain temperature range, we found a threshold in water vapour, which has to be exceeded for ozone loss to occur. We show the dependence of this water vapour threshold on temperature, sulfate content and air composition. This study provides a basis to estimate the impact of potential sulphate geoengineering on stratospheric ozone.
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.
Rolf Sander, Andreas Baumgaertner, David Cabrera-Perez, Franziska Frank, Sergey Gromov, Jens-Uwe Grooß, Hartwig Harder, Vincent Huijnen, Patrick Jöckel, Vlassis A. Karydis, Kyle E. Niemeyer, Andrea Pozzer, Hella Riede, Martin G. Schultz, Domenico Taraborrelli, and Sebastian Tauer
Geosci. Model Dev., 12, 1365–1385, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-1365-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-1365-2019, 2019
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We present the atmospheric chemistry box model CAABA/MECCA which
now includes a number of new features: skeletal mechanism
reduction, the MOM chemical mechanism for volatile organic
compounds, an option to include reactions from the Master
Chemical Mechanism (MCM) and other chemical mechanisms, updated
isotope tagging, improved and new photolysis modules, and the new
feature of coexisting multiple chemistry mechanisms.
CAABA/MECCA is a community model published under the GPL.
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.
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.
Lukas Krasauskas, Jörn Ungermann, Stefan Ensmann, Isabell Krisch, Erik Kretschmer, Peter Preusse, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 12, 853–872, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-853-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-853-2019, 2019
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Many limb sounder measurements from the same atmospheric region taken at different angles can be combined into a 3-D tomographic image of the atmosphere. Mathematically, this is a complex, computationally expensive, underdetermined problem that needs additional constraints (regularisation). We introduce an improved regularisation method based on physical properties of the atmosphere with a new irregular grid implementation. Simulated data tests show improved results and lower computational cost.
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.
Ines Tritscher, Jens-Uwe Grooß, Reinhold Spang, Michael C. Pitts, Lamont R. Poole, Rolf Müller, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 543–563, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-543-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-543-2019, 2019
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We present Lagrangian simulations of polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) for the Arctic winter 2009/2010 and the Antarctic winter 2011 using the Chemical Lagrangian Model of the Stratosphere (CLaMS). The paper comprises a detailed model description with ice PSCs and related dehydration being the focus of this study. Comparisons between our simulations and observations from different satellites on season-long and vortex-wide scales as well as for single PSC events show an overall good agreement.
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.
Yury M. Timofeyev, Sergei P. Smyshlyaev, Yana A. Virolainen, Alexander S. Garkusha, Alexander V. Polyakov, Maxim A. Motsakov, and Ole Kirner
Ann. Geophys., 36, 1495–1505, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-36-1495-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-36-1495-2018, 2018
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Atmospheric ozone plays a vital role, absorbing the ultraviolet solar radiation and heating the air, thus forming the stratosphere itself. If not absorbed, UV radiation would reach Earth's surface in amounts that are harmful to a variety of lifeforms. Climate change may lead to increasing ozone depletion, especially in the Arctic. Observation and prediction of the ozone variability are crucial for the investigation of its nature and the prediction of potential increase in surface UV radiation.
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.
Mohamadou Diallo, Martin Riese, Thomas Birner, Paul Konopka, Rolf Müller, Michaela I. Hegglin, Michelle L. Santee, Mark Baldwin, Bernard Legras, and Felix Ploeger
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 13055–13073, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-13055-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-13055-2018, 2018
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The unprecedented timing of an El Niño event aligned with the disrupted QBO in 2015–2016 caused a perturbation to the stratospheric circulation, affecting trace gases. This paper resolves the puzzling response of the lower stratospheric water vapor by showing that the QBO disruption reversed the lower stratosphere moistening triggered by the alignment of the El Niño event with a westerly QBO in early boreal winter.
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.
Amanda C. Maycock, Katja Matthes, Susann Tegtmeier, Hauke Schmidt, Rémi Thiéblemont, Lon Hood, Hideharu Akiyoshi, Slimane Bekki, Makoto Deushi, Patrick Jöckel, Oliver Kirner, Markus Kunze, Marion Marchand, Daniel R. Marsh, Martine Michou, David Plummer, Laura E. Revell, Eugene Rozanov, Andrea Stenke, Yousuke Yamashita, and Kohei Yoshida
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 11323–11343, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-11323-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-11323-2018, 2018
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The 11-year solar cycle is an important driver of climate variability. Changes in incoming solar ultraviolet radiation affect atmospheric ozone, which in turn influences atmospheric temperatures. Constraining the impact of the solar cycle on ozone is therefore important for understanding climate variability. This study examines the representation of the solar influence on ozone in numerical models used to simulate past and future climate. We highlight important differences among model datasets.
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.
Isabell Krisch, Jörn Ungermann, Peter Preusse, Erik Kretschmer, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 4327–4344, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-4327-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-4327-2018, 2018
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Three-dimensional temperature measurements of the atmosphere are required to address current research questions concerning the propagation of gravity waves. Limited angle tomography (LAT) with measurements from an airborne infrared limb imager can provide such 3-D temperature measurements. Wave parameters derived from such LAT measurements achieve an accuracy similar to that derived from full angle tomography, if the orientation of the flight path is optimized with respect to the gravity wave.
Anne Kleinert, Isabell Krisch, Jörn Ungermann, Albert Adibekyan, Berndt Gutschwager, and Christian Monte
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 3871–3882, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3871-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3871-2018, 2018
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This study investigates the required accuracy of radiometric calibration sources for remote sensing instruments to properly resolve decadal trends of climate relevant trace species like ozone, water vapor and temperature. The required temperature knowledge of the calibration source is in the order of 100 mK. This is demonstrated by a Monte Carlo simulation. The results are confirmed using real measurements acquired by the GLORIA instrument.
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.
Jens-Uwe Grooß, Rolf Müller, Reinhold Spang, Ines Tritscher, Tobias Wegner, Martyn P. Chipperfield, Wuhu Feng, Douglas E. Kinnison, and Sasha Madronich
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 8647–8666, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-8647-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-8647-2018, 2018
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We investigate a discrepancy between model simulations and observations of HCl in the dark polar stratosphere. In early winter, the less-well-studied period of the onset of chlorine activation, observations show a much faster depletion of HCl than simulations of three models. This points to some unknown process that is currently not represented in the models. Various hypotheses for potential causes are investigated that partly reduce the discrepancy. The impact on polar ozone depletion is low.
Sandip S. Dhomse, Douglas Kinnison, Martyn P. Chipperfield, Ross J. Salawitch, Irene Cionni, Michaela I. Hegglin, N. Luke Abraham, Hideharu Akiyoshi, Alex T. Archibald, Ewa M. Bednarz, Slimane Bekki, Peter Braesicke, Neal Butchart, Martin Dameris, Makoto Deushi, Stacey Frith, Steven C. Hardiman, Birgit Hassler, Larry W. Horowitz, Rong-Ming Hu, Patrick Jöckel, Beatrice Josse, Oliver Kirner, Stefanie Kremser, Ulrike Langematz, Jared Lewis, Marion Marchand, Meiyun Lin, Eva Mancini, Virginie Marécal, Martine Michou, Olaf Morgenstern, Fiona M. O'Connor, Luke Oman, Giovanni Pitari, David A. Plummer, John A. Pyle, Laura E. Revell, Eugene Rozanov, Robyn Schofield, Andrea Stenke, Kane Stone, Kengo Sudo, Simone Tilmes, Daniele Visioni, Yousuke Yamashita, and Guang Zeng
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 8409–8438, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-8409-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-8409-2018, 2018
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We analyse simulations from the Chemistry-Climate Model Initiative (CCMI) to estimate the return dates of the stratospheric ozone layer from depletion by anthropogenic chlorine and bromine. The simulations from 20 models project that global column ozone will return to 1980 values in 2047 (uncertainty range 2042–2052). Return dates in other regions vary depending on factors related to climate change and importance of chlorine and bromine. Column ozone in the tropics may continue to decline.
Xiaolu Yan, Paul Konopka, Felix Ploeger, Mengchu Tao, Rolf Müller, Michelle L. Santee, Jianchun Bian, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 8079–8096, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-8079-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-8079-2018, 2018
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Many works investigate the impact of ENSO on the troposphere. However, only a few works check the impact of ENSO at higher altitudes.
Here, we analyse the impact of ENSO on the vicinity of the tropopause using reanalysis, satellite, in situ and model data. We find that ENSO shows the strongest signal in winter, but its impact can last until early the next summer. The ENSO anomaly is insignificant in late summer. Our study can help to understand the atmosphere propagation after ENSO.
Rui Song, Martin Kaufmann, Manfred Ern, Jörn Ungermann, Guang Liu, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 3161–3175, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3161-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3161-2018, 2018
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In this paper, we propose a new observation strategy, called
sweep mode, for a real three-dimensional tomographic reconstruction of gravity waves in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere by modifying the observation geometry of conventional limb-sounding measurements. It enhances the horizontal resolution that typical limb sounders can achieve while at the same time retaining the good vertical resolution they have.
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.
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.
Stefanie Falk and Björn-Martin Sinnhuber
Geosci. Model Dev., 11, 1115–1131, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-1115-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-11-1115-2018, 2018
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Ozone depletion events (ODEs) in the polar boundary layer are observed frequently in spring. ODEs serve as a source of tropospheric BrO at high latitudes. A treatment of bromine release and recycling on sea-ice- and snow-covered surfaces is implemented in global chemistry–climate model EMAC based on a scheme of Toyota et al. (2011). Many aspects of bromine enhancement and associated ODEs are reproduced in both polar regions. Further bromine release mechanisms can now be tested in a global model.
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).
Rolf Müller, Jens-Uwe Grooß, Abdul Mannan Zafar, Sabine Robrecht, and Ralph Lehmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 2985–2997, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-2985-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-2985-2018, 2018
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This paper revisits the chemistry leading to strong ozone depletion in the Antarctic. We focus on the heart of the ozone layer in the lowermost stratosphere in the core of the vortex. We argue that chemical cycles (referred to as HCl null cycles) that have hitherto been largely neglected counteract the deactivation of chlorine and are therefore key to ozone depletion in the core of the Antarctic vortex. The key process to full activation of chlorine is the photolysis of formaldehyde.
Alyn Lambert and Michelle L. Santee
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 1945–1975, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-1945-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-1945-2018, 2018
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.
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.
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.
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.
Rui Song, Martin Kaufmann, Jörn Ungermann, Manfred Ern, Guang Liu, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 4601–4612, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-4601-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-4601-2017, 2017
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Gravity waves (GWs) play an important role in atmospheric dynamics. In this work, we propose a new observation strategy for GWs in the mesopause region by combining limb and sub-limb satellite-borne remote sensing measurements for improving the spatial resolution of temperatures that are retrieved from
atmospheric soundings. It shows that one major advantage of this observation strategy is that much smaller-scale GWs can be observed.
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.
Tilman Hüneke, Oliver-Alex Aderhold, Jannik Bounin, Marcel Dorf, Eric Gentry, Katja Grossmann, Jens-Uwe Grooß, Peter Hoor, Patrick Jöckel, Mareike Kenntner, Marvin Knapp, Matthias Knecht, Dominique Lörks, Sabrina Ludmann, Sigrun Matthes, Rasmus Raecke, Marcel Reichert, Jannis Weimar, Bodo Werner, Andreas Zahn, Helmut Ziereis, and Klaus Pfeilsticker
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 4209–4234, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-4209-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-4209-2017, 2017
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This paper describes a novel instrument for the aircraft-borne remote sensing of trace gases and liquid and solid water. Until recently, such measurements could only be evaluated under clear-sky conditions. We present a characterization and error assessment of the novel "scaling method", which allows for the retrieval of absolute trace gas concentrations under all sky conditions, significantly expanding the applicability of such measurements to study atmospheric photochemistry.
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.
Gloria L. Manney, Michaela I. Hegglin, Zachary D. Lawrence, Krzysztof Wargan, Luis F. Millán, Michael J. Schwartz, Michelle L. Santee, Alyn Lambert, Steven Pawson, Brian W. Knosp, Ryan A. Fuller, and William H. Daffer
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 11541–11566, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-11541-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-11541-2017, 2017
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The upper tropospheric–lower stratospheric (UTLS) jet stream and multiple tropopause distributions are compared among five state-of-the-art reanalyses. The reanalyses show very similar global distributions of UTLS jets, reflecting their overall high quality; slightly larger differences are seen in tropopause characteristics. Regional and seasonal differences, albeit small, may have implications for using these reanalyses for quantitative dynamical and transport studies focusing on the UTLS.
Stefanie Falk, Björn-Martin Sinnhuber, Gisèle Krysztofiak, Patrick Jöckel, Phoebe Graf, and Sinikka T. Lennartz
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 11313–11329, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-11313-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-11313-2017, 2017
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Brominated very short-lived source gases (VSLS) contribute significantly to the tropospheric and stratospheric bromine loading. We find an increase of future ocean–atmosphere flux of brominated VSLS of 8–10 % compared to present day. A decrease in the tropospheric mixing ratios of VSLS and an increase in the lower stratosphere are attributed to changes in atmospheric chemistry and transport. Bromine impact on stratospheric ozone at the end of the 21st century is reduced compared to present day.
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.
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.
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.
Annika Vogel, Jörn Ungermann, and Hendrik Elbern
Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2017-308, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2017-308, 2017
Revised manuscript has not been submitted
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The potential for chemical state analysis at tropopause heights was investigated by combining airborne tomographic observations with a chemical data-assimilation system in form of a case study. Related developments include the use of potential vorticity for ozone initialization and flow-dependent horizontal correlations. This setup demonstrated substantial improvements in terms of spatial extend and alignment of atmospheric structures down to filamentary foldings along airmass boundaries.
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.
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
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.
Johannes Eckstein, Roland Ruhnke, Andreas Zahn, Marco Neumaier, Ole Kirner, and Peter Braesicke
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 2775–2794, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-2775-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-2775-2017, 2017
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Data on atmospheric trace gases have been collected with instruments on-board a commercial airliner for more than 10 years in the CARIBIC project. We investigate which species in the dataset can be used for a representative climatology, by comparing data from the chemistry–climate model EMAC along the flight paths to a larger set of model data. We find that long-lived species are captured quite well by the CARIBIC sample while this is not the case for more variable, shorter-lived species.
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.
Masatomo Fujiwara, Jonathon S. Wright, Gloria L. Manney, Lesley J. Gray, James Anstey, Thomas Birner, Sean Davis, Edwin P. Gerber, V. Lynn Harvey, Michaela I. Hegglin, Cameron R. Homeyer, John A. Knox, Kirstin Krüger, Alyn Lambert, Craig S. Long, Patrick Martineau, Andrea Molod, Beatriz M. Monge-Sanz, Michelle L. Santee, Susann Tegtmeier, Simon Chabrillat, David G. H. Tan, David R. Jackson, Saroja Polavarapu, Gilbert P. Compo, Rossana Dragani, Wesley Ebisuzaki, Yayoi Harada, Chiaki Kobayashi, Will McCarty, Kazutoshi Onogi, Steven Pawson, Adrian Simmons, Krzysztof Wargan, Jeffrey S. Whitaker, and Cheng-Zhi Zou
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 1417–1452, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-1417-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-1417-2017, 2017
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We introduce the SPARC Reanalysis Intercomparison Project (S-RIP), review key concepts and elements of atmospheric reanalysis systems, and summarize the technical details of and differences among 11 of these systems. This work supports scientific studies and intercomparisons of reanalysis products by collecting these background materials and technical details into a single reference. We also address several common misunderstandings and points of confusion regarding reanalyses.
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.
Alyn Lambert, Michelle L. Santee, and Nathaniel J. Livesey
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 15219–15246, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-15219-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-15219-2016, 2016
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.
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.
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.
Luis F. Millán, Nathaniel J. Livesey, Michelle L. Santee, Jessica L. Neu, Gloria L. Manney, and Ryan A. Fuller
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 11521–11534, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-11521-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-11521-2016, 2016
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This paper describes the impact of orbital sampling applied to stratospheric temperature and trace gas fields. Model fields are sampled using real sampling patterns from different satellites. We find that coarse nonuniform sampling patterns may introduce non-negligible errors into the inferred magnitude of temperature and trace gas trends and necessitate considerably longer records for their definitive detection.
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.
Gerald E. Nedoluha, Brian J. Connor, Thomas Mooney, James W. Barrett, Alan Parrish, R. Michael Gomez, Ian Boyd, Douglas R. Allen, Michael Kotkamp, Stefanie Kremser, Terry Deshler, Paul Newman, and Michelle L. Santee
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 10725–10734, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-10725-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-10725-2016, 2016
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Chlorine monoxide (ClO) is central to the formation of the springtime Antarctic ozone hole since it is the catalytic agent in the most important ozone-depleting chemical cycle. We present 20 years of measurements of ClO from the Chlorine monOxide Experiment at Scott Base, Antarctica, and 12 years of measurements from the Aura Microwave Limb Sounder to show that the trends in ClO during the ozone hole season are consistent with changes in stratospheric chlorine observed elsewhere.
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.
E. Eckert, A. Laeng, S. Lossow, S. Kellmann, G. Stiller, T. von Clarmann, N. Glatthor, M. Höpfner, M. Kiefer, H. Oelhaf, J. Orphal, B. Funke, U. Grabowski, F. Haenel, A. Linden, G. Wetzel, W. Woiwode, P. F. Bernath, C. Boone, G. S. Dutton, J. W. Elkins, A. Engel, J. C. Gille, F. Kolonjari, T. Sugita, G. C. Toon, and K. A. Walker
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 3355–3389, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-3355-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-3355-2016, 2016
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We investigate the accuracy, precision and long-term stability of the MIPAS Envisat IMK/IAA CFC-11 (CCl3F) and CFC-12 (CCl2F2) products.
For comparisons we use several data products from satellite, airplane and balloon-borne instruments as well as ground-based data.
MIPAS Envisat CFC-11 has a slight high bias at the lower end of the profile.
CFC-12 agrees well with other data products.
The temporal stability is good up to ~ 30 km, but still leaves room for improvement.
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
Jörn Ungermann, Mandfred Ern, Martin Kaufmann, Rolf Müller, Reinhold Spang, Felix Ploeger, Bärbel Vogel, and Martin Riese
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 8389–8403, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-8389-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-8389-2016, 2016
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This paper presents an analysis of temperature and the trace gases PAN and O3 in
the Asian Summer Monsoon (ASM) region. The positive PAN anomaly consisting of
polluted air is confined vertically within the main ASM anticyclone, whereas a
recently shed eddy exhibits enhanced PAN VMRs for 1 to 2 km above the thermal
tropopause. This implies that eddy shedding provides a very rapid horizontal
transport pathway of Asian pollution into the extratropical lowermost
stratosphere.
Martin Ebert, Ralf Weigel, Konrad Kandler, Gebhard Günther, Sergej Molleker, Jens-Uwe Grooß, Bärbel Vogel, Stephan Weinbruch, and Stephan Borrmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 8405–8421, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-8405-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-8405-2016, 2016
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Stratospheric aerosol particles were collected within the arctic vortex in late winter. The chemical composition of refractory particles were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy. More than 750 refractory particles with diameters above 500 nm were found consisting of silicates, Fe- and Ca-rich particles and metal mixtures. The detection of refractory particles in the late winter polar stratosphere has strong implications for the formation of polar stratospheric clouds and ozone depletion.
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
Matthäus Kiel, Frank Hase, Thomas Blumenstock, and Oliver Kirner
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 2223–2239, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-2223-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-2223-2016, 2016
Anna E. Luebke, Armin Afchine, Anja Costa, Jens-Uwe Grooß, Jessica Meyer, Christian Rolf, Nicole Spelten, Linnea M. Avallone, Darrel Baumgardner, and Martina Krämer
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 5793–5809, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-5793-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-5793-2016, 2016
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In this study, we present observational evidence to show that two distinct types of cirrus clouds exist – in situ origin and liquid origin cirrus. These two types differ by their formation mechanism and other properties. Airborne, in-cloud measurements of cloud ice water content (IWC), ice crystal concentration (Nice), and ice crystal size from the 2014 ML-CIRRUS campaign provide cloud samples that have been divided and analyzed according to their origin type.