Comparison of MkIV balloon and ER‐2 aircraft measurements of atmospheric trace gases

Toon, G. C.; Blavier, J.‐F.; Sen, B.; Margitan, J. J.; Webster, Christopher R.; May, R. D.; Fahey, D. W.; Gao, R. S.; Negro, L. A. Del; Proffitt, M. H.; Elkins, James W.; Romashkin, P. A.; Hurst, D. F.; Oltmans, S. J.; Atlas, Elliot L.; Schauffler, S.; Flocke, Frank; Bui, T. P.; Stimpfle, R. M.; Bonne, G. P.; Voss, P. B.; Cohen, R. C.

doi:10.1029/1999jd900379

Cited by 120 publications

(118 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…They could have been caused by biomass burning from wildfires occurring over western Canada during the observation period. Lowest values of CO in the stratosphere are of the order of 10-20 ppb, in agreement with expected steady-state values (Toon et al, 1999;Engel et al, 2006b). AC-3, which was measured after AC-2 shows an increase in CO mixing ratios above 20 km, which is most probably due to the longer storage time, resulting in more diffusive mixing with remaining fill gas.…”

Section: Timmins 2015supporting

confidence: 70%

“…On the other hand, the PG has much higher CO (about 1400 ppb) in order to allow a clear distinction from both tropospheric and stratospheric air. In particular, stratospheric air has much lower CO mixing ratios, which are on the order of 20 ppb (Engel et al, 2006b;Toon et al, 1999). Our measurements showed a gradual decrease of CO values from the high FG values to the significantly lower stratospheric mixing ratios.…”

Section: Correction Of Mixing Ratios For Mixing Betweenmentioning

confidence: 63%

“…After passing the peak with high CO from the FG, the values drop sharply, showing much lower CO values. These lower CO values are expected in the middle stratosphere (Toon et al, 1999;Engel et al, 2006b) due to the photochemical balance between the production of CO from oxidation of CH 4 and the breakdown of CO due to oxidation with the OH radical. The transition from high CO (remaining FG) to low CO thus marks the beginning of the sampled air at the upper part of the profile.…”

Section: Operation and Analytical Set-upmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mean age of stratospheric air derived from AirCore observations

et al. 2017

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Abstract. Mean age of stratospheric air can be derived from observations of sufficiently long-lived trace gases with approximately linear trends in the troposphere. Mean age can serve as a tracer to investigate stratospheric transport and long-term changes in the strength of the overturning BrewerDobson circulation of the stratosphere. For this purpose, a low-cost method is required in order to allow for regular observations up to altitudes of about 30 km. Despite the desired low costs, high precision and accuracy are required in order to determine mean age. We present balloonborne AirCore observations from two midlatitude sites: Timmins in Ontario/Canada and Lindenberg in Germany. During the Timmins campaign, five AirCores sampled air in parallel with a large stratospheric balloon and were analysed for CO 2 , CH 4 and partly CO. We show that there is good agreement between the different AirCores (better than 0.1 %), especially when vertical gradients are small. The measurements from Lindenberg were performed using small low-cost balloons and yielded very comparable results. We have used the observations to extend our long-term data set of mean age observations at Northern Hemisphere midlatitudes. The time series now covers more than 40 years and shows a small, statistically non-significant positive trend of 0.15 ± 0.18 years decade −1 . This trend is slightly smaller than the previous estimate of 0.24 ± 0.22 years decade −1 which was based on observations up to the year 2006. These observations are still in contrast to strong negative trends of mean age as derived from some model calculations.

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Section: Timmins 2015supporting

confidence: 70%

Section: Correction Of Mixing Ratios For Mixing Betweenmentioning

confidence: 63%

Section: Operation and Analytical Set-upmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mean age of stratospheric air derived from AirCore observations

et al. 2017

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“…Typical VMR averaging kernels in VMR/VMR (lower left panel), total-column Averaging kernels (AVK) in (molecule cm −2 )/(molecule cm −2 ) (lower right-hand panels, black line) and sensitivity profiles (right-hand panel, red line) as a function of altitude. The colours correspond to averaging kernels at altitudes lying in a partial column for which the DOFS is about 0.5. retrievals, we used a profile derived from MkIV balloon measurements made at the high-latitude NDACC site of Kiruna (Sweden; Toon et al, 1999), at between 6 and 34 km altitude, combined with spitprim.set (Ft. Sumner MkIV flights, 1990s, http://mark4sun.jpl.nasa.gov/m4.html). This a priori profile has been divided by two so that the tropospheric VMR values are comparable to the ones derived from the WACCM runs.…”

Section: A Priori Informationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Five years of CO, HCN, C2H6, C2H2, CH3OH, HCOOH and H2CO total columns measured in the Canadian high Arctic

et al. 2014

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Abstract. We present a five-year time series of seven tropospheric species measured using a ground-based Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometer at the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory (PEARL; Eureka, Nunavut, Canada; 80 • 05 N, 86 • 42 W) from 2007 to 2011. Total columns and temporal variabilities of carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen cyanide (HCN) and ethane (C 2 H 6 ) as well as the first derived total columns at Eureka of acetylene (C 2 H 2 ), methanol (CH 3 OH), formic acid (HCOOH) and formaldehyde (H 2 CO) are investigated, providing a new data set in the sparsely sampled high latitudes.Total columns are obtained using the SFIT2 retrieval algorithm based on the optimal estimation method. The microwindows as well as the a priori profiles and variabilities are selected to optimize the information content of the retrievals, and error analyses are performed for all seven species. Our retrievals show good sensitivities in the troposphere. The seasonal amplitudes of the time series, ranging from 34 to 104 %, are captured while using a single a priori profile for each species. The time series of the CO, C 2 H 6 and C 2 H 2 total columns at PEARL exhibit strong seasonal cycles with maxima in winter and minima in summer, in opposite phase to the HCN, CH 3 OH, HCOOH and H 2 CO time series. These cycles result from the relative contributions of the photochemistry, oxidation and transport as well as biogenic and biomass burning emissions.Comparisons of the FTIR partial columns with coincident satellite measurements by the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier Transform Spectrometer (ACE-FTS) show good agreement. The correlation coefficients and the slopes range from 0.56 to 0.97 and 0.50 to 3.35, respectively, for the seven target species.Our new data set is compared to previous measurements found in the literature to assess atmospheric budgets of these tropospheric species in the high Arctic. The CO and C 2 H 6 concentrations are consistent with negative trends observed over the Northern Hemisphere, attributed to fossil fuel emission decrease. The importance of poleward transport for the atmospheric budgets of HCN and C 2 H 2 is highlighted. Columns and variabilities of CH 3 OH and HCOOH at PEARL are comparable to previous measurements performed at other remote sites. However, the small columns of H 2 CO in early May might reflect its large atmospheric variability and/or the effect of the updated spectroscopic parameters used in our retrievals. Overall, emissions from biomass burning contribute to the day-to-day variabilities of the seven tropospheric species observed at Eureka.

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“…Tracer-tracer correlations have been used in a number of studies to identify transport and mixing characteristics in the stratosphere and to derive climatologies from sparse data (e.g., Plumb and Ko, 1992;Plumb, 1996;Toon et al, 1999;Sankey and Shepherd, 2003;Hegglin and Shepherd, 2007). Plumb and Ko (1992) showed that long-lived species exhibit compact correlations even with varying meteorological conditions, minimizing discrepancies resulting from sampling and daily variations; 5 thus, sparse measurements, such as those from aircraft, can be useful in model assessment studies (e.g., Sankey and Shepherd, 2003).…”

Section: Joint Probability Density Functionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing stratospheric transport in the CMAM30 simulations using ACE-FTS measurements

Kolonjari¹,

Plummer²,

Walker³

et al. 2017

Preprint

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Abstract.Stratospheric transport in global circulation models and chemistry-climate models is an important component in simulating the recovery of the ozone layer as well as changes in the climate system. The Brewer-Dobson circulation is not well constrained by observations and further investigation is required to resolve uncertainties related to the mechanisms driving the circulation. This study has assessed the specified dynamics mode of the Canadian Middle Atmosphere Model (CMAM30) by compar-5 ing to the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier Transform Spectrometer (ACE-FTS) profile measurements of CFC-11 (CCl 3 F), CFC-12 (CCl 2 F 2 ), and N 2 O. In the CMAM30 specified dynamics simulation, the meteorological fields are nudged using the ERA-Interim Reanalysis and a specified tracer was used for each species, with hemispherically-defined surface measurements used as the boundary condition. A comprehensive sampling technique along the line-of-sight of the ACE-FTS measurements has been employed to allow for direct comparisons between the simulated and measured tracer concentrations. 10The model consistently overpredicts tracer concentrations in the lower stratosphere, particularly in the Northern Hemisphere winter and spring seasons. The three mixing barriers investigated, including the polar vortex, the extratropical tropopause, and the tropical pipe, show that there are significant inconsistencies between the measurements and the simulations. In particular, the CMAM30 simulation exhibits too little isentropic mixing in the June-July-August season.

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Comparison of MkIV balloon and ER‐2 aircraft measurements of atmospheric trace gases

Cited by 120 publications

References 24 publications

Mean age of stratospheric air derived from AirCore observations

Mean age of stratospheric air derived from AirCore observations

Five years of CO, HCN, C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>6</sub>, C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>2</sub>, CH<sub>3</sub>OH, HCOOH and H<sub>2</sub>CO total columns measured in the Canadian high Arctic

Assessing stratospheric transport in the CMAM30 simulations using ACE-FTS measurements

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Comparison of MkIV balloon and ER‐2 aircraft measurements of atmospheric trace gases

Cited by 120 publications

References 24 publications

Mean age of stratospheric air derived from AirCore observations

Mean age of stratospheric air derived from AirCore observations

Five years of CO, HCN, C&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;H&lt;sub&gt;6&lt;/sub&gt;, C&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;H&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;, CH&lt;sub&gt;3&lt;/sub&gt;OH, HCOOH and H&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;CO total columns measured in the Canadian high Arctic

Assessing stratospheric transport in the CMAM30 simulations using ACE-FTS measurements

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Five years of CO, HCN, C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>6</sub>, C<sub>2</sub>H<sub>2</sub>, CH<sub>3</sub>OH, HCOOH and H<sub>2</sub>CO total columns measured in the Canadian high Arctic