scholarly journals The MOPITT Version 6 product: algorithm enhancements and validation

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (11) ◽  
pp. 3623-3632 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. N. Deeter ◽  
S. Martínez-Alonso ◽  
D. P. Edwards ◽  
L. K. Emmons ◽  
J. C. Gille ◽  
...  

Abstract. The Measurements of Pollution in the Troposphere (MOPITT) Version 6 (V6) product for carbon monoxide (CO) incorporates several enhancements which will benefit many users of MOPITT data. V6 algorithm improvements are described in detail, and V6 validation results are presented. First, a geolocation bias related to the orientation of the MOPITT instrument relative to the TERRA platform was characterized and eliminated. Second, the variable a priori for CO concentrations for V6 is based on simulations performed with the chemical transport model Community Atmosphere Model with Chemistry (CAM-chem) for the years 2000–2009 instead of the model-derived climatology for 1997–2004 used for V5. Third, meteorological fields required for V6 retrieval processing are extracted from the MERRA (Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis For Research And Applications) reanalysis. Finally, a significant latitude-dependent retrieval bias in the upper troposphere in Version 5 products has been substantially reduced.

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 6113-6139 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. N. Deeter ◽  
S. Martínez-Alonso ◽  
D. P. Edwards ◽  
L. K. Emmons ◽  
J. C. Gille ◽  
...  

Abstract. The MOPITT Version 6 (V6) product for carbon monoxide (CO) incorporates several enhancements which will benefit many users of MOPITT data. V6 algorithm improvements are described in detail, and V6 validation results are presented. First, a geolocation bias related to the orientation of the MOPITT instrument relative to the TERRA platform was characterized and eliminated. Second, the variable a priori for CO concentrations for V6 is based on simulations performed with the CAM-Chem chemical transport model for the years 2000–2009 instead of the model-derived climatology for 1997–2004 used for V5. Third, meteorological fields required for V6 retrieval processing are extracted from the MERRA ("Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis For Research And Applications") reanalysis. Finally, a significant latitude-dependent retrieval bias in the upper troposphere in Version 5 products has been substantially reduced.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Han Han ◽  
Jane Liu ◽  
Huiling Yuan ◽  
Ye Zhu ◽  
Yue Wu ◽  
...  

Abstract. Based on 20-year simulations using a global chemical transport model, GEOS-Chem, and a trajectory model, HYSPLIT, the transport of ozone produced in the African troposphere to Asia is investigated. The study shows that the influence of African ozone on Asia varies largely in time and space. In the middle and upper troposphere, the inflow of African ozone to Asia peaks around 25° N, being the largest in boreal winter and early spring (> 10 ppbv) and the lowest in boreal summer (


2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 2233-2262
Author(s):  
E. C. Browne ◽  
A. E. Perring ◽  
P. J. Wooldridge ◽  
E. Apel ◽  
S. R. Hall ◽  
...  

Abstract. Using measurements from the NASA Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites (ARCTAS) experiment, we show that methyl peroxy nitrate (CH3O2NO2) is present in concentrations of ~5–15 pptv in the springtime arctic upper troposphere. We investigate the regional and global effects of CH3O2NO2 by including its chemistry in the GEOS-CHEM 3-D global chemical transport model. We find that at temperatures below 240 K inclusion of CH3O2NO2 chemistry results in decreases of up to ~20% in NOx, ~20% in N2O5, ~5% in HNO3, ~2% in ozone, and increases in methyl hydrogen peroxide of up to ~14%. Larger changes are observed in biomass burning plumes lofted to high altitude. Additionally, by sequestering NOx at low temperatures, CH3O2NO2 decreases the cycling of HO2 to OH, resulting in a larger upper tropospheric HO2 to OH ratio. These results may impact some estimates of lightning NOx sources as well as help explain differences between models and measurements of upper tropospheric composition.


2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 4209-4219 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. C. Browne ◽  
A. E. Perring ◽  
P. J. Wooldridge ◽  
E. Apel ◽  
S. R. Hall ◽  
...  

Abstract. Using measurements from the NASA Arctic Research of the Composition of the Troposphere from Aircraft and Satellites (ARCTAS) experiment, we show that methyl peroxy nitrate (CH3O2NO2) is present in concentrations of ~5–15 pptv in the springtime arctic upper troposphere. We investigate the regional and global effects of CH3O2NO2 by including its chemistry in the GEOS-Chem 3-D global chemical transport model. We find that at temperatures below 240 K inclusion of CH3O2NO2 chemistry results in decreases of up to ~20 % in NOx, ~20 % in N2O5, ~5 % in HNO3, ~2 % in ozone, and increases in methyl hydrogen peroxide of up to ~14 %. Larger changes are observed in biomass burning plumes lofted to high altitude. Additionally, by sequestering NOx at low temperatures, CH3O2NO2 decreases the cycling of HO2 to OH, resulting in a larger upper tropospheric HO2 to OH ratio. These results may impact some estimates of lightning NOx sources as well as help explain differences between models and measurements of upper tropospheric composition.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eloise Marais ◽  
Joanna Joiner ◽  
Sungyeon Choi

<p>Nitrogen oxides (NO<sub> x</sub> = NO + NO<sub>2</sub>) in the upper troposphere (~10-12 km) are effective at producing ozone in the upper troposphere where ozone is a potent greenhouse gas. Observations of NO<sub>x</sub> in the upper troposphere are limited in time to a few intensive research aircraft campaigns and in space to commercial aircraft campaigns. There are satellite-derived observations of NO<sub>2</sub> in the upper troposphere from the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI), but these are at very coarse resolutions (seasonal, > 2,000 km). The high-resolution Sentinel-5P/TROPOMI instrument offers higher spatial resolution and better cloud-resolving capability than OMI. Here we use synthetic columns of NO<sub>2</sub> from the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model to assess feasibility of deriving NO<sub>2</sub> in the upper troposphere using partial columns of NO<sub>2</sub> above cloudy scenes (the so-called cloud-slicing technique). The model is also used to quantify errors induced by uncertainties in cloud-top height and to determine whether NO<sub>2</sub> over cloudy scenes is representative of all-sky conditions (the "truth"). We find that the cloud-slicing approach is spatially consistent (R =0.5) with the "truth", but with a small (10 pptv) bias in background NO<sub>2</sub>. Cloud-slicing is then applied to TROPOMI total columns of NO<sub>2</sub> to derive near-global observations of NO<sub>2</sub> in the upper troposphere and assessed against the existing OMI products and aircraft observations from NASA DC8 aircraft campaigns.</p>


1999 ◽  
Vol 104 (D9) ◽  
pp. 11755-11781 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugene V. Rozanov ◽  
Vladimir A. Zubov ◽  
Michael E. Schlesinger ◽  
Fanglin Yang ◽  
Natalia G. Andronova

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (15) ◽  
pp. 7073-7085 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Kuttippurath ◽  
S. Godin-Beekmann ◽  
F. Lefèvre ◽  
G. Nikulin ◽  
M. L. Santee ◽  
...  

Abstract. We present a detailed discussion of the chemical and dynamical processes in the Arctic winters 1996/1997 and 2010/2011 with high resolution chemical transport model (CTM) simulations and space-based observations. In the Arctic winter 2010/2011, the lower stratospheric minimum temperatures were below 195 K for a record period of time, from December to mid-April, and a strong and stable vortex was present during that period. Simulations with the Mimosa-Chim CTM show that the chemical ozone loss started in early January and progressed slowly to 1 ppmv (parts per million by volume) by late February. The loss intensified by early March and reached a record maximum of ~2.4 ppmv in the late March–early April period over a broad altitude range of 450–550 K. This coincides with elevated ozone loss rates of 2–4 ppbv sh−1 (parts per billion by volume/sunlit hour) and a contribution of about 30–55% and 30–35% from the ClO-ClO and ClO-BrO cycles, respectively, in late February and March. In addition, a contribution of 30–50% from the HOx cycle is also estimated in April. We also estimate a loss of about 0.7–1.2 ppmv contributed (75%) by the NOx cycle at 550–700 K. The ozone loss estimated in the partial column range of 350–550 K exhibits a record value of ~148 DU (Dobson Unit). This is the largest ozone loss ever estimated in the Arctic and is consistent with the remarkable chlorine activation and strong denitrification (40–50%) during the winter, as the modeled ClO shows ~1.8 ppbv in early January and ~1 ppbv in March at 450–550 K. These model results are in excellent agreement with those found from the Aura Microwave Limb Sounder observations. Our analyses also show that the ozone loss in 2010/2011 is close to that found in some Antarctic winters, for the first time in the observed history. Though the winter 1996/1997 was also very cold in March–April, the temperatures were higher in December–February, and, therefore, chlorine activation was moderate and ozone loss was average with about 1.2 ppmv at 475–550 K or 42 DU at 350–550 K, as diagnosed from the model simulations and measurements.


2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (11) ◽  
pp. 6663-6678 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shreeya Verma ◽  
Julia Marshall ◽  
Mark Parrington ◽  
Anna Agustí-Panareda ◽  
Sebastien Massart ◽  
...  

Abstract. Airborne observations of greenhouse gases are a very useful reference for validation of satellite-based column-averaged dry air mole fraction data. However, since the aircraft data are available only up to about 9–13 km altitude, these profiles do not fully represent the depth of the atmosphere observed by satellites and therefore need to be extended synthetically into the stratosphere. In the near future, observations of CO2 and CH4 made from passenger aircraft are expected to be available through the In-Service Aircraft for a Global Observing System (IAGOS) project. In this study, we analyse three different data sources that are available for the stratospheric extension of aircraft profiles by comparing the error introduced by each of them into the total column and provide recommendations regarding the best approach. First, we analyse CH4 fields from two different models of atmospheric composition – the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) Integrated Forecasting System for Composition (C-IFS) and the TOMCAT/SLIMCAT 3-D chemical transport model. Secondly, we consider scenarios that simulate the effect of using CH4 climatologies such as those based on balloons or satellite limb soundings. Thirdly, we assess the impact of using a priori profiles used in the satellite retrievals for the stratospheric part of the total column. We find that the models considered in this study have a better estimation of the stratospheric CH4 as compared to the climatology-based data and the satellite a priori profiles. Both the C-IFS and TOMCAT models have a bias of about −9 ppb at the locations where tropospheric vertical profiles will be measured by IAGOS. The C-IFS model, however, has a lower random error (6.5 ppb) than TOMCAT (12.8 ppb). These values are well within the minimum desired accuracy and precision of satellite total column XCH4 retrievals (10 and 34 ppb, respectively). In comparison, the a priori profile from the University of Leicester Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite (GOSAT) Proxy XCH4 retrieval and climatology-based data introduce larger random errors in the total column, being limited in spatial coverage and temporal variability. Furthermore, we find that the bias in the models varies with latitude and season. Therefore, applying appropriate bias correction to the model fields before using them for profile extension is expected to further decrease the error contributed by the stratospheric part of the profile to the total column.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document