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Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., 11, 26173-26243, 2011
www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/11/26173/2011/ doi:10.5194/acpd-11-26173-2011 © Author(s) 2011. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. |
Analysis of satellite-derived Arctic tropospheric BrO columns in conjunction with aircraft measurements during ARCTAS and ARCPAC
1Georgia Institue of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA
2University of Maryland College Park, College Park, MD, USA
3NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA
4Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA, USA
5Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
6Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA
7NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, CO, USA
8University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA
9National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, USA
10NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, USA
11Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), De Bilt, The Netherlands
12University of Technology Eindhoven, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
*now at: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, USA
Abstract. We derive estimates of tropospheric BrO column amounts during two Arctic field campaigns in 2008 using information from the satellite UV nadir sensors Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) and the second Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME-2) as well as estimates of stratospheric BrO columns from a model simulation. The sensitivity of the satellite-derived tropospheric BrO columns to various parameters is investigated using a radiative transfer model. We conduct a comprehensive analysis of satellite-derived tropospheric BrO columns including a detailed comparison with aircraft in-situ observations of BrO and related species obtained during the field campaigns. In contrast to prior expectation, tropospheric BrO, when present, existed over a broad range of altitudes. Our results show reasonable agreement between tropospheric BrO columns derived from the satellite observations and columns found using aircraft in-situ BrO. After accounting for the stratospheric contribution to total BrO column, several events of rapid BrO activation due to surface processes in the Arctic are apparent in both the OMI and GOME-2 based tropospheric columns. The wide orbital swath of OMI allows examination of the evolution of tropospheric BrO on about hourly time intervals near the pole. Low pressure systems, strong surface winds, and high planetary boundary layer heights are associated with the observed tropospheric BrO activation events.
Citation: Choi, S., Wang, Y., Salawitch, R. J., Canty, T., Joiner, J., Zeng, T., Kurosu, T. P., Chance, K., Richter, A., Huey, L. G., Liao, J., Neuman, J. A., Nowak, J. B., Dibb, J. E., Weinheimer, A. J., Diskin, G., Ryerson, T. B., da Silva, A., Curry, J., Kinnison, D., Tilmes, S., and Levelt, P. F.: Analysis of satellite-derived Arctic tropospheric BrO columns in conjunction with aircraft measurements during ARCTAS and ARCPAC, Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., 11, 26173-26243, doi:10.5194/acpd-11-26173-2011, 2011.