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www.atmos-chem-phys.net/11/10975/2011/
doi:10.5194/acp-11-10975-2011
© Author(s) 2011. This work is distributed
under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
In-situ observation of Asian pollution transported into the Arctic lowermost stratosphere
1Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
2Max-Planck-Institute of Nuclear Physics, Atmospheric Physics Division, Heidelberg, Germany
3Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado/NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory, Boulder, USA
4Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU), Kjeller, Norway
5Space Science and Engineering Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, USA
6Forschungszentrum Jülich, IEK-7: Stratosphere, Germany
7UPMC Univ. Paris 06; Univ. Versailles St-Quentin; CNRS/INSU, LATMOS-IPSL, Paris, France
*now at: Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zürich, Switzerland
Abstract. On a research flight on 10 July 2008, the German research aircraft Falcon sampled an air mass with unusually high carbon monoxide (CO), peroxyacetyl nitrate (PAN) and water vapour (H2O) mixing ratios in the Arctic lowermost stratosphere. The air mass was encountered twice at an altitude of 11.3 km, ~800 m above the dynamical tropopause. In-situ measurements of ozone, NO, and NOy indicate that this layer was a mixed air mass containing both air from the troposphere and stratosphere. Backward trajectory and Lagrangian particle dispersion model analysis suggest that the Falcon sampled the top of a polluted air mass originating from the coastal regions of East Asia. The anthropogenic pollution plume experienced strong up-lift in a warm conveyor belt (WCB) located over the Russian east-coast. Subsequently the Asian air mass was transported across the North Pole into the sampling area, elevating the local tropopause by up to ~3 km. Mixing with surrounding Arctic stratospheric air most likely took place during the horizontal transport when the tropospheric streamer was stretched into long and narrow filaments. The mechanism illustrated in this study possibly presents an important pathway to transport pollution into the polar tropopause region.
Final Revised Paper (PDF, 5542 KB) Discussion Paper (ACPD) Special Issue
Citation: Roiger, A., Schlager, H., Schäfler, A., Huntrieser, H., Scheibe, M., Aufmhoff, H., Cooper, O. R., Sodemann, H., Stohl, A., Burkhart, J., Lazzara, M., Schiller, C., Law, K. S., and Arnold, F.: In-situ observation of Asian pollution transported into the Arctic lowermost stratosphere, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 10975-10994, doi:10.5194/acp-11-10975-2011, 2011. Bibtex EndNote Reference Manager XML
