References

ACP

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics

ACP

1680-7324

Copernicus GmbH

Göttingen, Germany

10.5194/acp-12-8177-2012

Toward a combined SAGE II-HALOE aerosol climatology: an evaluation of HALOE version 19 stratospheric aerosol extinction coefficient observations

Thomason

L. W.

NASA Langley Research Center, Mail Stop 475, Hampton, VA 23681, USA

12 09 2012

12 17 8177 8188

This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

This article is available from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/12/8177/2012/acp-12-8177-2012.html

The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/12/8177/2012/acp-12-8177-2012.pdf

Herein, the Halogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE) aerosol extinction coefficient data is evaluated in the low aerosol loading period after 1996 as the first necessary step in a process that will eventually allow the production of a combined HALOE/SAGE II (Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment) aerosol climatology of derived aerosol products including surface area density. Based on these analyses, it is demonstrated that HALOE's 3.46 μm is of good quality above 19 km and suitable for scientific applications above that altitude. However, it is increasingly suspect at lower altitudes and should not be used below 17 km under any circumstances after 1996. The 3.40 μm is biased by about 10% throughout the lower stratosphere due to the failure to clear NO2 but otherwise appears to be a high quality product down to 15 km. The 2.45 and 5.26 μm aerosol extinction coefficient measurements are clearly biased and should not be used for scientific applications after the most intense parts of the Pinatubo period. Many of the issues in the aerosol data appear to be related to either the failure to clear some interfering gas species or doing so poorly. For instance, it is clear that the 3.40 μm aerosol extinction coefficient measurements can be improved through the inclusion of an NO2 correction and could, in fact, end up as the highest quality overall HALOE aerosol extinction coefficient measurement. It also appears that the 2.45 and 5.26 μm channels may be improved by updating the Upper Atmosphere Pilot Database which is used as a resource for the removal of gas species otherwise not available from direct HALOE measurements. Finally, a simple model to demonstrate the promise of mixed visible/infrared aerosol extinction coefficient ensembles for the retrieval of bulk aerosol properties demonstrates that a combined HALOE/SAGE II aerosol climatology is feasible and may represent a substantial improvement over independently derived data sets.

References 1

Anderson, J., Russell III, J. M., Solomon, S., and Deaver, L. E.: Halogen Occultation Experiment confirmation of stratospheric chlorine decreases in accordance with the Montreal Protocol, J. Geophys. Res., 105, 4483–4490, 2000.

Cunnold, D. M., Pitts, M. C., and Trepte, C. R.: An intercomparison of SAGE and SBUV ozone observations for March and April 1979, J. Geophys. Res., 89, 5249–5262, 1984.

Hervig, M. E., Russell, J. M., Gordley, L. L., Park, J. H., and Drayson, S. R.: Observations of aerosol by the HALOE experiment onboard UARS: a preliminary validation, Geophys. Res. Lett., 20, 1291–1294, 1993.

Hervig, M. E., Russell, J. M., Gordley, L. L., Daniels, J., Drayson, S. R., and Park, J. H.: Aerosol effects and corrections in the Halogen Occultation Experiment, J. Geophys. Res., 100, 1067–1079, 1995.

Hervig, M. E., Russell, J. M., Gordley, L. L., Park, J. H., Drayson, S. R., and Deshler, T.: Validation of aerosol measurements from the Halogen Occultation Experiment, J. Geophys. Res., 101, 10267–10275, 1996.

Hervig, M. E., Deshler, T., and Russell III, J. M.: Aerosol size distributions obtained from HALOE spectral extinction measurements, J. Geophys. Res., 103, 1573–1583, 1998.

Hervig, M. E. and Deshler, T.: Evaluation of aerosol measurements from SAGE II, HALOE, and balloonborne optical particle counters, J.Geophys. Res., 107, 4031–4042, http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2001JD000703doi:10.1029/2001JD000703, 2002.

Kent, G. S., Winker, D. M., Osborn, M. T., McCormick, M. P., and Skeens, K. M.: A model for the separation of cloud and aerosol in SAGE II occultation data, J. Geophys. Res., 98, 20725–20735, 1993.

Kent, G. S., Winker, D. M., Vaughan, M. A., Wang, P.-H., and Skeen, K. M.: Simulation of Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) II cloud measurements using airborne lidar data, J. Geophys. Res., 102, 21795–21807, 1997.

Jackman, C. H., Seals Jr., R. K., and Prather, M. J. (Eds.): Two-Dimensional Intercomparison of Stratospheric Models, NASA CP-3042, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 1989.

Jones, A., Urban, J., Murtagh, D. P., Sanchez, C., Walker, K. A., Livesey, N. J., Froidevaux, L., and Santee, M. L.: Analysis of HCl and ClO time series in the upper stratosphere using satellite data sets, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 5321–5333, http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/acp-11-5321-2011doi:10.5194/acp-11-5321-2011, 2011.

Jones, R. L. and Pyle, J. A.: Observations of CH4 and N2O by the NIMBUS 7 SAMS: A comparison with in situ data and two-dimensional numerical model calculations, J. Geophys. Res., 89, 5263–5279, 1984.

Mote, P. W., Rosenlof, K. H., McIntyre, M. E., Carr, E. S., Gille, J. C., Holton, J. R., Kinnersley, J. S., Pumphrey, H. C., Russell III, J. M., and Waters, J. W.: An atmospheric tape recorder: The imprint of tropical tropopause temperatures on stratospheric water vapor, J. Geophys. Res., 101, 3989–4006, 1996.

SPARC: Assessment of Stratospheric Aerosol Properties (ASAP), SPARC Report No. 4, WCRP-124, WMO/TD-No. 1295, Feb. 2006, edited by: Thomason, L. and Peter, Th., 2006.

Steele, H. M. and Turco, R. P.: Retrieval of aerosol size distributions from satellite extinction spectra using constrained linear inversion, J. Geophys. Res., 102, 16737–16747, 1997.

Thomason, L. W., Poole, L. R., and Deshler, T. R.: A global climatology of stratospheric aerosol surface area density as deduced from SAGE II: 1984–1994, J. Geophys. Res., 102, 8967–8976, 1997.

Thomason, L. W., Burton, S. P., Luo, B.-P., and Peter, T.: SAGE II measurements of stratospheric aerosol properties at non-volcanic levels, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 8, 983–995, http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/acp-8-983-2008doi:10.5194/acp-8-983-2008, 2008.

Wang, P. H., McCormick, M. P., McMaster, L. R., Chu, W. P., Swissler, T. J., Osborn, M. T., Russell, P. B., Oberbeck, V. R., Livingston, J., Rosen, J. M., Hofmann, D. J., Grams, G. W., Fuller, W. H., and Yue, G. K.: SAGE II aerosol data validation based on retrieved aerosol model size distribution from SAGE II aerosol measurements, J. Geophys. Res., 94, 8381–8393, 1989.

Yue, G. K.: A new approach to retrieval of aerosol size distributions and integral properties from SAGE II aerosol extinction spectra, J. Geophys. Res., 104, 27491–27506, 1999.