Ground-based FTIR measurements of CO from the Jungfraujoch: characterisation and comparison with <i>in situ</i> surface andMOPITT data

International audienceCO vertical profiles have been retrieved from solar absorption FTIR spectra recorded at the NDSC station of the Jungfraujoch (46.5° N, 8° E and 3580 m a.s.l.) for the period from January 1997 to May 2001. The characterisation of these profiles has been established by an information content analysis and an estimation of the error budgets. A partial validation of the profiles has been performed through comparisons with correlative measurements. The average volume mixing ratios (vmr) in the 3 km layer above the station have been compared with coincident surface measurements. The agreement between monthly means from both measurement techniques is very good, with a correlation coefficient of 0.87, and no significant bias observed. The FTIR total columns have also been compared to CO partial columns above 3580 m a.s.l. derived from the MOPITT (Measurement Of Pollution In The Troposphere) instrument for the period March 2000 to May 2001. Relative to the FTIR columns, the MOPITT partial columns exhibit a positive bias of 8±8% for daytime and of 4±7% for nighttime measurements

Nighttime chlorine monoxide observations by the Odin satellite and implications for the ClO/Cl2O2 equilibrium

We use measurements of chlorine monoxide (ClO) by the SMR instrument onboard the Odin satellite to study the nighttime thermal equilibrium between ClO and its dimer Cl2O2. Observations performed in the polar vortex during the 2002–2003 Arctic winter showed enhanced amounts of nighttime ClO over a wide range of stratospheric temperatures (185 < T < 225 K). Odin/SMR measurements are here compared to three-dimensional model calculations using various published estimations of the Keq equilibrium constant between ClO and Cl2O2. Our results show that the value of Keq currently recommended by JPL (Sander et al., 2003) leads to a large underestimation of the observed nighttime ClO amounts, and that a realistic estimation of Keq must lie between the values determined by Cox and Hayman (1988) and Von Hobe et al. (2005)

Technical Note: New ground-based FTIR measurements at Ile de La Réunion: observations, error analysis, and comparisons with independent data

Ground-based high spectral resolution Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) solar absorption spectroscopy is a powerful remote sensing technique to obtain information on the total column abundances and on the vertical distribution of various constituents in the atmosphere. This work presents results from two FTIR measurement campaigns in 2002 and 2004, held at Ile de La Réunion (21° S, 55° E). These campaigns represent the first FTIR observations carried out at a southern (sub)tropical site. They serve the initiation of regular, long-term FTIR monitoring at this site in the near future. To demonstrate the capabilities of the FTIR measurements at this location for tropospheric and stratospheric monitoring, a detailed report is given on the retrieval strategy, information content and corresponding full error budget evaluation for ozone (O3), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), carbon monoxide (CO), ethane (C2H6), hydrogen chloride (HCl), hydrogen fluoride (HF) and nitric acid (HNO3) total and partial column retrievals. Moreover, we have made a thorough comparison of the capabilities at sea level altitude (St.-Denis) and at 2200 m a.s.l. (Maïdo). It is proved that the performances of the technique are such that the atmospheric variability can be observed, at both locations and in distinct altitude layers. Comparisons with literature and with correlative data from ozone sonde and satellite (i.e., ACE-FTS, HALOE and MOPITT) measurements are given to confirm the results. Despite the short time series available at present, we have been able to detect the seasonal variation of CO in the biomass burning season, as well as the impact of particular biomass burning events in Africa and Madagascar on the atmospheric composition above Ile de La Réunion. We also show that differential measurements between St.-Denis and Maïdo provide useful information about the concentrations in the boundary layer.Peer reviewe

Inversion et caractérisation de profils de constituants atmosphériques à partir de mesures FTIR sol

Doctorat en Sciencesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublishe

Inversion et caractérisation de profils de constituants atmosphériques à partir de mesures FTIR sol

Doctorat en Sciencesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublishe

Updating the Jungfraujoch FTIR databases : current status

Since the middle of the 20th century, the University of Liège has been active at the International Scientific Station of the Jungfraujoch (ISSJ) in the Swiss Alps (46.5°N, 8.0°E, 3580m asl) to study the chemical composition of both the solar photosphere and the Earth’s atmosphere. Since 1989, the ISSJ is an accepted site of the northern midlattitude primary Alpine station of the NDSC (Network for the Detection of Stratospheric Change). This acceptance resulted from earlier monitoring activities by Ulg of a large number of atmospheric constituents. Within the NDSC frame, a special attention and many efforts have been devoted to the monitoring of the most important atmospheric constituents involved both in the erosion of stratospheric ozone and in the greenhouse capacity of the troposphere, after it became clear that human activities have a direct impact on these two processes. Using two high resolution Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometers, over 25000 wide-band solar spectra encompassing nearly 1700 days since the mid 1980s have been recorded and analyzed to study, quasi simultaneously and repeatedly, local, seasonal and secular variations of some 20 gaseous telluric species. So far, most results have been reported, demonstrating the power of infrared spectrometric solar observations to characterize the chemical composition of the atmosphere. These datas, archived in terms of total vertical column abundances (e.g., at the NDSC-Data Host Facility; http://www.ndsc.ws), are expressed in number molecules per cm2 above the site using best-know input parameters (i.e. spectroscopic-, instrumental-, environmental-) in the retrieval procedure. Meanwhile, more sophisticated algorithms, based on the “Rodgers” optimal estimation method, have been developed, allowing to derive partial tropospheric- and stratospheric columns for various species, including HCl, ClONO2, O3, HF, CO, N2O, CH4, HCN, OCS. This contribution reports related results for HCl and ClONO2

A tropopause-related climatological a priori profile for IASI-SOFRID ozone retrievals: improvements and validation

International audienceThe MetOp/Infrared Atmospheric Sounding In-terferometer (IASI) instruments have provided data for operational meteorology and document atmospheric composition since 2007. IASI ozone (O 3) data have been used extensively to characterize the seasonal and interannual vari-abilities and the evolution of tropospheric O 3 at the global scale. SOftware for a Fast Retrieval of IASI Data (SOFRID) is a fast retrieval algorithm that provides IASI O 3 profiles for the whole IASI period. Until now, SOFRID O 3 retrievals (v1.5 and v1.6) were performed with a single a priori profile, which resulted in important biases and probably a too-low variability. For the first time, we have implemented a comprehensive dynamical a priori profile for spaceborne O 3 retrievals which takes the pixel location, time and tropopause height into account for SOFRID-O3 v3.5 retrievals. In the present study, we validate SOFRID-O3 v1.6 and v3.5 with electrochemical concentration cell (ECC) ozonesonde profiles from the global World Ozone and Ultraviolet Radiation Data Centre (WOUDC) database for the 2008-2017 period. Our validation is based on a thorough statistical analysis using Taylor diagrams. Furthermore, we compare our retrievals with ozonesonde profiles both smoothed by the IASI averaging kernels and raw. This methodology is essential to evaluate the inherent usefulness of the retrievals to assess O 3 variability and trends. The use of a dynamical a priori profile largely improves the retrievals concerning two main aspects: (i) it corrects high biases for low-tropospheric O 3 regions such as the Southern Hemisphere, and (ii) it increases the retrieved O 3 variability, leading to a better agreement with ozonesonde data. Concerning upper troposphere-lower stratosphere (UTLS) and stratospheric O 3 , the improvements are less important and the biases are very similar for both versions. The SOFRID tropospheric ozone columns (TOCs) display no significant drifts (< 2.5 %) for the Northern Hemisphere and significant negative ones (9.5 % for v1.6 and 4.3 % for v3.5) for the Southern Hemisphere. We have compared our validation results to those of the Fast Optimal Retrievals on Layers for IASI (FORLI) retrieval software from the literature for smoothed ozonesonde data only. This comparison highlights three main differences: (i) FORLI retrievals contain more theoretical information about tro-pospheric O 3 than SOFRID; (ii) root mean square differences (RMSDs) are smaller and correlation coefficients are higher for SOFRID than for FORLI; (iii) in the Northern Hemisphere, the 2010 jump detected in FORLI TOCs is not present in SOFRID

Insect pollination: an ecological process involved in the assembly of the seed microbiota

The assembly of the seed microbiota involves some early microbial seed colonizers that are transmitted from the maternal plant through the vascular system, while other microbes enter through the stigma. Thus, the seed microbiota consists of microbes not only recruited from the plant vascular tissues, but also from the flower. Flowers are known to be a hub for microbial transmission between plants and insects. This floral-insect exchange opens the possibility for insect-transmitted bacteria to colonize the ovule and, subsequently, the seed to pass then into the next plant generation. In this study, we evaluated the contribution of insect pollination to the seed microbiota through high-throughput sequencing. Oilseed rape (OSR) flowers were exposed to visits and pollination by honey bees (Apis mellifera), red mason bees (Osmia bicornis), hand pollinated or left for autonomous self-pollination (ASP). Sequence analyses revealed that honey bee visitation reduced bacterial richness and diversity in seeds, but increased the variability of seed microbial structure, and introduced bee-associated taxa. In contrast, mason bee pollination had minor effects on the seed microbiota. Our study provides the first evidence that insect pollination is an ecological process involved in the transmission of bacteria from flowers to seeds

Comparison between the assimilation of IASI Level 2 ozone retrievals and Level 1 radiances in a chemical transport model

International audienc