159 research outputs found

    Evaluation of ACCMIP Outgoing Longwave Radiation from Tropospheric Ozone Using TES Satellite Observations.

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    We use simultaneous observations of tropospheric ozone and outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) sensitivity to tropospheric ozone from the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) to evaluate model tropospheric ozone and its effect on OLR simulated by a suite of chemistry-climate models that participated in the Atmospheric Chemistry and Climate Model Intercomparison Project (ACCMIP). The ensemble mean of ACCMIP models show a persistent but modest tropospheric ozone low bias (5-20 ppb) in the Southern Hemisphere (SH) and modest high bias (5-10 ppb) in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) relative to TES ozone for 2005-2010. These ozone biases have a significant impact on the OLR. Using TES instantaneous radiative kernels (IRK), we show that the ACCMIP ensemble mean tropospheric ozone low bias leads up to 120mW/ sq. m OLR high bias locally but zonally compensating errors reduce the global OLR high bias to 39+/- 41mW/ sq. m relative to TES data. We show that there is a correlation (Sq. R = 0.59) between the magnitude of the ACCMIP OLR bias and the deviation of the ACCMIP preindustrial to present day (1750-2010) ozone radiative forcing (RF) from the ensemble ozone RF mean. However, this correlation is driven primarily by models whose absolute OLR bias from tropospheric ozone exceeds 100mW/ sq. m. Removing these models leads to a mean ozone radiative forcing of 394+/- 42mW/ sq. m. The mean is about the same and the standard deviation is about 30% lower than an ensemble ozone RF of 384 +/- 60mW/ sq. m derived from 14 of the 16 ACCMIP models reported in a companion ACCMIP study. These results point towards a profitable direction of combining satellite observations and chemistry-climate model simulations to reduce uncertainty in ozone radiative forcing

    Ozone-CO Correlations Determined by the TES Satellite Instrument in Continental Outflow Regions

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    Collocated measurements of tropospheric ozone (O3) and carbon monoxide (CO) from the Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) aboard the EOS Aura satellite provide information on O3-CO correlations to test our understanding of global anthropogenic influence on O3. We examine the global distribution of TES O3-CO correlations in the middle troposphere (618 hPa) for July 2005 and compare to correlations generated with the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model and with ICARTT aircraft observations over the eastern United States (July 2004). The TES data show significant O3-CO correlations downwind of polluted continents, with dO3/dCO enhancement ratios in the range 0.4–1.0 mol mol−1 and consistent with ICARTT data. The GEOS-Chem model reproduces the O3-CO enhancement ratios observed in continental outflow, but model correlations are stronger and more extensive. We show that the discrepancy can be explained by spectral measurement errors in the TES data. These errors will decrease in future data releases, which should enable TES to provide better information on O3-CO correlations.Earth and Planetary SciencesEngineering and Applied Science

    An extensive database of airborne trace gas and meteorological observations from the Alpha Jet Atmospheric eXperiment (AJAX)

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    The Alpha Jet Atmospheric eXperiment (AJAX) flew scientific flights between 2011 and 2018 providing measurements of trace gas species and meteorological parameters over California and Nevada, USA. This paper describes the observations made by the AJAX program over 229 flights and approximately 450 h of flying. AJAX was a multi-year, multi-objective, multi-instrument program with a variety of sampling strategies resulting in an extensive dataset of interest to a wide variety of users. Some of the more common flight objectives include satellite calibration/validation (GOSAT, OCO-2, TROPOMI) at Railroad Valley and other locations and long-term observations of free-tropospheric and boundary layer ozone allowing for studies of stratosphere-to-troposphere transport and long-range transport to the western United States. AJAX also performed topical studies such as sampling wildfire emissions, urban outflow and atmospheric rivers. Airborne measurements of carbon dioxide, methane, ozone, formaldehyde, water vapor, temperature, pressure and 3-D winds made by the AJAX program have been published at NASA's Airborne Science Data Center (https://asdc.larc.nasa.gov/project/AJAXTS9 (last access: 1 November 2022), https://doi.org/10.5067/ASDC/SUBORBITAL/AJAX/DATA001, Iraci et al., 2021a).</p

    The added value of a visible channel to a geostationary thermal infrared instrument to monitor ozone for air quality

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    Ozone is a tropospheric pollutant and plays a key role in determining the air quality that affects human wellbeing. In this study, we compare the capability of two hypothetical grating spectrometers onboard a geostationary (GEO) satellite to sense ozone in the lowermost troposphere (surface and the 0–1 km column). We consider 1 week during the Northern Hemisphere summer simulated by a chemical transport model, and use the two GEO instrument configurations to measure ozone concentration (1) in the thermal infrared (GEO TIR) and (2) in the thermal infrared and the visible (GEO TIR+VIS). These configurations are compared against each other, and also against an ozone reference state and a priori ozone information. In a first approximation, we assume clear sky conditions neglecting the influence of aerosols and clouds. A number of statistical tests are used to assess the performance of the two GEO configurations. We consider land and sea pixels and whether differences between the two in the performance are significant. Results show that the GEO TIR+VIS configuration provides a better representation of the ozone field both for surface ozone and the 0–1 km ozone column during the daytime especially over land

    Retrievals of tropospheric ozone profiles from the synergism of AIRS and OMI: methodology and validation

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    The Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) on the A-Train Aura satellite was designed to profile tropospheric ozone and its precursors, taking measurements from 2004 to 2018. Starting in 2008, TES global sampling of tropospheric ozone was gradually reduced in latitude, with global coverage stopping in 2011. To extend the record of TES, this work presents a multispectral approach that will provide O3 data products with vertical resolution and measurement error similar to TES by combining the single-footprint thermal infrared (TIR) hyperspectral radiances from the Aqua Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument and the ultraviolet (UV) channels from the Aura Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI). The joint AIRS+OMI O3 retrievals are processed through the MUlti-SpEctra, MUlti-SpEcies, MUlti-SEnsors (MUSES) retrieval algorithm. Comparisons of collocated joint AIRS+OMI and TES to ozonesonde measurements show that both systems have similar errors, with mean and standard deviation of the differences well within the estimated measurement error. AIRS+OMI and TES have slightly different biases (within 5 parts per billion) vs. the sondes. Both AIRS and OMI have wide swath widths ( ∼ 1650&thinsp;km for AIRS;  ∼ 2600&thinsp;km for OMI) across satellite ground tracks. Consequently, the joint AIRS+OMI measurements have the potential to maintain TES vertical sensitivity while increasing coverage by 2 orders of magnitude, thus providing an unprecedented new data set with which to quantify the evolution of tropospheric ozone.</p

    Tropospheric Ozone Assessment Report: Present-day distribution and trends of tropospheric ozone relevant to climate and global atmospheric chemistry model evaluation

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    The Tropospheric Ozone Assessment Report (TOAR) is an activity of the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry Project. This paper is a component of the report, focusing on the present-day distribution and trends of tropospheric ozone relevant to climate and global atmospheric chemistry model evaluation. Utilizing the TOAR surface ozone database, several figures present the global distribution and trends of daytime average ozone at 2702 non-urban monitoring sites, highlighting the regions and seasons of the world with the greatest ozone levels. Similarly, ozonesonde and commercial aircraft observations reveal ozone’s distribution throughout the depth of the free troposphere. Long-term surface observations are limited in their global spatial coverage, but data from remote locations indicate that ozone in the 21st century is greater than during the 1970s and 1980s. While some remote sites and many sites in the heavily polluted regions of East Asia show ozone increases since 2000, many others show decreases and there is no clear global pattern for surface ozone changes since 2000. Two new satellite products provide detailed views of ozone in the lower troposphere across East Asia and Europe, revealing the full spatial extent of the spring and summer ozone enhancements across eastern China that cannot be assessed from limited surface observations. Sufficient data are now available (ozonesondes, satellite, aircraft) across the tropics from South America eastwards to the western Pacific Ocean, to indicate a likely tropospheric column ozone increase since the 1990s. The 2014–2016 mean tropospheric ozone burden (TOB) between 60˚N–60˚S from five satellite products is 300 Tg ± 4%. While this agreement is excellent, the products differ in their quantification of TOB trends and further work is required to reconcile the differences. Satellites can now estimate ozone’s global long-wave radiative effect, but evaluation is difficult due to limited in situ observations where the radiative effect is greatest

    Tropospheric Ozone Assessment Report: Present-day distribution and trends of tropospheric ozone relevant to climate and global atmospheric chemistry model evaluation

    Get PDF
    The Tropospheric Ozone Assessment Report (TOAR) is an activity of the International Global Atmospheric Chemistry Project. This paper is a component of the report, focusing on the present-day distribution and trends of tropospheric ozone relevant to climate and global atmospheric chemistry model evaluation. Utilizing the TOAR surface ozone database, several figures present the global distribution and trends of daytime average ozone at 2702 non-urban monitoring sites, highlighting the regions and seasons of the world with the greatest ozone levels. Similarly, ozonesonde and commercial aircraft observations reveal ozone’s distribution throughout the depth of the free troposphere. Long-term surface observations are limited in their global spatial coverage, but data from remote locations indicate that ozone in the 21st century is greater than during the 1970s and 1980s. While some remote sites and many sites in the heavily polluted regions of East Asia show ozone increases since 2000, many others show decreases and there is no clear global pattern for surface ozone changes since 2000. Two new satellite products provide detailed views of ozone in the lower troposphere across East Asia and Europe, revealing the full spatial extent of the spring and summer ozone enhancements across eastern China that cannot be assessed from limited surface observations. Sufficient data are now available (ozonesondes, satellite, aircraft) across the tropics from South America eastwards to the western Pacific Ocean, to indicate a likely tropospheric column ozone increase since the 1990s. The 2014–2016 mean tropospheric ozone burden (TOB) between 60˚N–60˚S from five satellite products is 300 Tg ± 4%. While this agreement is excellent, the products differ in their quantification of TOB trends and further work is required to reconcile the differences. Satellites can now estimate ozone’s global long-wave radiative effect, but evaluation is difficult due to limited in situ observations where the radiative effect is greatest

    Cigarette smoke induces β2-integrin-dependent neutrophil migration across human endothelium

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    <p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Cigarette smoking induces peripheral inflammatory responses in all smokers and is the major risk factor for neutrophilic lung disease such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of cigarette smoke on neutrophil migration and on β<sub>2</sub>-integrin activation and function in neutrophilic transmigration through endothelium.</p> <p>Methods and results</p> <p>Utilizing freshly isolated human PMNs, the effect of cigarette smoke on migration and β<sub>2</sub>-integrin activation and function in neutrophilic transmigration was studied. In this report, we demonstrated that cigarette smoke extract (CSE) dose dependently induced migration of neutrophils <it>in vitro</it>. Moreover, CSE promoted neutrophil adherence to fibrinogen. Using functional blocking antibodies against CD11b and CD18, it was demonstrated that Mac-1 (CD11b/CD18) is responsible for the cigarette smoke-induced firm adhesion of neutrophils to fibrinogen. Furthermore, neutrophils transmigrated through endothelium by cigarette smoke due to the activation of β<sub>2</sub>-integrins, since pre-incubation of neutrophils with functional blocking antibodies against CD11b and CD18 attenuated this transmigration.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This is the first study to describe that cigarette smoke extract induces a direct migratory effect on neutrophils and that CSE is an activator of β<sub>2</sub>-integrins on the cell surface. Blocking this activation of β<sub>2</sub>-integrins might be an important target in cigarette smoke induced neutrophilic diseases.</p

    Aerosolized Human Extracellular Superoxide Dismutase Prevents Hyperoxia-Induced Lung Injury

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    An important issue in critical care medicine is the identification of ways to protect the lungs from oxygen toxicity and reduce systemic oxidative stress in conditions requiring mechanical ventilation and high levels of oxygen. One way to prevent oxygen toxicity is to augment antioxidant enzyme activity in the respiratory system. The current study investigated the ability of aerosolized extracellular superoxide dismutase (EC-SOD) to protect the lungs from hyperoxic injury. Recombinant human EC-SOD (rhEC-SOD) was produced from a synthetic cassette constructed in the methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris. Female CD-1 mice were exposed in hyperoxia (FiO2>95%) to induce lung injury. The therapeutic effects of EC-SOD and copper-zinc SOD (CuZn-SOD) via an aerosol delivery system for lung injury and systemic oxidative stress at 24, 48, 72 and 96 h of hyperoxia were measured by bronchoalveolar lavage, wet/dry ratio, lung histology, and 8-oxo-2′-deoxyguanosine (8-oxo-dG) in lung and liver tissues. After exposure to hyperoxia, the wet/dry weight ratio remained stable before day 2 but increased significantly after day 3. The levels of oxidative biomarker 8-oxo-dG in the lung and liver were significantly decreased on day 2 (P<0.01) but the marker in the liver increased abruptly after day 3 of hyperoxia when the mortality increased. Treatment with aerosolized rhEC-SOD increased the survival rate at day 3 under hyperoxia to 95.8%, which was significantly higher than that of the control group (57.1%), albumin treated group (33.3%), and CuZn-SOD treated group (75%). The protective effects of EC-SOD against hyperoxia were further confirmed by reduced lung edema and systemic oxidative stress. Aerosolized EC-SOD protected mice against oxygen toxicity and reduced mortality in a hyperoxic model. The results encourage the use of an aerosol therapy with EC-SOD in intensive care units to reduce oxidative injury in patients with severe hypoxemic respiratory failure, including acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS)
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