Airborne Lidar Investigation of Ozone and Aerosols During the TOPSE (Troposheric Ozone Production about the Spring Equinox) Field Experment

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

AbstractBrowell - 9907910In this project, the large-scale distribution of ozone (O3) and aerosols will be investigated in mid-to-high latitudes over continental North America as part of the TOPSE (Tropospheric Ozone Production about the Spring Equinox) field experiment. Ozone and aerosol profiles will be measured using the NASA Airborne UV DIAL (Differential Absorption Lidar) system. Complete vertical profiles of O3 and aerosol distributions can be obtained along the aircraft flight track from near the surface to several kilometers above the tropopause, with a vertical resolution 300m in the vertical and a few tens of kilometers in the horizontal. This information will be used to investigate the contributions of transport and production/destruction in the tropospheric O3 budget, to provide initial conditions and validation measurements for O3 models, and to study issues related to atmospheric contamination in the Arctic. In collaboration with other TOPSE investigators, the DIAL O3 data will be combined with in situ measurements of CO, NOx, hydrocarbons, CO2, etc., and aerosol composition and size distributions to interpret the large-scale variations of O3. The lidar aerosol measurements will be used to examine the origin and transport properties of the aerosols observed in the free troposphere. The UV DIAL measurements of O3 and aerosol distributions will be correlated to the thermodynamic structure of the atmosphere, exchange between the stratosphere and troposphere, chemical composition of the different air masses, and the long-range advection of gases and aerosols in the free troposphere, particularly in the high-latitude Arctic.