Limb sounding upper tropospheric and stratospheric trends and processes

在过去十年中，大气科学取得了巨大的进步，这是由于新的卫星仪器使用一种称为边缘探测的侧视技术对大气层的高海拔区域（称为平流层）进行测量。 这些进展提高了我们对短期天气相关过程和长期气候相关过程的理解。 加拿大通过运行加拿大建造的OSIRIS卫星仪器发挥了重要作用。 该提案资助的项目进一步利用OSIRIS测量数据研究平流层组成的长期趋势以及在短得多的时间尺度上发生的过程，如大规模火山爆发的影响。 我们还建议继续开发硬件技术和知识技术，用于使用这种临边探测技术测量平流层的新卫星仪器。 这项工作中的一个重要大气参数是平流层气溶胶。 这些微小的水滴，可以在平流层持续多年，部分原因是火山爆发和散射阳光远离地球，冷却地球。 我们将利用多个卫星测量数据来协调过去几十年来气溶胶的全球分布。 这些测量还将帮助我们了解火山爆发的几个鲜为人知的方面，例如羽流如何在整个大气中演变的细节。 此外，我们将研究如何从我们正在与加拿大航天局为今后飞行任务开发的两个新的卫星仪器中获得更好的气溶胶和水蒸气信息。 水蒸气是一种特别重要的大气成分，人们对它在大气中的可变性知之甚少。 最后，我们将研究这些卫星测量的计算模型，这将有助于我们理解卫星测量中的三维效应，例如云和气溶胶的薄羽流。 这一项目的一个重要影响将是大大提高加拿大未来空间技术的准备水平，从而有可能在大气科学方面取得重大进展，沿着在如何最佳利用和了解卫星大气测量方面的知识的进步。

Over the last decade there have been great advances in atmospheric science that have been made possible by new satellite instruments that take measurements of a high altitude region of the atmosphere, called the stratosphere, using a side-view technique called limb-sounding. These advances have improved our understanding of both short term weather related processes and long term climate related processes. Canada has played an important role through the operation of the Canadian-built OSIRIS satellite instrument. The projects funded by this proposal make further use of the OSIRIS measurements to study long term trends in the make-up of the stratosphere as well as processes that occur on much shorter time scales, such as the effects of large volcanic eruptions. We also propose to continue to develop the technology, both hardware and knowledge-based, for new satellite instrumentation using this limb sounding technique for measuring the stratosphere. One of the important atmospheric parameters in this work is stratospheric aerosol. These tiny droplets, which can last in the stratosphere for many years, are caused in part by volcanic eruptions and by scattering sunlight away from the Earth, cool the planet. We will work with multiple satellite measurements to reconcile the global distributions of aerosol over the last few decades. These measurements will also help us understand several poorly understood aspects about volcanic eruptions, such as the details of how the plumes evolve throughout the atmosphere. In addition, we will study methods for obtaining improved aerosol and water vapour information from two new satellite instruments that we are developing with the Canadian Space Agency for future missions. Water vapour is a particularly important atmospheric component and its variability in the atmosphere is poorly understood. Finally, we will work on computational models for these satellite measurements that will help us to understand three dimensional effects in the satellite measurements, such as patches of cloud and thin plumes of aerosol. An important impact of this project will be a greatly increased readiness level for future Canadian space technology with the potential to make key advances in atmospheric science, along with advancement in the knowledge of how to best utilize and understand satellite measurements of the atmosphere.