Satellite remote sensing of atmospheric trends and processes

在过去的几十年里，我们看到了大气科学的巨大进步，这些进步是由新的卫星仪器实现的。这使得全球能够测量对气候重要的高海拔大气区域，称为平流层，以及对我们的空气质量至关重要的低海拔对流层。加拿大通过OSIRIS卫星仪器的运行，在这些进展中发挥了关键作用。这项提议资助的项目进一步利用OSIRIS的测量结果来研究平流层的长期趋势。我们还建议继续开发用于测量平流层的新卫星仪器的技术，并分析未来卫星对对流层空气质量的测量。 Osiris是为数不多的能够测量平流层气溶胶的卫星仪器之一。这些微小的水滴可以在平流层中持续多年，部分原因是火山喷发，以及将阳光从地球上散射出去，使地球降温。我们将利用OSIRIS数据和NASA新的卫星测量数据来改进全球气溶胶分布的长期记录，并将其延伸到未来。这一时间序列是气候模拟研究的重要参考资料，这些研究需要考虑这些气溶胶颗粒的冷却效应。我们还将研究卫星对活性氮的测量，活性氮在平流层的大气化学中发挥着重要作用，以了解与气候变化有关的长期演变和趋势。 利用我们通过研究卫星测量所获得的知识，我们正在为未来的卫星任务开发新的原型仪器，以测量气溶胶和水蒸气。我们最近在平流层气球和高空飞机上测试了这些仪器，并计划未来针对气溶胶、大气传输和结构的科学观测活动。这项建议为我们继续对这些测量进行测试和科学分析提供了支持。该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程度，使其有可能在大气科学方面取得重大进展，同时在如何最好地利用和了解新的大气测量方法方面取得进展。 最后，我们计划改善从未来地球静止空气质量卫星任务中获得的数据质量。对于从地球静止轨道上观看加拿大所需的陡峭角度来说，分析这些测量结果的标准方法并不理想。此外，冰雪覆盖经常影响加拿大的关键地点，如油砂，这是一个挑战，可能会影响反演的数据质量。在这项工作中，我们建议利用我们的经验，通过开发针对加拿大测量的定制检索算法来提高数据质量，该算法专门针对陡峭的角度和下雪条件进行了调整。

In the last few decades we have seen great advances in atmospheric science that have been made possible by new satellite instruments. These enable global measurements of a high-altitude region of the atmosphere that is important for climate, called the stratosphere, and the lower altitude troposphere, which is critical for our air quality. Canada has played a key role in these advances through the operation of the OSIRIS satellite instrument. The projects funded by this proposal make further use of the OSIRIS measurements to study long-term trends in the stratosphere. We also propose to continue to develop the technology for new satellite instrumentation for measuring the stratosphere, and analyze future satellite measurements of air quality in the troposphere. OSIRIS is one of the few satellite instruments that can measure 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 OSIRIS data and new NASA satellite measurements to improve the long-term record of global distributions of aerosol and extend it into the future. This time series is an important input into the climate modelling studies that need to account for the cooling effects of these aerosol particles. We will also study satellite measurements of reactive nitrogen, which plays an important role in atmosphere chemistry of the stratosphere, to understand long-term evolution and trends that are linked to changes in climate. Using the knowledge we gain by studying satellite measurements, we are developing new prototype instruments for future satellite missions to measure aerosol and water vapor. We have recently tested these instruments on stratospheric balloons and high-altitude aircraft and plan future campaigns targeting scientific observations of aerosols, atmospheric transport, and structure. This proposal provides support for us to continue the testing and scientific analysis of these measurements. 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 new measurements of the atmosphere. Finally, we plan to improve the data quality obtained from future geostationary air quality satellite missions. The standard ways of analyzing these measurements is not ideal for the steep angles required to view Canada from geostationary orbit. Additionally, snow and ice cover, often impacting key Canadian locations such as the oil sands, represents a challenge that can impact retrieved data quality. In this work, we propose to leverage our experience to improve this data quality by developing customized retrieval algorithms for Canadian measurements, specially tuned to handle the steep angles and snowy conditions.