Detection of minor trace species in the atmosphere

Werner Thomas; Albrecht von Bargen; Ernst Hegels; Sander Slijkhuis; Kelly Van Chance; Robert J. D. Spurr

doi:10.1117/12.373068

8 December 1999 Detection of minor trace species in the atmosphere

Werner Thomas, Albrecht von Bargen, Ernst Hegels, Sander Slijkhuis, Kelly Van Chance, Robert J. D. Spurr

Proceedings Volume 3867, Satellite Remote Sensing of Clouds and the Atmosphere IV; (1999) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.373068
Event: Remote Sensing, 1999, Florence, Italy

Abstract

The Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) is an atmospheric chemistry instrument on-board the ERS-2 satellite which is able to measure a range of important atmospheric trace constituents on a global scale. Atmospheric UV/visible backscatter spectra obtained by the GOME spectrometer were used to retrieve column amounts of key trace species associated with biomass burning events and ozone hole chemistry. In particular, the column distributions of ozone (O₃), nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), formaldehyde (CH₂O), and bromine-monoxide (BrO) were retrieved on an operational basis. The differential optical absorption spectroscopy technique (DOAS) is applied to backscatter spectra and yields slant column distributions of the aforementioned species. Additionally, the vertical columns of O₃ and NO₂ are provided. A strong enhancement of both the NO₂ and CH₂O contents were detected during the severe biomass burning event in September 1997 in SE Asia. A higher NO₂ content is apparent over a large area within the smoke clouds, where formaldehyde is detected only in areas closest to combustion sources. BrO has been detected on a global scale and under Antarctic winter (ozone hole) conditions. The knowledge about the spatial distribution and the amount of BrO is of high relevance because BrO is a key species for the depletion of stratospheric ozone.

Citation Download Citation

Werner Thomas, Albrecht von Bargen, Ernst Hegels, Sander Slijkhuis, Kelly Van Chance, and Robert J. D. Spurr "Detection of minor trace species in the atmosphere", Proc. SPIE 3867, Satellite Remote Sensing of Clouds and the Atmosphere IV, (8 December 1999); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.373068

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