The AMAXDOAS (Air Borne Multi Axis Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy) experiment was

• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Greenland; Spitsbergen
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.510.642; http://joseba.mpch-mainz.mpg.de/pdf_dateien/esa_wagner_frascati02.pdf

successfully operated on board the German research aircraft DLR Falcon in two connected major campaigns in September 2002. It consists of two spectrometers (covering the UV and visible spectral range), each connected to several telescopes directed in different viewing angles above and below the aircraft. This set-up makes it possible to separate the tropospheric and stratospheric trace gas columns for a significant number of the observed species (e.g. O3, NO2, OClO, BrO, H2O, O4, SO2, and HCHO). The selection of trace gases and the separation of the troposphere and stratosphere makes this instrument well suited for the validation of SCIAMACHY on ENVISAT. Together with the OLEX- (Lidar) and the ASUR (Microwave) sensor the AMAXDOAS was operated during two campaigns ranging from Munich to Spitsbergen and Greenland and back and from Munich to Africa and the Seychelles (see also [1]). This article reports on the first AMAXDOAS results for the troposphere. Because of the limited time for data analysis the focus of this study in only on two species, H2O and the oxygen dimer O4. In addition, also the measured intensities from zenith and nadir direction were investigated. From the O4 absorptions and the measured intensities information on aerosols, clouds and the ground albedo can be derived, which is of great importance for the validation of simultaneous SCIAMACHY observations. The H2O vertical column density (VCD) observed by the AMAXDOAS instrument for cloud free scenes ranges from 0.6 to 1.7 ⋅ 1023 molec/cm over land and from 0.5 to 1.0 ⋅ 1023 molec/cm over ocean. The H2O VCDs above clouds are usually significantly lower. The first stratospheric AMAXDOAS data sets are presented in a separate contribution [2].