Enhanced sulfur in the UTLS in spring 2020
Sulfur compounds in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) impact the atmosphere radiation budget, either directly as particles or indirectly as precursor gas for new particle formation. In situ measurements in the UTLS are rare, but are important to better understand the impact of the...
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ftcopernicus:oai:publications.copernicus.org:acpd102522 2023-05-15T17:36:24+02:00 Enhanced sulfur in the UTLS in spring 2020 Tomsche, Laura Marsing, Andreas Jurkat-Witschas, Tina Lucke, Johannes Kaufmann, Stefan Kaiser, Katharina Schneider, Johannes Scheibe, Monika Schlager, Hans Röder, Lenard Fischer, Horst Obersteiner, Florian Zahn, Andreas Lelieveld, Jos Voigt, Christiane 2022-04-25 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2022-274 https://acp.copernicus.org/preprints/acp-2022-274/ eng eng doi:10.5194/acp-2022-274 https://acp.copernicus.org/preprints/acp-2022-274/ eISSN: 1680-7324 Text 2022 ftcopernicus https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2022-274 2022-05-02T16:22:29Z Sulfur compounds in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) impact the atmosphere radiation budget, either directly as particles or indirectly as precursor gas for new particle formation. In situ measurements in the UTLS are rare, but are important to better understand the impact of the sulfur budget on climate. The BLUESKY mission in May/June 2020 explored an unprecedented situation. 1) The UTLS experienced extraordinary dry conditions in spring 2020 over Europe, in comparison to previous years and 2) the first lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic caused major emission reductions from industry, ground, and airborne transportation. With the two research aircraft HALO and Falcon, 20 flights were conducted over Central Europe and the North Atlantic to investigate the atmospheric composition with respect to trace gases, aerosol, and clouds. Here, we focus on measurements of sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ) and particulate sulfate (SO 4 2- ) in the altitude range of 8 to 14.5 km which show unexpectedly enhanced mixing ratios of SO 2 in the upper troposphere and of SO 4 2- in the lowermost stratosphere. In the UT, we find SO 2 mixing ratios of (0.07 ± 0.01) ppb, caused by the remaining air traffic, reduced SO 2 sinks due to low OH and low cloud fractions, and to a minor extend by uplift from boundary layer sources. Particulate sulfate showed elevated mixing ratios of up to 0.33 ppb in the LS. We suggest that the eruption of the volcano Raikoke in June 2019, which emitted about 1 Tg SO 2 into the stratosphere in northern midlatitudes caused these enhancements, in addition to Siberian and Canadian wildfires and other minor volcanic eruptions. Our measurements can help to test models and lead to new insights in the distribution of sulfur compounds in the UTLS, their sources and sinks. Moreover, these results can contribute to improve simulations of the radiation budget in the UTLS with respect to sulfur effects. Text North Atlantic Copernicus Publications: E-Journals Bluesky ENVELOPE(-118.236,-118.236,56.067,56.067) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Copernicus Publications: E-Journals |
op_collection_id |
ftcopernicus |
language |
English |
description |
Sulfur compounds in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) impact the atmosphere radiation budget, either directly as particles or indirectly as precursor gas for new particle formation. In situ measurements in the UTLS are rare, but are important to better understand the impact of the sulfur budget on climate. The BLUESKY mission in May/June 2020 explored an unprecedented situation. 1) The UTLS experienced extraordinary dry conditions in spring 2020 over Europe, in comparison to previous years and 2) the first lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic caused major emission reductions from industry, ground, and airborne transportation. With the two research aircraft HALO and Falcon, 20 flights were conducted over Central Europe and the North Atlantic to investigate the atmospheric composition with respect to trace gases, aerosol, and clouds. Here, we focus on measurements of sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ) and particulate sulfate (SO 4 2- ) in the altitude range of 8 to 14.5 km which show unexpectedly enhanced mixing ratios of SO 2 in the upper troposphere and of SO 4 2- in the lowermost stratosphere. In the UT, we find SO 2 mixing ratios of (0.07 ± 0.01) ppb, caused by the remaining air traffic, reduced SO 2 sinks due to low OH and low cloud fractions, and to a minor extend by uplift from boundary layer sources. Particulate sulfate showed elevated mixing ratios of up to 0.33 ppb in the LS. We suggest that the eruption of the volcano Raikoke in June 2019, which emitted about 1 Tg SO 2 into the stratosphere in northern midlatitudes caused these enhancements, in addition to Siberian and Canadian wildfires and other minor volcanic eruptions. Our measurements can help to test models and lead to new insights in the distribution of sulfur compounds in the UTLS, their sources and sinks. Moreover, these results can contribute to improve simulations of the radiation budget in the UTLS with respect to sulfur effects. |
format |
Text |
author |
Tomsche, Laura Marsing, Andreas Jurkat-Witschas, Tina Lucke, Johannes Kaufmann, Stefan Kaiser, Katharina Schneider, Johannes Scheibe, Monika Schlager, Hans Röder, Lenard Fischer, Horst Obersteiner, Florian Zahn, Andreas Lelieveld, Jos Voigt, Christiane |
spellingShingle |
Tomsche, Laura Marsing, Andreas Jurkat-Witschas, Tina Lucke, Johannes Kaufmann, Stefan Kaiser, Katharina Schneider, Johannes Scheibe, Monika Schlager, Hans Röder, Lenard Fischer, Horst Obersteiner, Florian Zahn, Andreas Lelieveld, Jos Voigt, Christiane Enhanced sulfur in the UTLS in spring 2020 |
author_facet |
Tomsche, Laura Marsing, Andreas Jurkat-Witschas, Tina Lucke, Johannes Kaufmann, Stefan Kaiser, Katharina Schneider, Johannes Scheibe, Monika Schlager, Hans Röder, Lenard Fischer, Horst Obersteiner, Florian Zahn, Andreas Lelieveld, Jos Voigt, Christiane |
author_sort |
Tomsche, Laura |
title |
Enhanced sulfur in the UTLS in spring 2020 |
title_short |
Enhanced sulfur in the UTLS in spring 2020 |
title_full |
Enhanced sulfur in the UTLS in spring 2020 |
title_fullStr |
Enhanced sulfur in the UTLS in spring 2020 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Enhanced sulfur in the UTLS in spring 2020 |
title_sort |
enhanced sulfur in the utls in spring 2020 |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2022-274 https://acp.copernicus.org/preprints/acp-2022-274/ |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-118.236,-118.236,56.067,56.067) |
geographic |
Bluesky |
geographic_facet |
Bluesky |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
eISSN: 1680-7324 |
op_relation |
doi:10.5194/acp-2022-274 https://acp.copernicus.org/preprints/acp-2022-274/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2022-274 |
_version_ |
1766135868100182016 |