Investigation of tropospheric pollutants and stratospheric ozone using infrared Fourier Transform Spectrometers from the ground, space and balloons

• Main Author: Griffin, Debora Maria
• Other Authors: Walker, Kaley A, Physics
• Format: Thesis
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: Fourier Transform Spectrometers; instrument comparison; ozone depletion; remote sensing; tropospheric chemistry; 0725; Arctic; Nunavut; Eureka
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/78985

This thesis focusses on transport and composition of boreal fire plumes, evolution of trace gases in the Arctic, multi-year comparisons of ground-based and satellite-borne instruments, and depletion of Arctic ozone. Two similar Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) instruments were utilized: (1) the ground-based and balloon-borne Portable Atmospheric Research Interferometric Spectrometer for the InfraRed (PARIS-IR) and (2) the space-borne Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE) FTS. Additional datasets, from other satellite and ground-based instruments, as well as Chemical Transport Models (CTMs) complemented the analysis. Transport and composition of boreal fire plumes were analysed with PARIS-IR measurements taken in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This study analysed the retrievals of different FTSs and investigated transport and composition of a smoke plume utilizing various models. The CO retrievals of three different FTSs (PARIS-IR, DA8, and IASI) were consistent and detected a smoke plume between 19 and 21 July 2011. These measurements were similar to the concentrations computed by GEOS-Chem (~3% for CO and ~8% for C2H6). Multi-year comparisons (2006-2013) of ground-based and satellite-borne FTSs near Eureka, Nunavut were carried out utilizing measurements from PARIS-IR, the Bruker 125HR and ACEFTS. The mean and interannual differences between the datasets were investigated for eight species (ozone, HCl, HNO3, HF, CH4, N2O, CO, and C2H6) and good agreement between these instruments was found. Furthermore, the evolution of the eight gases was investigated and increasing ozone, HCl, HF, CH4 and C2H6 were found. Springtime Arctic ozone depletion was studied, where six different methods to estimate ozone depletion were evaluated using the ACE-FTS dataset. It was shown that CH4, N2O, HF, and CCl2F2 are suitable tracers to estimate the ozone loss. The loss estimates (mixing ratioand partial column) are consistent for all six methods. Finally, PARIS-IR was prepared for a balloon-borne measurement campaign and a new suntracker for these measurements was designed and tested. The balloon was launched in September 2015. The suntracker performed with a ¹0.04° accuracy. From the balloon-borne sunset spectra, an ozone profile was retrieved and is consistent with measurements from a nearby ozonesonde within approximately 10 %. Ph.D.