A Global Inventory of Stratospheric NOy from ACE-FTS Measurements
Abstract
The total odd nitrogen (NOy) budget in the stratosphere and lower mesosphere has been determined using the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier Transform Spectrometer (ACE-FTS) measurements of NO, NO2, N2O5, HNO3, ClONO2, and HNO4. ACE-FTS has been measuring these six major NOy species from orbit since February 2004 using infrared solar occultation. A global NOy climatology of monthly mean volume mixing ratio profiles and their standard deviations as a function of latitude has been constructed using the first four years of ACE-FTS data. The effect of diurnal variation was minimized by grouping the measurements into those taken at local sunset and at local sunrise. Additional annual zonal means of NOy and its partitioning have been generated for five latitude bands (60-90N, 30-60N, 30S-30N, 30-60S, and 60- 90S) for each year of data. The resulting annual inventories of NOy show differences that can be attributed to solar activity, descent, and denitrification. Seasonal variations have also been assessed, taking into account the spatial and temporal sampling of the ACE occultation geometry. This ACE-FTS NOy data set will be useful for model validation and atmospheric studies.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2008
- Bibcode:
- 2008AGUFM.A51A0085S
- Keywords:
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- 0340 Middle atmosphere: composition and chemistry;
- 0341 Middle atmosphere: constituent transport and chemistry (3334)