Infra-Red Montgolfier flights at the tropics for the study of ozone distribution, NOx production by lightning, water vapour and satellite validation in the Upper Troposphere and Lower Stratosphere
Abstract
Infra-Red Montgolfier (MIR) long duration balloons are being used for exploring the impact of convection on the zonal distribution of ozone, NO2, and water vapour in the tropical upper troposphere and the Tropical Tropopause layer. With the support of CNES and the European Commission, several balloons have been flown in 2001 and 2003 and finally in 2004 within the HIBISCUS project, carrying a SAOZ UV-Visible spectrometer. In the most recent version, still in flight at 20S when this abstract is written, the measurements include ozone, NO2 and water vapour profiles by solar occultation from 25 km down to 6 km or cloud top, an IR radiometer, and lightning and blue-jet optical detectors. The objective of the presentation is to show how rich could be the results of remote sensing instruments carried on-board MIR balloons for addressing a number of issues still open in the upper troposphere and the tropical tropopause region such as the cause of the large zonal variation of ozone concentration, the NOx production by thunderstorms or the dehydration of air injected into the stratosphere, which could be hardly observed from orbit as shown by comparisons between the MIR measurements and those of almost all satellites in flight during the same period.
- Publication:
-
35th COSPAR Scientific Assembly
- Pub Date:
- 2004
- Bibcode:
- 2004cosp...35.4200P