Can CALIPSO Produce a Useful Stratospheric Aerosol Product? A Preliminary Assessment

Stratospheric aerosol is an important component of stratospheric chemistry however global measurements by space-borne instruments are at risk due to end of several long-term missions (SAGE II, SAGE III, HALOE, and POAM III) and instrument performance issues (HIRDLS). Herein, we examine the feasibility of using data from CALIPSO to produce stratospheric aerosol backscatter profiles. Though not a CALIPSO mission objection, the development of a CALIPSO stratospheric aerosol product may provide a bridge between historical stratospheric aerosol-measuring instruments like SAGE II and HALOE and future instruments like the Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite (OMPS) on NPOESS. Linking these aerosol data sets is important to maintain trends but is far from trivial since none of these instruments measure the same subset of aerosol optical properties and the conversion between measurement types can be difficult. Our pre-launch theoretical studies suggested that there is sufficient signal to produce a scientifically viable data product for even the very low aerosol loadings currently observed albeit with significant spatial averaging. An initial examination of actual data also supports that the data shows sensitivity to the presence of stratospheric aerosol. In this presentation, we will show the current status of our efforts to coax a useful stratospheric aerosol product from this data set.