The StratoClim Asian Monsoon Aircraft Campaign: Instrumentation, Measurement Flights, and Major Scientific Results
Abstract
In summer 2017 a field campaign featuring the high-flying research aircraft M55 Geophysica equipped with an elaborate gas-phase and particle payload of 26 instruments was carried out from Kathmandu, Nepal, in the frame of the European Commission FP7 funded StratoClim project in order to characterize processes which dominate particle and trace gas transport from the highly polluted South-East Asian boundary layer into the UTLS within and above the Asian Summer Monsoon Anticyclone (ASMA). Focal processes include: Distribution of trace gases, aerosols, and clouds in the ASMA and relevant exchange processes with neighboting atmospheric domains Vertical transport to and in the ASMA by large scale ascent vs. convective transport Chemical transformation of trace gases upon transport (processing) Formation of particles and clouds from trace gases and their reaction products (New Particle Formation, NPF).
Due to their radiative effects and their coupling with e.g. ozone chemistry these processes are key for understanding climate feedback mechanisms of this atmospheric domain. Eight scientific flights above Nepal, India and Bangladesh were carried out from 27th July to 10th August 2017 up to altitudes above 20km and yielded the first detailed data set on the under-researched ASMA. The presentation will give an overview of the deployed payload and the meteorological conditions but focus on the recent scientific results on vertical transport (based on N2O, CO2 , and CO profiles), water vapour and cirrus clouds, sulfur species, and particle formation processes. One of the highlights is the identification of ammonium nitrate particles, formed from strongly enhanced ammonia abundances, which dominate the Asian Tropopause Aerosol Layer (Höpfner et al., 2019). Höpfner, M., et al., Nat. Geosci., https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-019-0385-8 (2019).- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFM.A53C..01S
- Keywords:
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- 0305 Aerosols and particles;
- ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE;
- 0322 Constituent sources and sinks;
- ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE;
- 0340 Middle atmosphere: composition and chemistry;
- ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE;
- 0368 Troposphere: constituent transport and chemistry;
- ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE