Advancing High-Altitude Observation through the Development of an Upper Tropospheric, Lower Stratospheric Aerosol Measurement Package (UTLS-AMP)

Thursday, 22 March 2018
Iriarte (Hotel Botanico)
Matthew D. Brown1, Agnieszka Kupc2, Christina Williamson3, Ewan Crosbie1, Steve Conyers4, Charles A Brock2, James Wilson4 and Luke D Ziemba1, (1)NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA, United States, (2)NOAA Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States, (3)CIRES, Boulder, CO, United States, (4)University of Denver, Denver, CO, United States
Abstract:
Aerosol particles in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) impact global climate, ozone abundance, and cloud formation. The origins, fates, and impacts of these particles are frequently studied with instruments deployed on aircraft platforms. Accurate size distribution measurements in the diameter range from a few nanometers to a few microns provide information about the impact of aerosol surface on ozone chemistry, the optical properties of long-lived volcanic particles, and the lifetimes of sedimenting particles. NASA, NOAA, and the University of Denver are developing an aerosol measurement package (UTLS-AMP) for use on subsonic, high altitude aircraft to characterize these particles.

The UTLS-AMP comprises the Nuclei-Mode Aerosol Size Spectrometer (NMASS; Williamson et al., 2017), the Ultra-High Sensitivity Aerosol Spectrometer (UHSAS; Kupc et al., 2017), and the Printed Optical Particle Spectrometer (POPS; Gao et al., 2015), covering a particle size range from 3 to 3000 nm. The passive, near-isokinetic inlet used with these instruments permits quantitative sampling over the size range at the anticipated conditions. These instruments are optimized for UTLS conditions and differ in important ways from the versions used at lower altitudes. Their responses to particles of known size and composition are characterized at the operating pressures encountered in flight.

Previous generations of this package were deployed in the study of volcanic particles (Pinatubo and Hekkla), aircraft emissions, overshooting pyrocumulus, new particle formation (NPF) in the UTLS, and aerosol-cloud interactions. Optical properties derived from these size distributions have been compared with SAGE and lidars. Simultaneous measurements of aerosol and gas phase chemistry made by other investigators enrich the value of these size distributions.

<< Previous Abstract | Next Abstract >>