Global Measurement of Junge Layer Stratospheric Aerosol with OMPS/LP. Scattering Properties and Particle Size

Abstract:

The OMPS/LP was launched on board the NPP space platform in October 2011. Over the past two years, the OMPS/LP was used to retrieve the global distribution of ozone and aerosol. The paper will describe the aerosol product, which NASA is presently preparing for public release.

The current OMPS/LP aerosol product consists of latitude-altitude curtains along the NPP Sun-synchronous orbit, from cloud top to about 40 km. These curtains extend from local sunrise in Southern polar region to local sunset in Northern polar region. Aerosol extinctions are produced at five distinct wavelengths, namely 513, 525, 670, 750 and 870 nm, with a sampling of 1 km in vertical direction and 1 degree latitude in the along-track direction. The OMPS/LP aerosol dataset is fairly large, with 7000 vertical profiles produced each day for each wavelength. The aerosol product will be presented in terms of extinction monthly median values and mean Angstrom coefficient (particle size).

Over the past two years, the Junge layer was affected by several events such as volcanic eruptions (Nabro and Kelut) and a meteor (Chelyabinsk), the effects of which are clearly visible in the OMPS/LP dataset. The Asian Tropopause Aerosol Layer (ATAL) can also be observed in the OMPS/LP dataset. Moreover the effect of the Brewer Dobson Circulation (BDC) can be observed at high altitudes: the BDC velocity at 35 km can be estimated from the time variation of iso-density heights and was found to compare well with BDC velocities evaluated with the water vapor tape recorder technique as well as MERRA model values. Finally, aerosol filaments are clearly visible in OMPS/LP aerosol dataset as they appear as distinct "bubbles" on the OMPS/LP curtain files at periodic intervals in both the Southern and Northern hemispheres. These filaments are a main source of transport from tropical to polar region, and OMPS/LP data can therefore be instrumental in quantifying the rate of this transport.

The quality of the OMPS/LP aerosol product is being assessed by comparison with correlative measurements made by CALIPSO, OSIRIS and GOMOS. Statistical comparisons between OMPS/LP and other sensors show mean bias of less than 7% with an ensemble variance of 20-30%.