U34A-08
An Airborne Mission to Study Background Sulfur and Prepare for a Rapid Response to a Large Volcanic Eruption
Wednesday, 16 December 2015: 17:31
102 (Moscone South)
Ru-Shan Gao1, Karen Hepler Rosenlof2, Troy D Thornberry2, Andrew W Rollins2, Brian Toon3, Daniel M Murphy4, Eric J Jensen5, Michael J Mills6, Ryan R Neely III7 and David W Fahey2, (1)Earth System Research Laboratory, CSD, Boulder, CO, United States, (2)NOAA Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States, (3)University of Colorado at Boulder, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Boulder, CO, United States, (4)NOAA, Boulder, CO, United States, (5)NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, United States, (6)National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, United States, (7)University of Leeds, Institute for Climate and Atmospheric Science, Leeds, United Kingdom
Abstract:
We propose a focused airborne science mission to study the transport, chemistry and microphysics of sulfur in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS). This mission will: 1) provide measurements from which we can construct a species-resolved sulfur inventory over a geographic region including the mid-latitude lower stratosphere and tropical UTLS, and 2) investigate the transport and chemistry of sulfur species in order to assess the validity of global chemical transport model projections of anthropogenic sulfur transport from the lower troposphere into the UTLS. The proposed aircraft and its payload, when coupled with balloon SO2 and aerosol sondes as well as lidar measurements, will be a practical package for the initial study of a large volcanic eruption.
