Showing papers by "Caroline Fayt published in 2007"

Retrieval of stratospheric and tropospheric BrO columns from multi-axis DOAS measurements at Reunion Island (21 S, 56 E)

Abstract: . Spectral measurements of BrO using zenith-sky and off-axis viewing geometries are combined in a linear multiple regression retrieval algorithm to provide stratospheric and tropospheric BrO vertical columns. One year of measurement data are investigated over Reunion-Island (20.9° S, 55.5° E), from August 2004 to June 2005. A comparison between the stratospheric columns retrieved at 45°, 80°, 85°, 87.5° and 92.5° solar zenith angles and photochemical simulations initialized by chemical fields from the 3-D-CTM SLIMCAT and further constrained by observed NO2 profiles shows a good agreement only by considering a contribution from the very short-lived organic bromine substances to the stratospheric inorganic bromine budget, of 6 to 8 pptv. Furthermore, stratospheric BrO profiles retrieved from late twilight zenith-sky observations are consistent with a total inorganic bromine (Bry) loading of approximately 23 pptv. This represents 6 to 7 pptv more than can be supplied by long-lived organic bromine sources, and therefore supports an added contribution from very short-lived organic bromine substances as recently suggested in several other studies. Moreover strong evidences are presented for the existence of a substantial amount of BrO in the tropical free-troposphere, around 6 km altitude, possibly supplied by the decomposition of short-lived biogenic bromine organic compounds. Tropospheric BrO vertical columns of 1.1±0.45×1013 molec/cm² are derived for the entire observation period. Comparisons between ground-based BrO vertical columns and total BrO columns derived from SCIAMACHY (onboard the ENVISAT satellite) nadir observations in a latitudinal band centered around 21° S present a good level of consistency, which further strengthens the conclusions of our study.

Retrieval of stratospheric and tropospheric BrO profiles and columns using ground-based zenith-sky DOAS observations at Harestua, 60° N

Abstract: A profiling algorithm based on the optimal estimation method is applied to ground-based zenith-sky UV-visible measurements from Harestua, Southern Norway (60° N, 11° E) in order to retrieve BrO vertical profiles. The sensitivity of the zenith-sky observations to the tropospheric BrO detection is increased by using for the spectral analysis a fixed reference spectrum corresponding to clear-sky noon summer conditions. The information content and retrieval errors are characterized and it is shown that the retrieved stratospheric profiles and total columns are consistent with correlative balloon and satellite observations, respectively. Tropospheric BrO columns are derived from profiles retrieved at 80° solar zenith angle during sunrise and sunset for the 2000–2006 period. They show a marked seasonality with mean column value ranging from 1.52±0.62×10 13 molec/cm² in late winter/early spring to 0.92±0.38×10 13 molec/cm² in summer, which corresponds to 1.0±0.4 and 0.6±0.2 pptv, respectively, if we assume that BrO is uniformly mixed in the troposphere. These column values are also consistent with previous estimates made from balloon, satellite, and other ground-based observations. Daytime (10:30 LT) tropospheric BrO columns are compared to the p -TOMCAT 3-D tropospheric chemical transport model (CTM) for the 2002–2003 period. p -TOMCAT shows a good agreement with the retrieved columns except in late winter/early spring where an underestimation by the model is obtained. This finding could be explained by the non-inclusion of sea-ice bromine sources in the current version of p -TOMCAT. Therefore the model cannot reproduce the possible transport of air-masses with enhanced BrO concentration due to bromine explosion events from the polar region to Harestua. The daytime stratospheric BrO columns are compared to the SLIMCAT stratospheric 3-D-CTM. The model run used in this study, which assumes 21.2 pptv for the Br y loading (15 pptv for long-lived bromine species and additional 6 pptv for very short-lived species (VSLS) added by a scaling of CH 3 Br), significantly underestimates the retrieved BrO columns. A sensitivity study shows that a good agreement can only be obtained if 6 to 8 pptv accounting for VSLS are added directly (and not by a scaling of CH 3 Br) to the SLIMCAT long-lived bromine species profile. This contribution of the VSLS to the total bromine loading is also consistent with recently published studies.