Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory

About: Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory is a based out in . It is known for research contribution in the topics: Aerosol & Stratosphere. The organization has 107 authors who have published 263 publications receiving 26434 citations.

Construction of a unified, high-resolution nitrous oxide data set for ER-2 flights during SOLVE

Abstract: [1] Four nitrous oxide (N2O) instruments were part of the NASA ER-2 aircraft payload during the 2000 SAGE-III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment (SOLVE). Coincident data from the three in situ instruments and a whole air sampler are compared. Agreement between these instruments was typically good; however, there are several types of important differences between the data sets. These differences prompted a collaborative effort to combine data from the three in situ instruments, using an objective method, to produce a self-consistent, high-resolution, unified N2O data set for each SOLVE flight. The construction method developed by the four N2O instrument teams is described in detail. An important step in this method is the evaluation and reduction of bias in each of the in situ data sets before they are combined. The quality of unified N2O data is examined through its agreement with high-accuracy and high-precision N2O data from whole air samples collected from the ER-2 during SOLVE flights. Typical agreement between these two data sets is 2.9 ppb (1.5%), better than the typical agreement between any pair of N2O instruments.

Mixing events revealed by anomalous tracer relationships in the Arctic vortex during winter 1999/2000

Abstract: [1] During the 1999/2000 Arctic winter SAGE III–Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment (SOLVE) campaign, high-resolution, in situ tracer data measured aboard the NASA ER-2 high-altitude aircraft revealed anomalous mixing events within the polar vortex. From January to March 2000 in the 350–500 K potential temperature range, we found mixing events during 15% of the flight time on average with significant maxima at potential temperatures of 450, 410, and 380 K. The events were spread throughout the vortex but showed a distinct minimum at 73° N and a peak at 85°N equivalent latitude. About 60% of the observed mixing events were less than 13 km wide. Based on a case study of tracer-tracer relationships, an objective simple method is introduced to detect such events using the linear nitrous oxide (N2O):potential temperature relationship observed deep in the vortex. Rigorous analysis and supporting evidence from total water data corroborated the validity of the method. These results suggest mixing across the polar vortex edge occurred preferentially in layers at select altitudes in the Arctic winter 1999/2000.