HR: 10:20h
AN: A12A-01 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Atmospheric Composition and Chemistry Discoveries from Space
AU: * Douglass, A R
EM: Anne.R.Douglass@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Mail Code 613.3, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AU: Stolarski, R S
EM: stolar@polska.gsfc.nasa.gov
AF: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Mail Code 613.3, Greenbelt, MD 20771 United States
AB: Satellite observations have given scientists a global perspective on the photochemical and dynamical processes that control the atmospheric evolution of constituents like ozone. The satellites and their instruments are often designed to address specific questions and sometimes vastly exceed their developer's expectations. The Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) was designed to simply map the variability of the ozone column due to atmospheric waves. The instruments on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) were designed to measure upper stratospheric ozone and quantities important to ozone including solar flux, winds and constituents that contribute to ozone destruction. The scientific payoff from UARS and TOMS vastly exceeded these modest goals. Total ozone measurements from TOMS revealed the extent and variability of the Antarctic ozone hole. UARS instruments showed the spatial structures of the conversion of chlorine species from reservoirs to radicals and back to reservoirs during the seasonal development and disappearance of the ozone hole. UARS investigators discovered previously unknown features of the atmospheric circulation. For example, long-lived tracer measurements showed unmixed descent of mesospheric air into the polar lower stratosphere as the winter vortex was formed. Observations of water vapor in the tropical stratosphere showed that air parcels carry the memory of the tropical tropopause temperature for years as they ascend through the stratosphere (the tropical "tape recorder"). The persistence of this signature places constraints on mass flux into the stratosphere and the mixing between tropical and middle latitudes. Satellite data have yielded unexpected bonuses. Improvements in the understanding of the TOMS retrieval algorithm allowed for the removal of drifts in instrument performance to produce a stable climate-quality data set for trend analysis. Apparent noise in the retrievals was eventually understood to be due to aerosols, leading to retrieval of the amount of absorbing aerosol over both land and ocean.
DE: 0340 Middle atmosphere: composition and chemistry
DE: 0341 Middle atmosphere: constituent transport and chemistry (3334)
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005