HR: 1340h
AN: A33D-0104    [Abstracts]
TI: Odin/SMR Limb Observations of Nitrous Oxide in the Stratosphere: Analysis, Assessment, Applications.
AU: * Urban, J
AF: Chalmers University of Technology, Radio and Space Science Department, Gothenburg, 412 96 Sweden
AB: The {\em Sub-Millimetre Radiometer} (SMR) on board the {\em Odin} satellite, \linebreak launched on 20 February 2001, performs regular measurements of the global distribution of stratospheric nitrous oxide (N$_2$O) using spectral observations of the J=20$\rightarrow$19 rotational transition centered at 502.296\,GHz. Roughly 3\,years of data have been accumulated so far. N$_2$O is a very useful tracer for global transport processes since it is chemically inert in the lower stratosphere with a lifetime of more than one year. We present the achieved measurement capabilities and assess the quality of the retrieved N$_2$O profiles ({\em level~2} product) by comparison with independent balloon- and aircraft-borne validation measurements. Odin/SMR data are also compared with preliminary results from the {\em Improved Limb Atmospheric Spectrometer-II} (ILAS-II) on board the {\em Advanced Earth Observing Satellite-II} (ADEOS-II) and from the {\em Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding} (MIPAS) on the {\em Envisat} satellite. Besides the quality assessment, the morphology of the global N$_2$O dataset is described and examples for applications such as the measurement of subsidence of air masses inside the polar vortices are given. Odin is a Swedish-led satellite project funded jointly by Sweden, Canada, Finland and France.
DE: 0340 Middle atmosphere--composition and chemistry
DE: 0341 Middle atmosphere--constituent transport and chemistry (3334)
DE: 0394 Instruments and techniques
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting