Abstract
Abstract. The upper troposphere/lower stratosphere (UTLS) represents an important part of the climate system. Even small changes in the composition and dynamic structure of this region have significant radiative effects. Quantifying the underlying physical and chemical processes therefore represents a crucial task. Currently, there is a lack of UTLS observations with sufficient three-dimensional resolution. The Gimballed Limb Observer for Radiance Imaging of the Atmosphere (GLORIA) aircraft instrument addresses this observational lack by providing observations of numerous trace constituents as well as temperature and cloud structures with an unprecedented combination of vertical resolution (up to 300 m) and horizontal resolution (about 30 km &times 30 km). As a result, important scientific questions concerning stratosphere–troposphere exchange, the occurrence of subvisible cirrus clouds in the lowermost stratosphere (LMS), polar chemistry, and gravity wave processes can be addressed, as reviewed in this paper.
Highlights
Changes and variability of upper troposphere/lowere stratosphere (UTLS) composition are major drivers of surface climate change (e.g. Solomon et al, 2007, 2010)
Our paper is part of an Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (AMT) special issue, “Atmospheric limb imaging with GLORIA”, that describes all technical aspects of the GLORIA aircraft instrument, including the design of the overall system and the individual components as well as the data processing from level 0 to level 2
We show first trace gas observations, which were obtained during the first scientific employment in summer/autumn 2012
Summary
Changes and variability of upper troposphere/lowere stratosphere (UTLS) composition are major drivers of surface climate change (e.g. Solomon et al, 2007, 2010). Small-scale trace gas filaments in the UTLS represent an important example of structures that are not yet adequately characterised. They arise from chaotic advection of tracers, driven by the largescale flow Our paper is part of an Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (AMT) special issue, “Atmospheric limb imaging with GLORIA”, that describes all technical aspects of the GLORIA aircraft instrument, including the design of the overall system and the individual components (e.g. optics, attitude control, electronics) as well as the data processing from level 0 (raw data) to level 2 (atmospheric temperatures and trace gas mixing ratios).
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