Abstract
Abstract. Vertical profiles of mixing ratios of C2H6, C2H2, HCN, and PAN were retrieved from MIPAS reduced spectral resolution nominal mode limb emission measurements. The retrieval strategy follows that of the analysis of MIPAS high resolution measurements, with occasional adjustments to cope with the reduced spectral resolution under which MIPAS is operated since 2005. MIPAS measurements from January 2005 to January 2010 have been analyzed with special emphasis on October 2007. Largest mixing ratios are found in the troposphere, and reach 1.2 ppbv for C2H6, 1 ppbv for HCN, 600 pptv for PAN, and 450 pptv for C2H2. The estimated precisions in case of significantly enhanced mixing ratios (including measurement noise and propagation of uncertain parameters randomly varying in the time domain) and altitude resolution are typically 10%, 3–4.5 km for C2H6, 15%, 4–6 km for HCN, 6%, 2.5–3.5 km for PAN, and 7%, 2.5–4 km for C2H2.
Highlights
The Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) (Fischer et al, 2008) instrument onboard the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Envisat research satellite measures atmospheric limb emission in the mid-infrared (IR) spectral region in five spectral bands between 685 cm−1 and 2410 cm−1
These species are useful to trace intercontinental transport of pollution plumes (e.g. Liang et al, 2007; Wolfe et al, 2007), to assess chemical plume aging (e.g. Talbot et al, 1996; Xiao et al, 2007), to assign polluted air masses to particular pollution events, and to assess their potential transport into the stratosphere (e.g. Randel et al, 2010). While these species have already successfully been retrieved from MIPAS high resolution spectra, this paper presents the retrieval strategy adapted to MIPAS reduced resolution spectra along with extensive characterization in terms of error estimates and spatial resolution
Results and diagnostics are discussed in comparison with those obtained from the MIPAS high resolution spectra
Summary
The Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) (Fischer et al, 2008) instrument onboard the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Envisat research satellite (http://envisat.esa.int/earth/www/area/index. cfm?fareaid=6) measures atmospheric limb emission in the mid-infrared (IR) spectral region in five spectral bands between 685 cm−1 and 2410 cm−1. Retrievals of temperature and stratospheric constituents, namely H2O, O3, HNO3, CH4, N2O, ClONO2 and ClO from reduced spectral resolution spectra already have been published by von Clarmann et al (2009b). In this paper we present RR retrievals of gases which are important in the upper troposphere in the context of atmospheric pollution by industrial sources and biomass burning: C2H6, C2H2, HCN, and PAN These species are useful to trace intercontinental transport of pollution plumes Results and diagnostics are discussed in comparison with those obtained from the MIPAS high resolution spectra These retrievals are performed with the IMK-IAA research processor (von Clarmann et al, 2003). A. Wiegele et al.: Global distributions of hydrocarbons from MIPAS RR measurements the so-called reduced resolution nominal mode with 27 tangent altitudes per limb scan. The retrieval (Kiefer et al, 2010), and in many cases helps to reduce the number of convergence failures
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