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Atmosphere and Remote Sensing

Upper Troposphere and Stratosphere Research Group

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Objectives

Our research group focuses on the investigation of physical processes of the upper Troposphere and the Sratosphere. A key objective is the photochemistry of ozone. Our central experimental method is the Differential Optical Absorption Spectrometry (DOAS), which allows for detecting many relevant trace gases (O₃, NO₂, HONO, BrO, IO, OClO, CH₂O, C₂H₂O₂, ...) as well as water in all three phases. The measurements are taken with optical grating spectrometers using either direct sunlight or scattered light at daytime and twilight. For the instrumentation different platforms are used such as aircrafts (Falcon, HALO, Geophysica), unmanned air vehicles (UAV) and high altitude balloons. The spatial and temporal reconstruction of concentration fields of the targeted trace gases is performed with assitsing readiative transport calculations and inverse modelling, and least squared fits to forward modelling of the measured trace gases.

Current research topics:

Current research topics of this research group are:

• The budget, trend and photochemistry of stratospheric bromine and iodine
• The sources and atmospheric transport of so–called short–lived organic halogen compounds as well as the photochemistry of their anorganic decomposition products
• The amount of bromine and iodine and thei photochemistry in the Troposphere
• The characteristics of atmospheric aerosols and clounds in radiative transfer
• Validation of satellite measurements

Current research projects:

1. Coordinator: SHIVA: Stratospheric ozone: Halogen Impacts in a Varying Atmosphere, EU- SHIVA, Grant agreement No.: 226224 (K. Pfeilsticker, IUP–Heidelberg and 12 partners), 2009 – 2012. »website«
2. Partner: RECONCILE: Reconciliation of essential process parameters for an enhanced predictability of arctic stratospheric ozone loss and its climate interactions, EU–RECONCLE, Grant agreement no.: 226365 (FZ Jülich and 17 partners), 2009 – 2012. »website«
3. Partner: lifetime validation of SCIAMACHY and MIPAS on board ENVISAT (ENVIVAL–LIFE), BMWi– DLR (IUP–Bremen and 4 partners), 2008 – 2012. »website«
4. Partner: Balloon–borne Validation of ENVISAT Atmospheric Sensors, ESA–ESRIN: No. RFQ⁄3–12092/07/I–OL (FZK– Karlsruhe and 2 partners)
5. Partner: Stratospheric Change and its Role for Climate Prediction (SHARP–OFC), DFG Forschergruppe, PF384/9–1, 2009 – 2012. »website«
6. Partner: Airborne Tropical TRopopause Experiment (ATTREX), NASA, USA. »website«
7. Project leader: Atmospheric and Earth system research with the High Altitude and Long Range Research Aircraft: 1. The two–dimensional distribution of tropospheric trace gases, 2. The three–phase water distribution in clouds, 3. Trace gas profiles in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere region, (UT/LS), DFG SPP–1294 (K. Pfeilsticker and U. Platt, PF 384/7–2). »website«
8. Partner: Enriched: European collaboration for research on stratospheric chemistry and dynamics, (Nathalie Huret (LPC2E) and 14 partners), 2010 – 2012, »website«