Brewer ozone spectrophotometers have become an integral part of the global ground-based ozone monitoring network collecting data since the early 1980s. The double-monochromator Brewer version (MkIII) ...was introduced in 1992. With the Brewer hardware being so robust, both single- and double-monochromator instruments are still in use. The main difference between the single Brewers and the double Brewers is the much lower stray light in the double instrument. Laser scans estimate the rejection level of the single Brewers to be 10−4.5, while the doubles improve this to 10−8, virtually eliminating the effects of stray light. For a typical single-monochromator Brewer, stray light leads to an underestimation of ozone of approximately 1 % at 1000 DU ozone slant column density (SCD) and can exceed 5 % at 2000 DU, while underestimation of sulfur dioxide reaches 30 DU when no sulfur dioxide is present. This is because even a small additional stray light contribution at shorter wavelengths significantly reduces the calculated SCD at large values. An algorithm for stray light correction based on the physics of the instrument response to stray light (PHYCS) has been developed. The simple assumption is that count rates measured at any wavelength have a contribution from stray light from longer, and thus brighter, wavelengths because of the ozone cross-section gradient leading to a rapid change in intensity as a function of wavelength. Using the longest measured wavelength (320 nm) as a proxy for the overall brightness provides an estimate of this contribution. The sole parameter, on the order of 0.2 % to 0.6 %, that describes the percentage of light at the longest wavelength to be subtracted from all channels is determined by comparing ozone calculations from single- and double-monochromator Brewers making measurements side-by-side. Removing this additional count rate from the signal mathematically before deriving ozone corrects for the extra photons scattering within the instrument that produce the stray light effect. Analyzing historical data from co-located single- and double-monochromator Brewers provides an estimate of how the stray light contribution changes over time in an instrument. The corrected count rates of the measured wavelengths can also be used to improve other calculations: the sulfur dioxide column and the aerosol optical depth, the effective temperature of the ozone layer, or any other products. A multi-platform implementation of PHYCS, rmstray, to correct the count rates for stray light and save the corrected values in a new B-file for use with any existing Brewer data analysis software is available to the global Brewer user community at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8097038 (Savastiouk and Diémoz, 2023).
Since SARS-CoV-2 emerged in late 2019, it spread from China to the rest of the world. An initial concern was the potential for vaccine- or antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) of disease as had been ...reported with other coronaviruses. To evaluate this, we first developed a ferret model by exposing ferrets to SARS-CoV-2 by either mucosal inoculation (intranasal/oral/ocular) or inhalation using a small particle aerosol. Mucosal inoculation caused a mild fever and weight loss that resolved quickly; inoculation via either route resulted in virus shedding detected in the nares, throat, and rectum for 7–10 days post-infection. To evaluate the potential for ADE, we then inoculated groups of ferrets intravenously with 0.1, 0.5, or 1 mg/kg doses of a human polyclonal anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG from hyper-immunized transchromosomic bovines (SAB-185). Twelve hours later, ferrets were challenged by mucosal inoculation with SARS-CoV-2. We found no significant differences in fever, weight loss, or viral shedding after infection between the three antibody groups or the controls. Signs of pathology in the lungs were noted in infected ferrets but no differences were found between control and antibody groups. The results of this study indicate that healthy, young adult ferrets of both sexes are a suitable model of mild COVID-19 and that low doses of specific IgG in SAB-185 are unlikely to enhance the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2.
Unprecedented Arctic ozone loss in 2011 Manney, Gloria L; Santee, Michelle L; Rex, Markus ...
Nature (London),
10/2011, Volume:
478, Issue:
7370
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Chemical ozone destruction occurs over both polar regions in local winter-spring. In the Antarctic, essentially complete removal of lower-stratospheric ozone currently results in an ozone hole every ...year, whereas in the Arctic, ozone loss is highly variable and has until now been much more limited. Here we demonstrate that chemical ozone destruction over the Arctic in early 2011 was--for the first time in the observational record--comparable to that in the Antarctic ozone hole. Unusually long-lasting cold conditions in the Arctic lower stratosphere led to persistent enhancement in ozone-destroying forms of chlorine and to unprecedented ozone loss, which exceeded 80 per cent over 18-20 kilometres altitude. Our results show that Arctic ozone holes are possible even with temperatures much milder than those in the Antarctic. We cannot at present predict when such severe Arctic ozone depletion may be matched or exceeded.
An objective method, employing HYSPLIT back-trajectories and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) fire observations, is developed to estimate ozone enhancement in air transported ...from regions of active forest fires at 18 ozone sounding sites located across North America. The Differential Back Trajectory (DBT) method compares mean differences between ozone concentrations associated with fire-affected and fire-unaffected parcels. It is applied to more than 1100 ozonesonde profiles collected from these sites during the summer months June to August 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2011. Layers of high ozone associated with low humidity were first removed from the ozonesonde profiles to minimize the potential effects of stratospheric intrusions on the calculations. No significant influence on average ozone levels by North American fires was found for stations located at Arctic latitudes. The ozone enhancement for stations nearer large fires, such as Trinidad Head and Bratt's Lake, was up to 4.8% of the TTOC (Total Tropospheric Ozone Column). Fire ozone accounted for up to 8.3% of TTOC at downwind sites such as Yarmouth, Sable Island, Narragansett, and Walsingham. The results are consistent with other studies that have reported an increase in ozone production with the age of the smoke plume.
•An objective method based on ozone soundings estimates the wildfire source of ozone.•Wildfires are a source of up to 5–8% of tropospheric ozone at Canadian sites in summer.•Stations located at Artic are not significantly affected by North American fires.•Ozone enhancement on average is greater at downwind sites.
Dobson and Brewer spectrophotometers are the primary, standard instruments for ground-based ozone measurements under the World Meteorological Organization's (WMO) Global Atmosphere Watch program. The ...accuracy of the data retrieval for both instruments depends on a knowledge of the ozone absorption coefficients and some assumptions underlying the data analysis. Instrumental stray light causes nonlinearity in the response of both the Brewer and Dobson to ozone at large ozone slant paths. In addition, it affects the effective ozone absorption coefficients and extraterrestrial constants that are both instrument-dependent. This effect has not been taken into account in the calculation of ozone absorption coefficients that are currently recommended by WMO for the Dobson network. The ozone absorption coefficients are calculated for each Brewer instrument individually, but in the current procedure the effect of stray light is not considered. This study documents the error caused by the effect of stray light in the Brewer and Dobson total ozone measurements using a physical model for each instrument. For the first time, new ozone absorption coefficients are calculated for the Brewer and Dobson instruments, taking into account the stray light effect. The analyses show that the differences detected between the total ozone amounts deduced from Dobson AD and CD pair wavelengths are related to the level of stray light within the instrument. The discrepancy introduced by the assumption of a fixed height for the ozone layer for ozone measurements at high latitude sites is also evaluated. The ozone data collected by two Dobson instruments during the period of December 2008 to December 2014 are compared with ozone data from a collocated double monochromator Brewer spectrophotometer (Mark III). The results illustrate the dependence of Dobson AD and CD pair measurements on stray light.
The ACE-FTS (Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment - Fourier Transform Spectrometer) instrument on the Canadian SCISAT satellite, which has been in operation for over 12 years, has the capability of ...deriving stratospheric profiles of many of the NOy (N + NO + NO2+ NO3+ 2 × N2O5+ HNO3+ HNO4+ ClONO2+ BrONO2) species. Version 2.2 of ACE-FTS NO, NO2, HNO3, N2O5, and ClONO2 has previously been validated, and this study compares the most recent version (v3.5) of these five ACE-FTS products to spatially and temporally coincident measurements from other satellite instruments - GOMOS, HALOE, MAESTRO, MIPAS, MLS, OSIRIS, POAM III, SAGE III, SCIAMACHY, SMILES, and SMR. For each ACE-FTS measurement, a photochemical box model was used to simulate the diurnal variations of the NOy species and the ACE-FTS measurements were scaled to the local times of the coincident measurements. The comparisons for all five species show good agreement with correlative satellite measurements. For NO in the altitude range of 25-50km, ACE-FTS typically agrees with correlative data to within -10%. Instrument-averaged mean relative differences are approximately -10% at 30-40km for NO2, within ±7% at 8-30km for HNO3, better than -7% at 21-34km for local morning N2O5, and better than -8% at 21-34km for ClONO2. Where possible, the variations in the mean differences due to changes in the comparison local time and latitude are also discussed.
Sedimentary bed configurations that are stable under weak fluid‐driven transport conditions can be divided into two groups: (1) mesoscale features that influence flow and sediment transport through ...roughness and drag partitioning effects (“mesoforms”) and (2) grain‐scale features that can effectively be ignored at the macroscopic scale (“microforms”). In practice, these groups delineate ripples and dunes from quasi‐planar bed configurations. They are thought to be separated by a transition in processes governing the relief of the bed; however, the physical mechanisms responsible for this transition are poorly understood. Previous studies suggest that planar topography is unstable when interactions between moving particles lead to stabilized bed disturbances that initiate morphodynamic pattern coarsening. This study presents a kinetic interpretation of this hypothesis in terms of parameters describing particle motion. We find that the microform/mesoform transition corresponds to a critical transition in particle behavior associated with increasing importance of particle collisions. This transition also corresponds to the point where continuum‐based morphodynamic models are permissible at the most unstable wavelength predicted from linear stability theory, providing a link between descriptive and mathematical theories of bedform initiation.
Key Points
Experiments highlight differences in particle behavior over stable and unstable planar topography
Stable bed configuration is controlled by a critical transition in particle behavior related to collisions between mobile particles
Predicted threshold of bedform initiation mirrors classic empirical stability diagrams
For the past 17 years, the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier Transform Spectrometer (ACE-FTS) instrument on the Canadian SCISAT satellite
has been measuring profiles of atmospheric ozone. The ...latest operational
versions of the level 2 ozone data are versions 3.6 and 4.1. This study
characterizes how both products compare with correlative data from other
limb-sounding satellite instruments, namely MAESTRO, MLS, OSIRIS, SABER, and
SMR. In general, v3.6, with respect to the other instruments, exhibits a
smaller bias (which is on the order of ∼ 3 %) in the middle
stratosphere than v4.1 (∼ 2 %–9 %); however, the bias exhibited
in the v4.1 data tends to be more stable, i.e. not changing significantly
over time in any altitude region. In the lower stratosphere, v3.6 has a
positive bias of about 3 %–5 % that is stable to within
±1 % per decade, and v4.1 has a bias on the order of −1 % to +5 % and is also stable to within ±1 % per decade. In the middle stratosphere, v3.6 has a positive bias of ∼ 3 % with a significant negative drift on the order of 0.5 %–2.5 % per decade, and v4.1 has a positive bias of 2 %–9 % that is stable to within ±0.5 % per decade. In the upper stratosphere, v3.6 has a positive bias that increases with altitude up to ∼ 16 % and a significant negative drift on the order of 2 %–3 % per decade, and v4.1 has a positive bias that increases with altitude up to ∼ 15 % and is stable to within ±1 % per decade. Estimates indicate that both versions 3.6 and 4.1 have precision values on the order of 0.1–0.2 ppmv below 20 km and above 45 km (∼ 5 %–10 %, depending on altitude). Between 20 and 45 km, the
estimated v3.6 precision of ∼ 4 %–6 % is better than the
estimated v4.1 precision of ∼ 6 %–10 %.
Water vapour is a critical component of the Earth system. Techniques to acquire and improve measurements of atmospheric water vapour and its isotopes are under active development. This work presents ...a detailed intercomparison of water vapour total column measurements taken between 2006 and 2014 at a Canadian High Arctic research site (Eureka, Nunavut). Instruments include radiosondes, sun photometers, a microwave radiometer, and emission and solar absorption Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometers. Close agreement is observed between all combination of datasets, with mean differences ≤ 1.0 kg m−2 and correlation coefficients ≥ 0.98. The one exception in the observed high correlation is the comparison between the microwave radiometer and a radiosonde product, which had a correlation coefficient of 0.92.A variety of biases affecting Eureka instruments are revealed and discussed. A subset of Eureka radiosonde measurements was processed by the Global Climate Observing System (GCOS) Reference Upper Air Network (GRUAN) for this study. Comparisons reveal a small dry bias in the standard radiosonde measurement water vapour total columns of approximately 4 %. A recently produced solar absorption FTIR spectrometer dataset resulting from the MUSICA (MUlti-platform remote Sensing of Isotopologues for investigating the Cycle of Atmospheric water) retrieval technique is shown to offer accurate measurements of water vapour total columns (e.g. average agreement within −5.2 % of GRUAN and −6.5 % of a co-located emission FTIR spectrometer). However, comparisons show a small wet bias of approximately 6 % at the high-latitude Eureka site. In addition, a new dataset derived from Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (AERI) measurements is shown to provide accurate water vapour measurements (e.g. average agreement was within 4 % of GRUAN), which usefully enables measurements to be taken during day and night (especially valuable during polar night).
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