Aerosols in the tropical and subtropical UT/LS: in-situ measurements of submicron particle abundance and volatility

Stephan Borrmann (1, 2) , Daniel Kunkel (2) , Ralf Weigel (1) , Andreas Minikin (3) , Terry Deshler (4) , James C. Wilson (5) , Joachim Curtius (6) , C. Michael Volk (7) , Carine D. Homan (7) , Alexey Ulanovsky (8) , Fabrizio Ravegnani (9) , Silvia Viciani (10) , Genrih N. Shur (8) , Gennady V. Belyaev (11) , Kathy S. Law (12) , Francesco Cairo (9)

1 JGU - Johannes Gutenberg - Universität Mainz = Johannes Gutenberg University
2 MPIC - Max-Planck-Institut für Chemie
3 IPA - DLR Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre = DLR Institute of Atmospheric Physics
4 Department of Atmospheric Science [Laramie]
5 Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering [Denver]
6 IAU - Institute for Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences [Frankfurt/Main]
7 Department of Physics, Faculty of Mathematics und Natural Sciences [Wuppertal]
8 CAO - Central Aerological Observatory
9 ISAC - CNR Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate
10 INO - Istituto Nazionale di Ottica
11 MDB - Myasishchev Design Bureau
12 TROPO - LATMOS

Processes occurring in the tropical upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UT/LS) are of importance for the global climate, for the stratospheric dynamics and air chemistry, and they influence the global distribution of water vapour, trace gases and aerosols. The mechanisms underlying cloud formation and variability in the UT/LS are of scientific concern as these still are not adequately described and quantified by numerical models. Part of the reasons for this is the scarcity of detailed in-situ measurements in particular from the Tropical Transition Layer (TTL) within the UT/LS. In this contribution we provide measurements of particle number densities and the amounts of non-volatile particles in the submicron size range present in the UT/LS over Southern Brazil, West Africa, and Northern Australia. The data were collected in-situ on board of the Russian high altitude research aircraft M-55 "Geophysica" using the specialised COPAS (COndensation PArticle counting System) instrument during the TROCCINOX (Araçatuba, Brazil, February 2005), the SCOUT-O3 (Darwin, Australia, December 2005), and SCOUT-AMMA (Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, August 2006) campaigns.

Domaines: Physique Atmosphérique et Océanique [physics.ao-ph]

Stephan Borrmann, Daniel Kunkel, Ralf Weigel, Andreas Minikin, Terry Deshler, et al.. Aerosols in the tropical and subtropical UT/LS: in-situ measurements of submicron particle abundance and volatility. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 2010, 10 (12), pp.5573-5592. ⟨10.5194/acp-10-5573-2010⟩. ⟨hal-00433492⟩