Professor Roy Grainger

Abstract:

Observations of polar stratospheric clouds by the Improved Stratospheric and Mesospheric Sounder (ISAMS) experiment on the Upper Atmospheric Research Satellite (UARS) have revealed new details of their global properties and behavior. These include the vertical and horizontal spatial distributions of Arctic and Antarctic polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) as a function of time and air temperature, their optical thicknesses and estimated densities, their spectral properties, and their inferred composition. In particular, ISAMS spectral data allows different PSC types to be distinguished from each other and from volcanic aerosol by their compositional differences. Northern PSCs during the 1991/92 season are found to be more ephemeral and more compact than reported in previous years and to differ markedly in scale from those in Southern Hemisphere, which cause the Antarctic ozone hole by activating stratospheric chlorine chemistry. There were only two episodes of dense PSC formation in the 1991/92 northern winter, one of which took place in sunlight. The latter correlates well with UARS/Microwave Limb Sounder observations of enhanced chlorine monoxide, but substantial amounts of chlorine monoxide were also reported at times and places with at most very minor PSC activity.

Abstract:

The Improved Stratospheric and Mesospheric Sounder (ISAMS) aboard the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) senses in 14 wideband channels in the infrared. The absorption by the Mt. Pinatubo aerosol cloud for nine of the channels was averaged over heights from 20 km to 30 km for a 60-degrees latitude band centred on the Equator. The absorption spectrum for sulphuric acid-water aerosols was calculated for wavelengths from 4 mum to 17 mum and investigated as a function of the particle size distribution and the particle composition. The infrared spectrum is shown to be more sensitive to changes in particle composition than to drop size; the ISAMS results are consistent with drops composed of a 59% to 77% solution of sulphuric acid in water.

Abstract:

Measurements by the Improved Stratospheric and Mesospheric Sounder (ISAMS) on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) are being used to study the spatial and temporal evolution of the volcanic stratospheric aerosol from Mt. Pinatubo. The maximum opacity of the aerosol cloud moved from a position south of the Equator at an altitude of about 26 km in early October 1991, became located over the Equator by mid-January 1992, and descended in altitude to about 21 km by July 1992. Dispersal of the cloud was more rapid in the Southern Hemisphere and penetration to the southern polar region occurred earlier than transport to the corresponding northern polar area. The area weighted global mean stratospheric optical thickness between 15 km and 35 km at 12.1 mum remained at about 5.5 x 10(-3) from November 1991 through to April 1992. The estimated aerosol mass loading is 19 - 26 megatonnes for this period and by the end of July 1992 it had declined to 15 - 21 megatonnes.