MLS Research
Air Pollution in the Upper Troposphere
Contact Nathaniel Livesey
MLS observations of ozone (O3) and carbon monoxide (CO) provide important information on the chemical and transport processes affecting air pollution in the upper troposphere (~10-15km altitude).
CO is a byproduct of combustion associated with both vehicles and industry and with forest fires and domestic fires using for cooking and heating. CO is also produced when other organic molecules in the atmoshpere break down. CO has a lifetime of about a month in the upper troposphere, making it a good marker of recently polluted air.
O3 forms down wind of pollution sources, and is the result of the reaction of 'NOx' species (typically emitted from industry and cars, or formed in lightning flashes) with breakdown products from organic species (emitted from industrial and natural sources).
Ozone is an important contributor to poor air quality and has a strong daily cycle in the lowest ~2km of the atmosphere. However, its chemical lifetime can be over a month once it is transported to higher altitudes. Descent of ozone-rich air from the stratosphere can increase tropospheric ozone. MLS also measures nitric acid (HNO3) in the upper troposphere, giving information on 'NOx' pollution for which it is an end product.
Improvements of weather forecast and climate change predictions require extensive evaluation of model simulations by comparison with global satellite observations. The Aura MLS measurements of water vapor, clouds and other tracer gases provide a unique opportunity to evaluate model performance in the upper troposphere (~8-15km altitude) and to improve model parameterizations of key processes such as convection.
MLS-related publications concerning air pollution in the upper troposphere
Rawat, P., M. Naja, E. Fishbein, P. Thapliyal, R. Kumar, P. Bhardwaj, A. Jaiswal, S. Tiwari, S. Venkataramani and S. Lal
Performance of AIRS ozone retrieval over the central Himalayas: Case studies of biomass burning, downward ozone transport and radiative forcing using long-term observations
Vogel, A., J. Ungermann and H. Elbern
Analyzing trace gas filaments in the Ex-UTLS by 4D-variationalassimilation of airborne tomographic retrievals
Liang, Z., F. Zhu, T. Liang, F. Luo and J. Luo
Spatiotemporal Distribution of CO in the UTLS Region in the Asian Summer Monsoon Season: Analysis of MLS Observations and CMIP6 Simulations
Roy, C., A.R. Ravishankara, P. Newman, L. David, S. Fadnavis, S. Rathod, L. Lait, R. Krishnan, H. Clark and B. Sauvage
Estimation of Stratospheric Intrusions During Indian Cyclones
Solomon, S., K. Stone, P. Yu, D.M. Murphy, D. Kinnison, A.R. Ravishankara and P. Wang
Chlorine activation and enhanced ozone depletion induced by wildfire aerosol
Wang, P., S. Solomon and K. Stone
Stratospheric chlorine processing after the 2020 Australian wildfires derived from satellite data
Blunden, J. and T. Boyer
State of the Climate in 2021
Daskalakis, N., L. Gallardo, M. Kanakidou, J. Nüß, C. Menares, R. Rondanelli, A. Thompson and M. Vrekoussis
Impact of biomass burning and stratospheric intrusions in the remote South Pacific Ocean troposphere
Fazel-Rastgar, F. and V. Sivakumar
A severe weather system accompanied by a stratospheric intrusion during unusual warm winter in 2015 over the South Africa: An initial synoptic analysis
Fujiwara, M., G.L. Manney, L.J. Gray and J.S. Wright
SPARC Reanalysis Intercomparison Project S-RIP Final Report
n/a 2022Kumar, A.H., M.V. Ratnam and C. Jain
Influence of background dynamics on the vertical distribution of trace gases CO/WV/O3 in the UTLS region during COVID-19 lockdown over India
Li, D., J. Bian, X. Zhang, B. Vogel, R. Müller and G. Günther
Impact of typhoon Soudelor on ozone and water vapor in the Asian monsoon anticyclone western Pacific mode
Martinsson, B., J. Friberg, O. Sandvik and M. Sporre
Five-satellite-sensor study of the rapid decline of wildfire smoke in the stratosphere
Pan, L., D. Kinnison, Q. Liang, M. Chin, M. Santee, J. Flemming, W. Smith, S. Honomichl, J. Bresch, L. Lait, Y. Zhu, S. Tilmes, P. Colarco, J. Warner, A. Vuvan, C. Clerbaux, E. Atlas, P. Newman, T. Thornberry, W. Randel and O. Toon
A Multimodel Investigation of Asian Summer Monsoon UTLS Transport Over the Western Pacific
Peng, K., J. Luo, J. Mu, X. Cao, H. Tian, L. Shang and Y. Guo
Impact of intensity variability of the Asian summer monsoon anticyclone on the chemical distribution in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere
Qie, K., W. Wang, W. Tian, R. Huang, M. Xu, T. Wang and Y. Peng
Enhanced upward motion through the troposphere over the tropical western Pacific and its implications for the transport of trace gases from the troposphere to the stratosphere
Salawitch, R. and L. McBride
Australian wildfires depleted the ozone layer
Santee, M.L., A. Lambert, G.L. Manney, N.J. Livesey, L. Froidevaux, J.L. Neu, M.J. Schwartz, L.F. Millán, F. Werner, W.G. Read, M. Park, R.A. Fuller and B.M. Ward
Prolonged and Pervasive Perturbations in the Composition of the Southern Hemisphere Midlatitude Lower Stratosphere From the Australian New Year's Fires
Xiong, X., X. Liu, W. Wu, K.E. Knowland, Q. Yang, J. Welsh and D. Zhou
Satellite observation of stratospheric intrusions and ozone transport using CrIS on SNPP
Babu, S.R., M.V. Ratnam, G. Basha, S. Pani and N. Lin
Structure, dynamics, and trace gas variability within the Asian summer monsoon anticyclone in the extreme El Niño of 2015–2016
Blunden, J. and T. Boyer
State of the Climate in 2020
Bossolasco, A., F. Jegou, P. Sellitto, G. Berthet, C. Kloss and B. Legras
Global modeling studies of composition and decadal trends of the Asian Tropopause Aerosol Layer
Emmanuel, M., S.V. Sunilkumar, M. Muhsin, P.R.S. Chandran, K. Parameswaran, B.S. Kumar, A. Maitra, A.N.V. Satyanarayana and N. Nagendra
Effect of monsoon dynamics and deep convection on the upper troposphere lower stratosphere water vapour over Indian monsoon region
Fujiwara, M., T. Sakai, T. Nagai, K. Shiraishi, Y. Inai, S. Khaykin, H. Xi, T. Shibata, M. Shiotani and L. Pan
Lower-stratospheric aerosol measurements in eastward-shedding vortices over Japan from the Asian summer monsoon anticyclone during the summer of 2018
Gharibzadeh, M., A. Bidokhti and K. Alam
The interaction of ozone and aerosol in a semi-arid region in the Middle East: Ozone formation and radiative forcing implications
He, X., J. Luo, X. Xu, L. Ren, H. Tian, L. Shang and P. Xu
The QBO Modulation on CO Distribution in the UTLS Over the Asian Monsoon Region During Boreal Summer
Jenkins, G., V.D. Castro, B. Cunha, I. Fontanez and R. Holzworth
The Evolution of the Wave‐One Ozone Maximum During the 2017 LASIC Field Campaign at Ascension Island
Karpowicz, B., W. McCarty and K. Wargan
Investigating the utility of hyperspectral sounders in the 9.6 μm band to improve ozone analyses
Kloss, C., P. Sellitto, M. von Hobe, G. Berthet, D. Smale, G. Krysztofiak, C. Xue, C. Qiu, F. Jégou, I. Ouerghemmi and B. Legras
Australian Fires 2019–2020: Tropospheric and Stratospheric Pollution Throughout the Whole Fire Season
Kumar, K., B. Singh and Kumar, K.
Intriguing aspects of Asian Summer Monsoon Anticyclone Ozone variability from Microwave Limb Sounder measurements
Park, M., H. Worden, D. Kinnison, B. Gaubert, S. Tilmes, L. Emmons, M. Santee, L. Froidevaux and C. Boone
Fate of pollution emitted during the 2015 Indonesian Fire Season
Plaza, N., A. Podglajen, C. Peña-Ortiz and F. Ploeger
Processes influencing lower stratospheric water vapour in monsoon anticyclones: insights from Lagrangian modelling
Pumphrey, H., M. Schwartz, M. Santee, G. Kablick III, M. Fromm and N. Livesey
Microwave Limb Sounder MLS observations of biomass burning products in the stratosphere from Canadian forest fires in August 2017
Rieger, L.A., W.J. Randel, A.E. Bourassa and S. Solomon
Stratospheric Temperature and Ozone Anomalies Associated With the 2020 Australian New Year Fires
Tang, Q., M. Prather, J. Hsu, D. Ruiz, P. Cameron-Smith, S. Xie and J. Golaz
Evaluation of the interactive stratospheric ozone O3v2 module in the E3SM version 1 Earth system model
Barret, B., E. Emili and E.L. Flochmoen
A tropopause-related climatological a priori profile for IASI-SOFRID ozone retrievals: improvements and validation
Blunden, J. and D.S. Arndt
State of the Climate in 2019
Fadnavis, S., C. Sioris, N. Wagh, R. Chattopadhyay, M. Tao, P. Chavan and T. Chakroborty
A rising trend of double tropopauses over South Asia in a warming environment: Implications for moistening of the lower stratosphere
Girach, I., P. Nair, N. Ojha and L. Sahu
Tropospheric carbon monoxide over the northern Indian Ocean during winter: influence of inter-continental transport
Honomichl, S. and L. Pan
Transport From the Asian Summer Monsoon Anticyclone Over the Western Pacific
Itahashi, S., R. Mathur, C. Hogrefe and Y. Zhang
Modeling stratospheric intrusion and trans-Pacific transport on tropospheric ozone using hemispheric CMAQ during April 2010 -- Part 1: Model evaluation and air mass characterization for stratosphere-troposphere transport
Miyazaki, K., K. Bowman, K. Yumimoto, T. Walker and K. Sudo
Evaluation of a multi-model, multi-constituent assimilation framework for tropospheric chemical reanalysis
Qu, Z., Y. Huang, P. Vaillancourt, J. Cole, J. Milbrandt, M. Yau, K. Walker and J.D. Grandpré
Simulation of convective moistening of the extratropical lower stratosphere using a numerical weather prediction model
Robinson, J., A. Kotsakis, F. Santos, R. Swap, K.E. Knowland, G. Labow, V. Connors, M. Tzortziou, N. Abuhassan, M. Tiefengraber and A. Cede
Using networked Pandora observations to capture spatiotemporal changes in total column ozone associated with stratosphere-to-troposphere transport
Schoeberl, M.R., L. Pfister, T. Wang, J. Kummer, A.E. Dessler and W. Yu
Erythemal Radiation, Column Ozone, and the North American Monsoon
Schwartz, M., M. Santee, H. Pumphrey, G. Manney, A. Lambert, N. Livesey, L. Millán, J. Neu, W. Read and F. Werner
Australian New Year's PyroCb Impact on Stratospheric Composition
Uma, K.N., T.S. Mohan and S. Das
Role of Intra-Seasonal Variability in the Indian Summer Monsoon on the Hydration and Dehydration of the Upper Troposphere
Werner, F., M.J. Schwartz, N.J. Livesey, W.G. Read and M.L. Santee
Extreme Outliers in Lower Stratospheric Water Vapor Over North America Observed by MLS: Relation to Overshooting Convection Diagnosed From Colocated Aqua‐MODIS Data
Xu, X., H. Tian, K. Qie, X. He, R. Zhang and H. Tu
A Study on the Trend of the Upper Tropospheric Water Vapor over the Tibetan Plateau in Summer
Yu, W., A. Dessler, M. Park and E. Jensen
Influence of convection on stratospheric water vapor in the North American monsoon region