Global-scale atmosphere monitoring by in-service aircraft – current achievements and future prospects of the European Research Infrastructure IAGOS

Abstract

The European Research Infrastructure IAGOS (In-service Aircraft for a Global Observing System) operates a global-scale monitoring system for atmospheric trace gases, aerosols and clouds utilising the existing global civil aircraft. This new monitoring infrastructure builds on the heritage of the former research projects MOZAIC (Measurement of Ozone and Water Vapour on Airbus In-service Aircraft) and CARIBIC (Civil Aircraft for the Regular Investigation of the Atmosphere Based on an Instrument Container). CARIBIC continues within IAGOS and acts as an important airborne measurement reference standard within the wider IAGOS fleet. IAGOS is a major contributor to the in-situ component of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), the successor to the Global Monitoring for the Environment and Security – Atmospheric Service, and is providing data for users in science, weather services and atmospherically relevant policy. IAGOS is unique in collecting regular in-situ observations of reactive gases, greenhouse gases and aerosol concentrations in the upper troposphere and lowermost stratosphere (UTLS) at high spatial resolution. It also provides routine vertical profiles of these species in the troposphere over continental sites or regions, many of which are undersampled by other networks or sampling studies, particularly in Africa, Southeast Asia and South America. In combination with MOZAIC and CARIBIC, IAGOS has provided long-term observations of atmospheric chemical composition in the UTLS since 1994. The longest time series are 20 yr of temperature, H₂O and O₃, and 9–15 yr of aerosols, CO, NO _y , CO₂, CH₄, N₂O, SF₆, Hg, acetone, ~30 HFCs and ~20 non-methane hydrocarbons. Among the scientific highlights which have emerged from these data sets are observations of extreme concentrations of O₃ and CO over the Pacific basin that have never or rarely been recorded over the Atlantic region for the past 12 yr; detailed information on the temporal and regional distributions of O₃, CO, H₂O, NO _y and aerosol particles in the UTLS, including the impacts of cross-tropopause transport, deep convection and lightning on the distribution of these species; characterisation of ice-supersaturated regions in the UTLS; and finally, improved understanding of the spatial distribution of upper tropospheric humidity including the finding that the UTLS is much more humid than previously assumed.

• IAGOS
• MOZAIC
• CARIBIC
• atmospheric composition
• atmospheric monitoring
• research infrastructure
• climate research

This paper is part of a Special Issue on MOZAIC/IAGOS in Tellus B celebrating 20 years of an ongoing air chemistry-climate research measurement from airbus commercial aircraft operated by an international consortium of countries. More papers from this issue can be found at http://www.tellusb.net

This paper is part of a Special Issue on MOZAIC/IAGOS in Tellus B celebrating 20 years of an ongoing air chemistry-climate research measurement from airbus commercial aircraft operated by an international consortium of countries. More papers from this issue can be found at http://www.tellusb.net

7. Acknowledgements

IAGOS gratefully acknowledges financial support during its preparation, implementation and operation phase from the European Commission in FP6 and FP7 programmes, national research programmes in Germany (BMBF), France (INSU-CNRS, MESR, CNES) and UK (NERC), in addition to institutional resources in Germany (Helmholtz Association, Max-Planck-Society, Leibniz Association), France (Université de Toulouse, Météo-France) and the UK (University of Manchester, University of Cambridge), and the continuing support by participating airlines (Deutsche Lufthansa, Air-France, Iberia in Europe, China Airlines and Cathay Pacific in Asia). IGAS has received funding from the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under grant agreement no. 312311. IAGOS wishes to emphasise the excellence of the industrial partners involved in the technical development and realisation: Sabena Technics Bordeaux and Lufthansa Technik Frankfurt for aircraft system definition and certification, LGM Ingénierie for the instrument realisation and aeronautic qualification, and enviscope GmbH Frankfurt for operating the maintenance centre of IAGOS and supporting aeronautic qualification of instruments. The IAGOS team appreciates the detailed comments by two anonymous reviewers which helped improve the manuscript significantly.

IAGOS team

A. Petzold, A. Volz-Thomas, H. G. J. Smit, K. Thomas, S. Rohs, U. Bundke, P. Neis, F. Berkes, N. Houben, M. Berg, M. Tappertzhofen, T. Blomel, W. Pätz (FZJ)

C. Gerbig, J. Marshall, A. Filges, F. Boschetti, S. Verma, S. Baum (MPI-BGC)

V. Thouret, J.-P. Cammas, P. Nédélec, D. Boulanger, G. Athier, J.-M. Cousin, B. Sauvage, R. Blot, H. Clark, A. Gaudel, A. Gressent, A. Auby, A. Fontaine, B. Gautron, Y. Bennouna, and H. Petetin (CNRS/UPS)

M. Pontaud, F. Karcher, C. Abonnel, P. Dandin (Météo-France)

M. Gallagher and K. Beswick (University of Manchester)

K.-Y. Wang (National Central University Taiwan)

C. A. M. Brenninkmeijer, A. Rauthe-Schöch, A. K. Baker, H. Riede, S. Gromov, P. Zimmermann, U. Thorenz, D. Scharffe, C. Koeppel, F. Slemr, T. J. Schuck, T. Umezawa, J. Ditas, Y. Cheng, J. Schneider, J. Williams (MPI-C Mainz)

A. Zahn, M. Neumaier, E. Christner, G. Fischbeck, L. Safadi, A. Petrelli, T. Gehrlein,

S. Heger, C. Dyroff, S. Weber (KIT)

M. Hermann, D. Assmann, F. Rubach, A. Weigelt (TROPOS)

H. Ziereis, G. Stratmann, P. Stock (DLR)

U. Friess, L. Penth, D. Walter, K.-P. Heue (University of Heidelberg)

Y. Allouche C. Marizy (Airbus France), J. Hermira (British Airways/Iberia), Sabrina Bringtown (Air France), G. Saueressig, N. Seidel, M. Huf, A. Waibel (Deutsche Lufthansa AG), H. Franke, C. Klaus, R. Stosius (enviscope GmbH), D. Baumgardner (DMT)

G. Braathen (WMO), M. Paulin (CNES), N. Garnett (NERC)

Notes

This paper is part of a Special Issue on MOZAIC/IAGOS in Tellus B celebrating 20 years of an ongoing air chemistry-climate research measurement from airbus commercial aircraft operated by an international consortium of countries. More papers from this issue can be found at http://www.tellusb.net