John P. Burrows

University of Bremen | Uni Bremen · Institute of Environmental Physics

The concentration of carbonaceous aerosols, black carbon (BC) and organic aerosol (OA), in the atmosphere is related to co-emitted or co-produced trace gases. In this study, we investigate the most relevant proportional relationships between both BC and OA with the following trace gases: carbon monoxide (CO), formaldehyde (HCHO), nitrogen dioxide (...

In the ClO spectrum from The MPI-Mainz UV/VIS Spectral Atlas of Gaseous Molecules of Atmospheric Interest (see Keller-Rudek, H., Moortgat, G. K., Sander, R., and Sörensen, R.: The MPI-Mainz UV/VIS spectral atlas of gaseous molecules of atmospheric interest, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 5, 365–373, (2013), DOI: 10.5194/essd-5-365-2013) the 6,0 band was di...

Megacities and other major population centres (MPCs) worldwide are major sources of air pollution, both locally as well as downwind. The overall assessment and prediction of the impact of MPC pollution on tropospheric chemistry are challenging. The present work provides an overview of the highlights of a major new contribution to the understanding...

Long-term time-series of Bromine monoxide derived from satellite remote sensing and its relation to driving mechanisms

Long-term time-series of Bromine monoxide derived from satellite remote sensing and its relation to sea ice age

PeRCEAS successfully participated in the EMeRGe HALO campaigns in Europe in summer 2017 and in Asia in spring 2018. Air masses of different photochemical activity and significant RO2* mixing ratios up to 100 pptv were measured. This presentation will describe the preliminary findings of the RO2* mixing ratios observed upwind and downwind of the sel...

Limb scatter instruments in the UV–vis spectral range have provided long-term global records of stratospheric aerosol extinction important for climate records and modelling. While comparisons with occultation instruments show generally good agreement, the source and magnitude of the biases arising from retrieval assumptions, approximations in the r...

Effect of Arctic amplification on the tropospheric halogen composition of the Arctic atmosphere

The ROSA-ROMIC project deals with the characterization of stratospheric aerosols. The importance and necessity of the project work is given by a direct influence of stratospheric aerosols on the radiation balance of the Earth's atmosphere and the resulting impact on climate change. The subproject of the Institute for Environmental Physics of the Un...

Chemistry–climate models predict an acceleration of the upwelling branch of the Brewer–Dobson circulation as a consequence of increasing global surface temperatures, resulting from elevated levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases. The observed decrease of ozone in the tropical lower stratosphere during the last decades of the 20th century is consist...

We report on the evolution of tropospheric nitrogen dioxide (NO2) over Spain, focusing on the densely populated cities of Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid, Sevilla and Valencia, during 17 years, from 1996 to 2012. This data series combines observations from in-situ air quality monitoring networks and the satellite-based instruments GOME and SCIAMACHY. The...

The fractal perimeter dimension is a fundamental property of clouds. It describes the cloud shape and is used to improve the understanding of atmospheric processes responsible for cloud shapes. von Savigny et al. (2011) determined the fractal perimeter dimension of noctilucent clouds (or polar mesospheric clouds) for the first time based on a limit...

Tropospheric ozone columns can be retrieved from space-born observations with the Convective Clouds Differential (CCD) technique (Ziemke et al. 1998) using total ozone column and cloud retrievals. The CCD technique uses the clear-sky and above-cloud ozone column measurements to derive a monthly mean tropospheric column amount by the subtraction of...

Glyoxal is an important intermediate species formed by the oxidation of common biogenic and anthropogenic volatile organic compounds such as isoprene, toluene and acetylene. Although glyoxal has been shown to play an important role in urban and forested environments, its role in the open ocean environment is still not well understood, with only a f...

Tropospheric ozone is photochemically produced during pollution events and transported from the stratosphere to-wards the troposphere. It is the third most important green house gases and the main component of summer smog. Global covered satellite measurements are well suitable to investigate sources, sinks, and transport mechanisms of tropospheric...

Tropospheric ozone column can be retrieved with the Convective Clouds Differential (CCD) technique (Ziemke et al., 1998) using total ozone column and cloud retrievals. The CCD technique uses the clear-sky and above-cloud ozone column measurements to derive a monthly mean tropospheric column amount by the subtraction of the above cloud column from t...

Record breaking loss of ozone (O3) in the Arctic stratosphere has been reported in winter–spring 2010/2011. We examine in detail the composition and transformations occurring in the Arctic polar vortex using total column and vertical profile data products for O3, bromine oxide (BrO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), chlorine dioxide (OClO), and polar strato...

For the purpose of trace gas measurements and pollution mapping, the Airborne imaging DOAS instrument for Measurements of Atmospheric Pollution (AirMAP) has been developed, characterised and successfully operated from aircraft. From the observations with the AirMAP instrument nitrogen dioxide (NO2) columns were retrieved. A major benefit of the pus...

We investigated the effect of surface reflectance anisotropy, Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function (BRDF), on satellite retrievals of tropospheric NO2. We assume the geometry of geostationary measurements over Tokyo, which is one of the worst air-polluted regions in the East Asia. We calculated air mass factors (AMF) and box AMFs (BAMF)...

The atmospheric chemistry of iodine and bromine in polar regions is of interest due to the key role of halogens in many atmospheric processes, particularly tropospheric ozone destruction. Bromine is emitted from the open ocean but is enriched above first-year sea ice during springtime bromine explosion events, whereas iodine is emitted from biologi...

Nitrogen oxides (NOx) play key roles in atmospheric chemistry, air pollution, and climate. While the largest fraction of these reactive gases is released by anthropogenic emission sources, a significant amount can be attributed to vegetation fires. In this study, NO2 from GOME-2 on board EUMETSAT's MetOp-A and OMI on board NASA's Aura as well as fi...

SCIATRAN is a comprehensive software package for the modeling of radiative transfer processes in the terrestrial atmosphere and ocean in the spectral range from the ultraviolet to the thermal infrared (0.18-40μm) including multiple scattering processes, polarization, thermal emission and ocean-atmosphere coupling. The software is capable of modelin...

We report on the temperature dependence of ozone absorption cross-sections measured in our laboratory in the broad spectral range 213–1100 nm with a spectral resolution of 0.02–0.24 nm (full width at half maximum, FWHM) in the atmospherically relevant temperature range from 193 K to 293 K. The temperature dependence of ozone absorption cross-sectio...

In this paper we discuss the methodology of taking broadband relative and absolute measurements of ozone cross-sections including uncertainty budget, experimental set-ups, and methods for data analysis. We report on new ozone absorption cross-section measurements in the solar spectral region using a combination of Fourier transform and echelle spec...

Vertical profiles of the rate of linear change (trend) in the altitude range 15-50 km are determined from decadal O3 time series obtained from SCIAMACHY1/ENVISAT2 measurements in limb-viewing geometry. The trends are calculated by using a multivariate linear regression. Seasonal variations, the quasi-biennial oscillation, signatures of the solar cy...

Mg and Mg+ concentration fields in the upper mesosphere/lower thermosphere (UMLT) region are retrieved from SCIAMACHY/Envisat limb measurements of Mg and Mg+ dayglow emissions using a 2-D tomographic retrieval approach. The time series of monthly mean Mg and Mg+ number density and vertical column density in different latitudinal regions are present...

The terrestrial biosphere is currently acting as a net carbon sink on the global scale, exhibiting significant interannual variability in strength. To reliably predict the future strength of the land sink and its role in atmospheric CO2 growth, the underlying biogeochemical processes and their response to a changing climate need to be well understo...

Meteoroids bombard Earth's atmosphere during its orbit around the Sun, depositing a highly varying and significant amount of matter into the thermosphere and mesosphere. The strength of the material source needs to be characterized and its impact on atmospheric chemistry assessed. In this study an algorithm for the retrieval of metal atom and ion n...

Measurements by the hyperspectral spectrometers GOME, SCIAMACHY, and GOME-2 are used to determine the rate of linear change (and trends) in cloud top height (CTH) in the period between June 1996 and May 2012. The retrievals are obtained from Top-Of-Atmosphere (TOA) backscattered solar light in the oxygen A-band using the Semi-Analytical CloUd Retri...

Carbon Monitoring Satellite (CarbonSat) is one of two candidate missions for ESA's Earth Explorer 8 (EE8) satellite to be launched around the end of this decade. The overarching objective of the CarbonSat mission is to improve our understanding of natural and anthropogenic sources and sinks of the two most important anthropogenic greenhouse gases (...

Intercontinental long-range transport (LRT) events of NO2 relocate the effects of air pollution from emission regions to remote, pristine regions. We detect transported plumes in tropospheric NO2 columns measured by the GOME-2/MetOp-A instrument with a specialized algorithm and trace the plumes to their sources using the HYSPLIT lagrangian transpor...

The study presents a long-term statistical trend analysis of total ozone data sets obtained from various satellites. A multi-variate linear regression was applied to annual mean zonal mean data using various natural and anthropogenic explanatory variables that represent dynamical and chemical processes which modify global ozone distributions in a c...

Nitrogen oxides (NOx) play key roles in atmospheric chemistry, air pollution, and climate. While the largest fraction of these reactive gases is released by anthropogenic emission sources, a significant amount can be attributed to vegetation fires. In this study, NO2 from GOME-2 on board EUMETSAT's MetOp-A and OMI on board NASA's Aura as well as fi...

A comprehensive error characterization of SCIAMACHY (Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric CHartographY) limb ozone profiles has been established based upon SCIATRAN transfer model simulations. The study was carried out in order to evaluate the possible impact of parameter uncertainties, e.g. in albedo, stratospheric aerosol opti...

Major gaseous and particulate pollutant levels over Europe in 2008 have been simulated using the offline-coupled WRFCMAQ chemistry and transport modeling system. The simulations are compared with surface observations from the EMEP stations, ozone (O3) soundings, ship-borne O3 and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) observations in the western Mediterranean, tro...

Column-averaged dry-air mole fractions of carbon dioxide and methane have been retrieved from spectra acquired by the TANSO-FTS and SCIAMACHY instruments on board GOSAT and ENVISAT using a range of European retrieval algorithms. These retrievals have been compared with data from ground-based high-resolution Fourier Transform Spectrometers (FTS) fro...

Atmospheric aerosol, generated from natural and anthropogenic sources, plays a key role in regulating visibility, air quality, and acid deposition. It is directly linked to and impacts on human health. It also reflects and absorbs incoming solar radiation and thereby influences the climate change. The cooling by aerosols is now recognized to have p...

Since the establishment of the SCIAMACHY Quality Working Group (SQWG) in a joint inter-agency ESA-DLR-NSO effort in late 2006, the ESA operational Level 2 processor was significantly improved w.r.t. data quality and the product list was substantially enhanced with new parameters. Current operational Level 2 products correspond to version 5. Meanwhi...

We present our newly developed Cloud optical thickness Retrieval Over Snow (CROS) algorithm, which makes use of the sensitivity of top-of-atmosphere (TOA) reflectance in the oxygen A-band to the cloud optical thickness. The CROS algorithm applies forward simulations for clouds over snow using the radiative transfer model SCIATRAN in order to find t...

Filling-in of spectral features observed in scat- tered sunlight and known as the \Ring Eect" has a sig- nicant impact on the retrieval of atmospheric trace con- stituentsfrombothground-basedandsatelliteobservations. As clouds also have strong impacts on radiative transfer in the UV/visible spectral range, possible changes of the Ring Eect due to c...

The potent greenhouse gas, methane, CH4, has a wide variety of anthropogenic and natural sources. Fall, continental-scale (Florida to California) surface CH4 data were collected to investigate the importance of fossil fuel industrial (FFI) emissions in the South US. A total of 6600 measurements along 7020-km of roadways were made by flame ion detec...

Tropospheric ozone, O3, has two sources: transport from the stratosphere and photochemical production in the troposphere. It plays important roles in atmospheric chemistry and climate change. In this manuscript we describe the retrieval of tropospheric O3 columns from limb-nadir matching (LNM) observations of the SCanning Imaging Absorption spectro...

Aerosol observations over the Arctic are important because of the effects of aerosols on Arctic climate, such as their direct and indirect effects on the Earth's radiation balance and on snow albedo. Although information on aerosol properties is available from ground-based measurements, passive remote sensing using satellite measurements would offe...

Record breaking losses of ozone (O3) in the Arctic stratosphere have been reported in winter and spring 2011. Trace gas amounts and polar stratospheric cloud (PSC) distributions retrieved using differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS) and scattering theory applied to the measurements of radiance and irradiance by satellite-born and groun...

Peroxy radicals were measured by a PeRCA (Per-oxy Radical Chemical Amplifier) instrument in the boundary layer during the DOMINO (Diel Oxidant Mechanisms In re-lation to Nitrogen Oxides) campaign at a coastal, forested site influenced by urban-industrial emissions in southern Spain in late autumn. Total peroxy radicals (RO 2 * = HO 2 + RO 2) genera...

Meteoroids bombard the earth's atmosphere during its orbit around the sun, depositing a highly varying and significant amount of matter into the thermosphere and mesosphere. The strength of the material source needs to be characterized and its impact on atmospheric chemistry assessed. In this study an algorithm for the retrieval of metal and metal...

Carbon Monitoring Satellite (CarbonSat) is one of two candidate missions for ESA's Earth Explorer 8 (EE8) satellite – the selected one to be launched around the end of this decade. The objective of the CarbonSat mission is to improve our understanding of natural and anthropogenic sources and sinks of the two most important anthropogenic greenhouse...

Vertical profiles of the rate of linear change (trend) in the altitude range 15-50 km are determined from decadal O3 time series obtained from SCIAMACHY/ENVISAT measurements in limb viewing geometry. The trends are calculated by using a multivariate linear regression in the zonal bands 5° S-5° N (tropics), 50-60° N, and 50-60° S (mid- to high latit...

Pollution events have a great influence on the atmosphere. During these pollution events, ozone precursors such as carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), methane (CH4), and other hydrocarbons are emitted. With chemical chain reaction, tropospheric ozone is photochemically produced [Jenkin, Clemitshaw, 2000] and influence large region due to i...

An introduction to the use of the mathematical technique of Monte Carlo simulations to evaluate least squares regression calibration is described. Monte Carlo techniques involve the repeated sampling of data from a population that may be derived from real (experimental) data, but is more conveniently generated by a computer using a model of the ana...

Background: Calibration curves for use in chromatographic bioassays are normally constructed using least squares regression analysis. However, the effects of changes in the number and distribution of calibrators, together with the choice between linear and nonlinear regressions and their associated weighting factors, are difficult to quantify. Re...

Background: The acceptance criteria for chromatographic bioassays are generally based upon the specifications found in the US FDA Guidance for Industry document, whereas regression analysis is a statistical process and, thus, most suited to large data populations, rather than the small populations used in assay calibration. Data that form part of...

We use the ultra-violet (UV) spectra in the range 230-300 nm from the SCanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartographY (SCIAMACHY) to retrieve the nitric oxide (NO) number densities from atmospheric emissions in the gamma-bands in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere. Using 3-D ray tracing, a 2-D retrieval grid, and regularisa...

SCIAMACHY was one of ten instruments onboard the Envisat spacecraft, detecting the sunlight in the wavelength range from 214 to 2386 nm with three different viewing geometries: nadir, limb and occultation. Limb-scatter measurements have the advantage of high vertical resolution, compared to nadir measurements, and a near-global coverage on the days...

Water vapor isotope ratios are important as temperature proxies and provide information about the hydrological cycle. Global satellite measurements of the HDO/H2O ratio (δD) can improve our understanding of the corresponding processes and are also valuable to asses the quality of models. Measurements from the SCanning Imaging Absorption spectroMete...

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas contributing to global climate change. Column-averaged dry air mole fractions of CO2 (XCO2) as retrieved from near-surface sensitive measurements of satellite instruments such as SCIAMACHY onboard ENVISAT have the potential to provide important missing global information on the...

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas contributing to global climate change. Column-averaged dry air mole fractions of CO2 (XCO2) as retrieved from near-surface sensitive measurements of satellite instruments such as SCIAMACHY onboard ENVISAT and TANSO on GOSAT have the potential to provide important missing global...

Large parts of the anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions of CO2 and CH4 are released from localised and point sources such as power plants or as fugitive emissions from fossil fuel mining and production sites. These emissions, however, are often not readily assessed by current measurement systems and networks. A tool developed to better understand...

Data from three satellite spectrometers (SCIAMACHY, GOME2 and OMI) have been analyzed together with a number of economic metrics to investigate the impact of the economic crisis (from 2008 onward) on air quality over Greece, and Athens in particular. Athens is a heavily polluted city due to the extensive number of registered vehicles, the presence...

Major gaseous and particulate pollutant levels over Europe in 2008 have been simulated using WRF-CMAQ modeling system in frame of the FP7 CityZen and Eclipse projects. INERIS anthropogenic emissions have been used for Europe while biogenic, dust and biomass burning emissions have been calculated using the MEGAN, GOCART and FINN models, respectively...

CarbonSat is one of two candidate missions for ESA's Earth Explorer 8 (EE8) to be launched around 2019. Using the most recent instrument and mission specification, an error analysis has been performed using the latest versions of algorithms for retrieving CarbonSat's geophysical parameters. This comprises the definition of relevant geophysical scen...

CO2 is the most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas. Its global increasing concentration in the Earth's atmosphere is the main driver for global warming. However, in spite of its importance, there are still large uncertainties on its sources and sinks: What is their global distribution? What is their temporal evolution? How will they behave in a...

The SCIAMACHY/ENVISAT satellite instrument (2002-2012) has monitored Earth' atmosphere globally for almost one decade. In its limb viewing geometry, it measured the vertical profiles of the atmospheric limb scatter. O3, NO2, and BrO are among the retrieved species. Their vertical profiles are obtained in 1 km altitude steps. Longterm changes as wel...

Glyoxal (CHOCHO) originates from natural and anthropogenic activities similar to formaldehyde (HCHO). It is the smallest of the alpha-dicarbonyls and the most predominant in the atmosphere. It is an intermediate product in the oxidation of most VOCs and an indicator of secondary aerosol formation in the atmosphere. Among others, CHOCHO is a product...

Urban areas, which are home to the majority of today's world population, are responsible for more than two-thirds of the global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. Given the ongoing demographic growth and rising energy consumption in metropolitan regions particularly in the developing world, urban-based emissions are expected to further increa...

Satellite observations of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in the atmosphere are widely used for both stratospheric and tropospheric applications. In particular in the troposphere, NO2 observations can be used to infer NOx emissions, their spatial distribution and their temporal changes. Depending on the application, data from different instruments (GOME, SC...

Aircraft based observations of NO2 columns have been conducted using an imaging spectrometer. NO2 column amounts below the aircraft are retrieved from scattered light measurements by Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (DOAS). These imaging DOAS observations provide information about abundances and emissions of trace gases on a fine spatia...