[1] We report on in situ and remote sensing measurements of ice particles in the tropical stratosphere found during the Geophysica campaigns TROCCINOX and SCOUT-O3. We show that the deep convective systems penetrated the stratosphere and deposited ice particles at altitudes reaching 420 K potential temperature. These convective events had a hydrating effect on the lower tropical stratosphere due to evaporation of the ice particles. In contrast, there were no signs of convectively induced dehydration in the stratosphere. Citation: Corti, T., et al. (2008), Unprecedented evidence for deep convection hydrating the tropical stratosphere, Geophys. Res. Lett., 35, L10810,

A comprehensive investigation of polar stratospheric clouds was performed on 25 January 2000 with instruments onboard a balloon gondola flown from Kiruna, Sweden. Cloud layers were repeatedly encountered at altitudes between 20 and 24 kilometers over a wide range of atmospheric temperatures (185 to 197 kelvin). Particle composition analysis showed that a large fraction of the cloud layers was composed of nitric acid trihydrate (NAT) particles, containing water and nitric acid at a molar ratio of 3:1; this confirmed that these long-sought solid crystals exist well above ice formation temperatures. The presence of NAT particles enhances the potential for chlorine activation with subsequent ozone destruction in polar regions, particularly in early and late winter.

Abstract.We have analyzed mid-infrared limb-emission measurements of polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) by the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS) during the Antarctic winter 2003 with respect to PSC composition. Coincident Lidar observations from McMurdo were used for comparison with PSC types 1a, 1b and 2. Application of new refractive index data of β-NAT have allowed to accurately simulate the prominent spectral band at 820 cm −1 observed by MIPAS at the location where the Lidar instrument observed type 1a PSCs. Broadband spectral fits covering the range from 780 to 960 cm −1 and from 1220 to 1490 cm −1 showed best agreement with the MIPAS measurements when spectroscopic data of NAT were used to simulate the MIPAS spectra. MIPAS measurements collocated with Lidar observations of Type 1b and Type 2 PSCs could only be reproduced by assuming a composition of supercooled ternary H 2 SO 4 /HNO 3 /H 2 O solution (STS) and of ice, respectively. Particle radius and number density profiles derived from MIPAS were generally consistent with the Lidar observations. Only in the case of ice clouds, PSC volumes are partly underestimated by MIPAS due to large cloud optical thickness in the limb-direction. A comparison of MIPAS cloud composition and Lidar PSC-type determination based on all available MIPAS-Lidar coincident measurements revealed good agreement between PSC-types 1a, 1b and 2, and NAT, STS and ice, respectively. We could not find spectroscopic evidence for the presence of nitric acid dihydrate (NAD) from MIPAS observations of PSCs over Antarctica in 2003.

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[1] The evolution of the aerosols in the tropical stratosphere since the beginning of the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) mission in June 2006 is investigated using Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) lidar data. It is shown that the current operational calibration requires adjustment in the tropics. Indeed, on the basis of the assumption of pure Rayleigh scattering between 30 and 34 km the current calibration leads to an average underestimation of the scattering ratio by 6% because of the significant amount of aerosols up to 35 km altitude in the tropics, in contrast to midlatitudes. A better result is obtained by adjusting the calibration to higher altitudes, 36-39 km, where past Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE) II extinction measurements showed an almost complete absence of aerosols. After recalibration the tropical stratospheric aerosol picture provided by CALIOP during the first 2 years of the mission reveals significant changes in the aerosol concentration associated with different transport processes. In the stratosphere the slow ascent of several volcanic layers and their meridional transport toward the subtropics are very consistent with the Brewer-Dobson circulation. The near-zero vertical velocity observed around 20 km during the Northern Hemisphere (NH) summer is in good agreement with radiative heating calculation. In the Tropical Tropopause Layer (TTL), weak depolarizing particles are observed during land convective periods, particularly intense over South Asia during the monsoon season. Finally, seasonal fast occurrence of apparent clean air in the TTL during the NH winter requires more investigations to understand its origin.