Heidelberg 2006 – scientific programme

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UP: Umweltphysik

UP 15: Poster: Atmosph
äre und Klima

UP 15.11: Poster

Tuesday, March 14, 2006, 14:00–16:00, C

The retrieval of oxygenated volatile organic compounds by remote sensing techniques — •Folkard Wittrock, Andreas Heckel, Hilke Oetjen, Andreas Richter, and John P. Burrows — Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Bremen, 28334 Bremen

This work describes global measurements of the trace gases formaldehyde and glyoxal derived from stray light spectra in the ultraviolet and visible wavelength region measured by the satellite instrument SCIAMACHY along with ground-based MAX-DOAS instruments. The analysis was carried out using the method of the Differential Optical Absorption Spectroscopy (DOAS). New algorithms to derive vertical columns of the satellite instruments are developed and described. For the ground-based geometry a way was found to derive profile information for the tropospheric absorbers.

A number of case studies illustrates the significance of biogenic emissions and of biomass burning for the global distribution of the oxygenated volatile organic compounds. A comparison with results from a global atmosphere model shows only a moderate agreement in many regions of the Earth. This reflects the limited state of knowledge at present about the very complex physical and chemical processes in the troposphere.