Antarctic polar stratospheric cloud composition as observed by ACE, CALIPSO and MIPAS

• Published in: Journal of quantitative spectroscopy & radiative transfer 2024-09, Vol.324, p.109061, Article 109061
• Main Authors: Lavy, Léo, Bernath, Peter, Lecours, Michael, English, Dylan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Atmospheric chemistry experiment; CALIPSO; MIPAS; Polar stratospheric clouds, Infrared solar absorption spectroscopy, satellite remote sensing
• ISSN: 0022-4073; 1879-1352
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jqsrt.2024.109061

•Space-based lidar onboard CALIPSO, Fourier transform instrument on ACE and MIPAS spectrometer provide complementary measurements of polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs).•Coincident observations for winter in the Antarctic (from 2005 to 2020) are analyzed to compare CALIPSO, ACE and MIPAS satellite data.•In general, the three satellites agree in their identification of different types of PSCs.•This study provides valuable insights to improve future satellite-based PSC measurements. The composition of polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) in the Antarctic is measured by infrared absorption spectroscopy by the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE) satellite and compared to lidar (CALIPSO) and emission spectroscopy (MIPAS) results. ACE observations are compared first to CALIPSO for the period 2006–2020, then to MIPAS for the period 2005–2011, and then a set of triple coincidences is studied. In both CALIPSO-ACE and MIPAS-ACE comparisons, nitric acid trihydrate (NAT) detections are in excellent agreement (∼80 % of coincident compositions is found). Supercooled ternary solution (STS) detections are in good agreement for CALIPSO-ACE (∼60 %) but in poor agreement for MIPAS-ACE (39 %). This contrasts with ice detections, in poor agreement for CALIPSO-ACE (∼30 %) and in better agreement for MIPAS-ACE (45 %). Triple coincidences show that ACE STS detections are more reliable than MIPAS STS detections. The comparison between ACE observations and homogeneous CALIPSO PSCs shows that for 11 events, CALIPSO reports STS rather than supercooled nitric acid (SNA) clouds.