NEWS

FEBRUARY 2010 : Ozone «trends» analysis in the free troposphere over Western North America : First robust conclusions thanks to MOZAIC.

Despite evidence that the exported Asian pollution produces ozone, no previous study has found a significant increase of free tropospheric ozone above the western USA since measurements began in the late 1970s. This recent study reports springtime ozone measurements above western North America that show a strong and significant increase during 1995-2008, with additional evidence that a similar rate of increase has occurred since 1984. While previous studies relied upon relatively small and/or spatially limited data sets, this study is based on an extensive compilation of measurements from many different platforms across western North America, including the MOZAIC data (54% of the used data set). A key finding is that the ozone rate of increase is greatest when measurements are more heavily influenced by direct transport from Asia. This result agrees with previous modelling studies that indicate global ozone should be increasing during the early part of the 21st century due to increasing precursor emissions, especially at northern mid-latitudes, with western North America being sensitive to rising Asian emissions.

Figure 1 : Springtime ozone distributions for 1984, 1995-2008 in the mid-troposphere (3.0-8.0 km), and air mass source regions.
a) Distributions of springtime ozone measurements made in the troposphere between 3.0-8.0 km (stratospheric samples have been filtered out), with ozone sample sizes indicated above the x-axis. Also shown are the ozone rates of increase for 1984-2008 and 1995-2008 as determined from the slope of the linear regression. The range on the slope indicates the 95% confidence limit that the slope lies within that range. Ozone data were gathered over mid-latitude western North America (25°-55° N, 130°-90° W), as shown in the Supplementary Information. The transport history of each ozone measurement was determined by calculating a retroplume with the FLEXPART PDM (see Methods and Supplementary Information). Every retroplume consisted of 40,000 back trajectory particles released from the time and location of each measurement and advected backwards in time for 15 days. The average 1984-2008 transport history of the ozone measurements, expressed as column residence times, is shown for ozone in the b) 0-33rd, c) 34th-66th, and d) the 67th-99th percentile range. Panels e), f) and g) show the corresponding retroplume residence times in the lowest 300 m of the atmosphere (the footprint layer). Column and footprint sample sizes are equal because every 15-day retroplume has some degree of transport through the lowest 300 m of the atmosphere.

Reference :
Cooper O. R., D. D. Parrish, A. Stohl, M. Trainer, P. Nédélec, V. Thouret, J. P. Cammas, S. J. Oltmans, B. J. Johnson, D. Tarasick, T. Leblanc, I. S. McDermid, D. Jaffe, R. Gao, J. Stith, T. Ryerson, K. Aikin, T. Campos, A. Weinheimer, and M. A. Avery, Increasing ozone above western North America during springtime. Nature, vol 463, doi:10,1038/nature08708, 2010.

DECEMBER 2009 : First use of MOZAIC for the tropo-stratospheric ozone database in support of spaceborne observations

Brice Barret and Eric Le Flochmoen

The determination of ozone (O3) concentrations from spaceborne observations require independent observations characterizing the a priori knowledge of the O3 variability from the surface to the upper stratosphere. These a priori informations are used to regularize the retrievals. Ozone profiles are measured on a weekly basis from the WOUDC and SHADOZ network stations by radiosoundings up to 25-35 km. Those observations often miss the stratospheric O3 maximum and need to be complemented in the middle-upper stratosphere. Furthermore, few WOUDC-SHADOZ stations sample regions impacted by high pollution. The MOZAIC-IAGOS airborne observations document the tropospheric O3 profile in the vicinity of international airports with a daily frequency. They can therefore sample highly polluted air masses in the boundary layer. Close to the surface, the variability determined from the MOZAIC-IAGOS data is about 30% higher than determined from the WOUDC-SHADOZ data. Nevertheless, it is necessary to complement the MOZAIC profiles above the flight altitude with a high spatio-temporal resolution because of the high O3 variability in the tropopause region (see Figure). In order to have the best database to represent the O3 variability from the surface to the upper stratosphere we have complemented the WOUDC-SHADOZ radiosoundings and the MOZAIC-IAGOS data with coincident profiles from the assimilation of Aura/MLS O3 data in the Valentina system. The database currently covers year 2008 with 700 profiles from WOUDC-SHADOZ and 1600 from MOZAIC-IAGOS. Figure 1 displays the mean profile, the vertical variability and the covariance matrix built from this database. The dynamical variations around the tropopause, region characterised by a strong O3 vertical gradient are responsible for the highest variability observed between 9 and 18 km. The O3 variability is also important in the boundary layer, impacted by photochemical pollution while it is the lowest in the free troposphere.

Figure 1: a priori data built from the 2008 tropo-stratospheric database compiling WOUDC, SHADOZ and MOZAIC-IAGOS observations complemented in the stratosphere by analyses from the assimilation of Aura/MLS O3 data in the Valentina system: (left) mean O3 profile (middle) relative variability (right) covariance matrix.

NOVEMBER 2009: Status of the MOZAIC programme and Data Base

Status of the MOZAIC programme:
-   Lufthansa: 2 MOZAIC-instrumented aircraft from August 1994 to the present day.
-   Air France & Austrian: 1 MOZAIC-instrumented aircraft from August 1994 to 2005.
-   Air Namibia: 1 MOZAIC-instrumented aircraft from January 2005 to July 2009

Status of MOZAIC data:
-   The data base contains data from August 1994 to December 2008. Please note that the relative humidity data are not yet available for the year 2008 due to delay in calibration of relative humidity sensors at FZJ (Julich, Germany).
-   Data processing for MOZAIC 2009 data is interrupted due to problems encountered in the maintenance of the instrumentation and due to the highest priority given to the installation of the IAGOS instrumentation on new aircraft.

Status of IAGOS: (http://www.iagos.org/):
-    Installation on Lufthansa A340: scheduled in November 2009
-    Installation on Air France and China Airlines (Taiwan) scheduled in 2010.

AUGUST 2009 : Global model simulations of air pollution during the 2003 European heat wave

Ordonez C., N. Elguindi, O. Stein, V. Huijnen, J. Flemming, A. Inness, H. Flentje, E. Katragkou, P. Moinat, V.-H. Peuch, A. Segers, V. Thouret, G. Athier, M. van Weele, C. S. Zerefos, J.-P. Cammas, and M. G. Schultz

Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., 9, 16853–16911, 2009
http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/9/16853/2009/acpd-9-16853-2009.html

Abstract: Three global Chemistry Transport Models – MOZART, MOCAGE, and TM5 – as well as MOZART coupled to the IFS meteorological model including assimilation of ozone (O3 ) and carbon monoxide (CO) satellite column retrievals, have been compared to surface measurements and MOZAIC vertical proﬁles in the troposphere over Europe for sum-mer 2003. The models reproduce the meteorological features and enhancement of pollution in the troposphere over Central and Western Europe during the period 2–14 August, but not fully the ozone and CO mixing ratios measured during that episode.
Modiﬁed normalised mean biases are around −25% (except 5% for MOCAGE) in the case of ozone and from −80% to −30% in the case of CO in the boundary layer above Frankfurt. The coupling and assimilation of CO columns from MOPITT over-comes some of the deﬁciencies in the treatment of transport, chemistry and emissions in MOZART, reducing the negative biases to around 20%. Results from sensitivity simulations indicate that an increase of the coarse resolution of the global models to around 1deg X 1deg and potential uncertainties in European anthropogenic emissions or in long-range transport of pollution cannot completely account for the underestimation of CO and O3 found for most Global model simulations of air pollution during the 2003 European heat wave.

Legend for the figure above: Time series of daytime average (top) O3 above Paris as well as (middle) O3 and (bottom) CO above Frankfurt at 850 hPa for the period 15 July - 31 August 2003. The area shaded in grey represents the heat wave period (2 - 14 August). Black lines represent MOZAIC measurements, light blue is used for TM5-HWGL output, orange for TM5-HWHR, dark blue for MOZART, green for MOZART T106 and magenta for MOCAGE.

JUNE 2009 - Tropospheric columns trends for O3 and CO - Zbinden et al., in prep., 2009

The goal of the study is to estimate tropospheric ozone trends and carbon monoxide inter-annual variability focussing over East of USA (5000profile), Germany (13300profiles) and Japan (3100profiles) from august 1994 to march 2007. Here, we use MOZAIC data vertical profiles (take off or landing) and additional data from WOUDC taking advantage of the high MOZAIC sampling frequency but the troposphere is not always entirely visited by MOZAIC (45 % Germany, 19% Japan). To avoid a tropospheric content underestimation, we suggest the use of a MOZAIC extrapolation or the use of a WOUDC complement, on two separate data set, thus on each set all unvisited tropospheric layers are filled throughout the studied period. Tropopause definition chosen is the dynamical tropopause (DT), fixed at the altitude of the 2pvu potential vorticity, available on MOZAIC data base. Then 3 deduced time series are the tropospheric content: i/ as observed by MOZAIC (TC), ii/ TC + the extrapolated MOZAIC complement (ETC), iii/ TC + the extrapolated WOUDC complement (WOUDC ETC).

To show the consistency of this approach, we selected a set of MOZAIC profiles when the DT is reached and we compared the obtained ceiling altitude on that selection with the DT. On a monthly basis, this comparison makes clear that MOZAIC is about 3km lower DT over Japan during June-September, 2km over East of USA (June-October) and 1km over Germany whatever the month (see fig 1). So, O3 ETC enhanced O3 TC of about 4DU in June over East of USA, 1DU in June over Germany and 2DU or 6DU in May or July respectively. A minimum enhancement is found in winter and early spring. Comparing ETC and WOUDC ETC, we found excellent the tropospheric ozone ETC estimate in the MOZAIC unvisited tropospheric layers in particular over the East of USA. Over Japan particularly in May and October, we have a discrepancy of about 1DU related to monthly TC maximum for the first happening and to the monthly maximum monthly DT altitude for the second one. Estimation of the monthly CO TC and ETC content is given as a preliminary result and has to be validated but the CO enhancement is obviously more correlated to the DT altitude than for O3.

The three O3 time series over these thirteen years are plotted on fig 2. O3 ETC enhancement when compared to O3 TC is [2, 4 DU] and is changing within the years and the month of year. WOUDC ETC is used here as a validation of the approach. We found no major change in the trends between TC, ETC and WOUDC ETC except enhancement. ETC trends are very similar over these sites, with a 29.7 to 32.07DU average over the period and a trend of 0.75 to 0.90 %/year. We underline also the great homogeneity of the mid-troposphere with an average of 18.3 DU and 0.6%/year over all these sites. We point out the worrying and questioning O3 increase in the upper troposphere (1% in Germany and >2% is East of USA and Japan) because of the expected radiative impact of O3 in upper troposphere.

On a reduced period the ETC CO time series with an averaged of 2.24e18 to 2.65e18mol/cm² has a decreasing interannual variability (-1.28 to -2.57%/year) and we noticed an extremely high decrease in the boundary layer over the East of USA within these five years.

The long range transport between USA and Europe seems to be one of the major processes to explain the homogeneity of O3 contents and trends in the mid-troposphere at mid-northern latitudes, observation well established up to March 2001 which vanishes later.

These results should be very useful to modellers, remote sensing community and a tool to understand impact of O3 or CO on climate change.

January 2009

MOZAIC fleet as for January 2009
The MOZAIC fleet is composed with 3 aircraft: 2 from Lufthansa and 1 from Air Namibia.

MOZAIC data availability
MOZAIC data are available from August 1994 thru December 2007. The data process for 2008 is slow down because of the high workload of the MOZAIC staff on the aeronautical certification for the new IAGOS instrumentation and because of more important work for QA/QC of MOZAIC data with the MOZAIC instrumentation getting older.

MOZAIC science in 2008
In 2008, about twenty papers making use of MOZAIC data have been published in the following domains:

Tropospheric composition and associated trends: Chevalier et al., 2008, Choi et al., 2008, Clain et al., 2008, Ding et al., 2008, Kunz et al., 2008, Tarasick et al., 2008
Impact of long-range transport, convection and dynamical processes on the tropospheric composition : Barret et al., 2008, Cammas et al., 2008, Kim et al., 2008, Lelieveld et al., 2008, Saunois et al., 2008, Turquéty et al., 2008
Stratosphere-troposphere exchanges and composition of the tropopause layer: Brioude et al., 2008, Kunz et al., 2008
Stratospheric chemistry: Sovde et al., 2008
Regional pollution: Ding et al., 2008, Lelieveld et al., 2008, Tressol et al., 2008
Validation of satellite retrievals: Clerbeaux et al., 2008, Ekstrom et al., 2008, Heise et al., 2008, Livesey et al., 2008
Validation of relative humidity in ECMWF analyses validation: Luo et al., 2008
Instrumental technical issues : Smit et al., 2008

A few outstanding and non-exhaustive results are listed below.

In developing countries in which environmental observations are relatively sparse, the provision of MOZAIC routine aircraft data generally allows immediate scientific progresses. Thus, MOZAIC data have been central in documenting the very favourable conditions for ozone air pollution in the Beijing region over China (Ding et al., 2008) and in the Persian Gulf over the Middle East (Lelieveld et al., 2008).

Over western Europe where observation networks are better developed, the provision of frequent MOZAIC data over Frankfurt (3 aircraft movements per day), Paris (1 per day) and Vienna (1 per day) during the intense polluted summer-2003 heat wave has been central to describe the structures and the intensities of ozone and carbon monoxide anomalies in the planetary boundary layer and in the free troposphere (Tressol et al., 2008). The long-range transport of biomass fire plumes emitted over Portugal has possibly overlaid on the enhanced photochemical ozone production within air masses re-circulating under the synoptic scale anticyclonic blocking.

The association of satellite and MOZAIC routine aircraft data have shown how transport pathways in the upper troposphere develop during the monsoon season from over Asia towards Africa and the Mediterranean sea (Barret et al., 2008).

Analyses of observed relationships in the tracer-tracer space (e.g. CO/O3 diagrams) have been interpreted as resulting from mixing events between tropospheric and stratospheric air (Hoor et al, 2004 ; Pan et al., 2006). These intermediate properties between the troposphere and the stratosphere define a characteristic feature of the so-called tropopause layer in the middle-latitudes. Recent studies of the composition of the mid-latitude tropopause layer using MOZAIC data (Brioude et al., 2008 ; Kunz et al., 2008) reveal processes which vary on inter-seasonal, seasonal, synoptical and diurnal timescales.

Finally, a new in-flight calibration method has been developed for the humidity sensor flown routinely since 1994 on the MOZAIC program’s aircraft (Smit et al., 2008) which will ease the operational phase and maintenance operations in the coming IAGOS programme (http://www.iagos.org).

JANUARY 2007

The MOZAIC team wishes you a Happy New Year 2007 !

MOZAIC fleet
Air France and Austrian have stopped their participation to MOZAIC at the end of 2006. All MOZAIC principal investigators and users warmly thank the two airlines for their support since 1994 ! We loose two of the “MOZAIC aircraft”, but we are looking forward to renew our collaboration with Air France and Austrian in a near future in the frame of the IAGOS program.
The MOZAIC fleet is now made up with 3 aircraft: 2 from Lufthansa and 1 from Air Namibia.

Papers to come
Meridional gradients in the upper African troposphere.
Sauvage B., Thouret V., Cammas J.P., Brioude J., Nédélec P. and Mari C.
Accepted at GRL, in press.

This study presents regular observations from the MOZAIC data base over Africa (1994 to 2004) to highlight the role of Hadley cells in tropical ozone production. We show the presence in the African upper troposphere (9-12 km) of a minimum of ozone and of a maximum of relative humidity (Figure 1) that both follow the meridional migration of the
Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). We suggest that mechanisms contributing to meridional ozone gradients (0.3 to 1.5 ppbvdeg) on both sides of the ozone minimum in the 20S-20N latitude band are i) the vertical transport of relatively poor ozone air masses by tropical convection, and ii) the photochemical production of ozone in upper-level branches of the Hadley two-dimensional circulation. Depending on the season and on the meridional side of the ITCZ, ozone precursors injected in the ascending branch of the ITCZ include biomass burning, biogenic, lightning and anthropogenic emissions. The ozone photochemical production rate is inferred to be on the order of magnitude of the meridional advection of ozone, specifically to 0.5-1.7 ppbvday. The consistency of this order of magnitude with recent estimates of ozone photochemical production rates associated with nitrogen oxide sources by lightning downwind of mesoscale convective systems suggests that the Hadley cells over Africa have considerable importance in the regional budget of ozone in the African upper troposphere.

Figure 1: Seasonal average of MOZAIC

LIS and ATSR data over a meridional transect over Africa during the monsoon season (JJA). Ozone (black, ppbv), carbon monoxide (red, ppbv divided by a factor of 2), relative humidity (blue, %) and meridional wind component v (green, m/s). Bars represent the seasonal climatologies of LIS flash counts (light grey) and ATSR fires counts (red) averaged over 10 degrees latitude bins. The time period and longitude bands used for averaging LIS and ATSR data are those used for MOZAIC data. LIS flash counts are averaged from 0.5 x 0.5degrees HRAC data. In order to match the visibility of the Y-axis on the left, a factor of 5 10-7 has been applied over the continent and of 5 10-6 over the ocean. For ATSR fire counts (red bars) a factor of 5 10-4 has been applied.

OCTOBER 2006: Cross-tropopause fluxes of ozone using assimilation of MOZAIC observations in a global CTM, Clark H.L., M.-L. Cathala, H. Teyssèdre, J.-P. Cammas and V.-H. Peuch, Accepted at Tellus

Ozone measurements from Measurements of OZone and wAter vapour by aIrbus in-service airCraft (MOZAIC) have been assimilated into the global chemical transport model of Météo France known as Modèle de Chimie Atmosphérique à Grande Echelle (MOCAGE). The assimilation makes improvements to the free model simulations of ozone in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere, which are generally over-estimated in the tropical region and underestimated in mid-latitudes. The tropical-subtropical gradient of ozone is also improved following assimilation and comparison with vertical profiles from ozonesondes suggests that the assimilation leads to a better representation of the vertical gradient around the tropopause. We use the assimilated fields to calculate a value for the flux of ozone across the tropopause. The net flux of ozone from stratosphere to troposphere is found to be 451T g yr-1 before assimilation and 383T g yr-1 after assimilation. The downward flux of ozone in the mid-latitudes exhibits an annual cycle with maximum flux occurring in early spring and minimum flux in autumn.

Global ozone values from MOZAIC observations and model with out assimilation, and with assimilation for MAM 2000

AUGUST 2006

Since December 2005, Air Namibia is flying one A340 equipped with MOZAIC instrumentation for ozone, carbone monoxide and water vapor. Budget for transportation & maintenance of the MOZAIC instrumentation comes from INSU/CNRS (France), FZJ-Juliech (Germany), and from the european NoE ACCENT.

Daily flights are operated between Windhoek and Frankfurt. The dataset by Air Namibia (December 2005 – December 2006) is a great opportunity to promote atmospheric chemical studies over Africa. It will be part of the data base of the AMMA project (http://amma-international.org/).

The first seasonal mean of ozone, carbon monoxide and water vapor along a meridional transect (20°N-20°S) in the upper troposphere (10-12 km) over Africa is presented on Figure 1. Objectives of Lagrangian studies made at LA/CNRS with the Flexpart model are to identify the impact of biomass fires over Sahel and of convection over the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone on the variability of upper tropospheric trace gases distributions.

MAY 2006 : MOZAIC Meeting Agenda, May 11, 2006, Airbus, Toulouse

Status (9h00-9h45 ; 8 minutes talks ; chairman: V. Thouret)

Status of data base (F. Karcher)

Plans for MOZAIC data base evolution towards IAGOS-ERI (D. Boulanger et al.)

Status of aircraft operation, and of O3 & CO data (P. Nédélec)

Status of H2O data (H. Smit)

Status of NOy data (H.W. Paetz and A. Volz-Thomas)

Discussion on operations for 2006-2007

Scientific Results (10h00-12h00 ; 12+3 minutes talks, chairman: P. Nédélec)

UTLS O3/CO climatology and interannual variability (Thouret et al.)

UTLS O3/CO climatology and mixing layer (Brioude et al., given by JPC)

Tropospheric climatology and columns (Zbinden et al.)

African upper tropospheric measurements (Thouret et al.)

European 2003 heat wave (Tressol et al.)

Overview on work and perspectives with H2O data (Smit et al.)

Probability density functions from MOZAIC and SPURT (K. Thomas et al.)

Geographical characterisation of MOZAIC airports (K. Petzoldt et al., given by AVT)

Scientific Results (13h00-14h00 ; 12+3 minutes talks ; chairman: C. Marizy)

O3 Cross-tropopause fluxes using assimilation of MOZAIC observations in a global CTM (H. Clark et al., CNRM)

Climate version of CTM Mocage, first results and validations with MOZAIC observations (H. Teyssedre et al., CNRM)

Work with ICARTT/ITOP and MOZAIC aircraft data (SA-UPMC)

Update on known work by MOZAIC co-investigators (Cammas et al.)

Discussion (14h00-16h30 ; chairman : H. Smit)

General survey on Institute perspectives and collaborations

Update on the INFOAIR proposal to Aerospace Valley (Cammas and Marizy)

IASI/METOP: retrieval, assimilation and verification with MOZAIC data (Attié et al.)

Update of the MOZAIC data by the project QUANTIFY (not presented)

Coffe Break & Adjourn (16h30-16h45)

APRIL 2006

The MOZAIC data base now contains data up to May 2005.
Data for June-December 2005 will be available before June 2006.

The status of the MOZAIC fleet is the following one:

Lufthansa: 2 aircraft, one of which is flying the NOy instrument
Air France: 1 aircraft, instruments are not operational since 12/2004
Austrian: 1 aircraft (will leave Austrian in october 2006)
Air Namibia: 1 aircraft since 12/2005 (formerly Lufthansa)

Events:

March 2006: A proposal for a European Research Infrastructure based on MOZAIC&IAGOS (IAGOS-ERI) has been proposed to the roadmap of ESFRI (European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructures)
April 2006: A questionnaire is sent to every MOZAIC co-investigator. Replies may help the MOZAIC team to improve the web server and its database. Please, answer the questionnaire by filling the form on the web site (web master: Damien.Boulanger@aero.obs-mip.fr, web site http://aeropc35.aero.obs-mip.fr:8080/magnoliaPublic/)
EGU 2006 in Vienna (3-7 April) : 3 MOZAIC posters

May 2006 (9-11): The joint first annual IAGOS and MOZAIC meetings will be held in Airbus – Toulouse.

Best wishes,
The MOZAIC team.

MARCH 2006

Since January 2006, one of the MOZAIC-equipped A340 aircraft is being operated by Air Namibia (Figure 1). This aircraft was formerly operated by Lufthansa and Sabena. A Memorandum Of Understanding between Air Namibia and Laboratoire d’Aérologie (Toulouse, France) controls the data sampling. For the year 2006, funds for transportation costs mainly come from INSU (Institut National des Sciences de l’Univers, CNRS, France, http://www.insu.cnrs.fr/) plus a contribution from the Network of Excellence ACCENT (http://www.accent-network.org/). Laboratoire d’Aérologie and Forschungszentrum (ICG-II, Jülich, Germany) cover from their institute's budget the maintenance cost for the instruments.

Figure 1: The Air Namibia A340 equipped with the MOZAIC instrumentation since January 2006.

The operation of the MOZAIC-equipped A340 by Air Namibia offers a unique opportunity for the international scientific community to characterise the chemical composition of air over Africa (Figure 2). The African continent is known as a location of intense biomass burning and lightning, occurring almost throughout the whole year. These processes represent major sources of carbon monoxide (CO) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) which are important precursors of ozone (O3) and thus have a strong influence on the budget of tropospheric ozone within the tropical latitudes. The overall effect of the different chemical and dynamical processes related to biomass burning and lightning on the ozone distribution is still not well understood, one reason being the sparseness of in situ data over continental Africa. The few existing MOZAIC data have been very useful to study the long-range transport of pollutants (Edwards et al., 2003), to establish a regional climatology of ozone (Sauvage et al., 2005 and 2006) and ozone trends (Bortz et al., 2006).

Figure 2: Flight tracks of the Air Namibia aircraft over Africa on January 10th 2006. The red points indicate the biomass fires detected by satellite for that day.

Figure 3 shows an example of ozone and carbon monoxide data recorded by the Air Namibia aircraft on January 10th over Africa. Signatures of large biomass fires plumes are seen over the Sahelian band (5-20° latitude north) where biomass fires are active.

Figure 3: Time series of ozone (O3) and carbon monoxide (CO) volume mixing ratio (ppbv) as a function of latitude. Air Namibia flight on January 10th 2006.

The new development in MOZAIC is very fortunate for the AMMA program (African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analysis, http://amma.mediasfrance.org/index), which has its Special Observing Periods in 2006. Daily MOZAIC measurements of temperature, wind, relative humidity, and trace gases, by Air Namibia will allow (1) to document the upper tropospheric air masses composition, (2) to determine the spatial and temporal variability of O3, CO and H2O over West Africa with a daily resolution (3) to document the region upwind of the AMMA region and (4) to differentiate the air mass origins in the upper troposphere over West Africa.

References:
Bortz S. E., Prather M. J., Cammas J.-P., Thouret V., and Smit H., Ozone, Water Vapor, and Temperature in the Upper Tropical Troposphere: Variations Over a Decade of MOZAIC Measurements. J. of Geophys. Res.., in press, 2006.
Edwards, D. P., J. -F. Lamarque, J. -L. Attie, L. K. Emmons, A. Richter, J. -P. Cammas, J. C. Gille, G. L. Francis, M. N. Deeter, J. Warner, D. Ziskin, L. V. Lyjak, J. R. Drummond, and J. P. Burrows, Tropospheric ozone over the tropical Atlantic: A satellite perspective, J. Geophys. Res. 108, 4237, doi:10.1029/2002JD002927, 2003.
Sauvage B., V. Thouret, J.-P. Cammas, F. Gheusi, G. Athier, P. Nédélec, Tropospheric ozone over Equatorial Africa : regional aspects from the MOZAIC data. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vol. 5, pp 311-335, 7-2-2005.
Sauvage B., V. Thouret, A.M. Thompson, J. Witte, J.-P. Cammas, P. Nédélec, and G. Athier : Enhanced view of the Tropical Atlantic Ozone Paradox and Zonal Wave-One from the in-situ MOZAIC and SHADOZ data. J. Geophys. Res., Vol. 111, No. D1, D01301, doi:10.1029/2005JD006241, 2006.

FEBRUARY 2006

Status of the MOZAIC fleet

Lufthansa: 2 aircraft, one of which is flying the NOy instrument
Air France: 1 aircraft, instruments are not operational since 12/2004
Austrian: 1 aircraft (will leave Austrian in summer 2006)
Air Namibia: 1 aircraft since 12/2005 (formerly Lufthansa)

Schedule for the MOZAIC data base

January 2006: completion till 12/2004
March 2006: completion till 07/2005
June 2006: completion till 12/2005

Number of peer-reviewed publications using MOZAIC data

1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	Total
3	6	7	10	9	8	15	2	8	4	76

Recent MOZAIC papers

Bortz S.E., Prather M., Cammas J.-P., Thouret V., and Smit H., Ozone, water vapour and temperature in the upper tropical troposphere: Variations over a decade of MOZAIC measurements. Accepted at J. of Geophys. Res., 2006.

Sauvage B., Thouret V., Thompson A., Witte J., Cammas J.-P., Nedelec P., and Athier G., Enhanced view of the Tropical Atlantic Ozone Paradoxe and Zonal Wave-One from the in-situ MOZAIC and SHADOZ data. J. of Geophys. Res., accepted, 2006.

Thouret V., Cammas J.P., Sauvage B., Athier G., Zbinden R., Nedelec P., Simon P. and Karcher F., Tropopause referenced ozone climatology and inter-annual variability (1994-2003) from the MOZAIC programme. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions, Vol. 5, pp 5441-5488, 29-7-2005, accepted at ACP, 2006.

Zbinden R.M., J. -P. Cammas, V. Thouret, P. Nedelec, F. Karcher, P. Simon Mid-latitude Tropospheric Ozone Columns from the MOZAIC program: climatology and interannual variability, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions, Vol. 5, pp 5489-5540, 29-7-2005, accepted at ACP, 2006.

MOZAIC draft papers recently submitted

Brioude J., J. -P. Cammas, O. R. Cooper , Stratosphere-troposphere exchange in a summertime extratropical low: analysis, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions, Vol. 5, pp 12465-12503, 29-11-2005

Clark H., Cathala M.L., Teyssèdre H., Cammas J.P., and Peuch V.H., Cross-tropopause fluxes of ozone using assimilation of MOZAIC observations in a global CTM. Draft paper submitted to Tellus.

Colette A., and Ancellet G., Variability of the tropospheric mixing and its impact on the lifetime of observed ozone layers, submitted to Geophys. Res., Letters.

Pätz H.W., Volz-Thomas A., Hegglin M.I., Brunner D., Fisher H., Schmidt U., In-situ comparison of the NOy instruments flown in MOZAIC and SPURT, submitted at Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions.

Upcoming meeting First annual IAGOS meeting & MOZAIC scientific meeting: Spring 2006

JANUARY 2006

Variability of the tropospheric mixing and of streamer formation and their impact on the persistence of observed ozone layers. Colette, A., Ancellet, G., submitted to GRL in January 2006. augustin.colette@aero.jussieu.fr

Transport processes in the troposphere produce pseudo-horizontal layers whose physical and chemical signature differs from the background. Such layers are often used in the literature in the framework of climatological studies to infer the role of transport processes on the variability of tropospheric traces species. However, in the troposphere, the persistence of such layers is subject to the mixing and to streamer formation. An enhanced tropospheric mixing would induce an underestimation of transport processes deduced from climatologies of observed layers. On the contrary, streamer formation consists in the splitting of coherent layers into sub-layers under the action of wind shear. Consequently, this second process induces an overestimation in layers climatologies.
We conducted a Lagrangian modeling analysis to infer the variability of the mixing and of streamer formation in the troposphere in order to assess their impact on layer climatologies. The study is based on consistent positive and negative anomalies of ozone observed in Europe in WMO radiosoundings and MOZAIC flights for the years 1997 and 1998. For each layer, backward FLEXPART simulations allow diagnosing the origin of the air mass and forward simulations are used to infer the fate of the layers. The average root mean square distances between parcels initialized in the observed layers allow discussing the relative importance of mixing and of streamer formation.
In the table enclosed we display the proxies used for the quantification of the fate of the layers. The horizontal mixing is quantified using Lyapunov exponents. In the vertical, the best power law fit of the dispersion of the plume is more appropriate. We found that the persistence of the tropospheric ozone layers depends on both the season and the origin of the air masses (BL for boundary layer, ST for stratospheric, TR for aged tropospheric layers).
Horizontal strain presents a maximum in winter and for ST layers, because of the seasonal cycle of the cyclogenesis above the North Atlantic, where most ST layers are transported toward the troposphere. The role of the vertical mixing is enhanced in summer and BL layers are more exposed. This seasonal cycle is attributed to the cycle of the convective activity, and we explain the sensitivity to the origin of the layers by considering that BL layers are transported to the free troposphere through transport mechanisms that are themselves unstables. We also found that streamer formation is enhanced in winter and for ST layers although it is a second order process that does not override the importance of the tropospheric mixing.
To sum up, this study shows that the persistence of the layers in the troposphere presents an important seasonal variability. In addition, layers coming from the boundary layer or from the tropopause region do not respond in a similar way to the tropospheric mixing. Consequently, we underline the need to account for the variability of the mixing and of streamer formation when assessing the importance of transport processes on the tropospheric ozone variability based on climatologies of observed layers.

Table
Average mixing rate of tropospheric layers depending on their origin (ST, BL or TR) and on the season. Horizontal mixing is given by the average Lyapunov exponent for the first 24 hours of the plume dispersion. Vertical mixing is based on the average of fit of the power low.

Average L (Horizontal)

	BL	ST	TR	Avg.
DJF	1,95	2,86	1,78	2,2
MMA	1,7	2,41	1,62	1,91
JJA	1,82	2,26	1,51	1,86
SON	1,78	2,47	1,58	1,94
Avg.	1,81	2,5	1,62	1,98

Average P (Vertical)

	BL	ST	TR	Avg.
DJF	3,65	3,8	2,59	3,34
MMA	5,06	5,28	3,66	4,67
JJA	7,41	5,29	5,49	6,06
SON	5,32	4,48	3,46	4,42
Avg.	5,36	4,71	3,8	4,62

OCTOBER 2005 : Stratosphere-Troposphere Exchange in a summertime extratropical low: Analysis

Ozone and carbone monoxide measurements sampled during two commercial flights in airstreams of a summertime midlatitude cyclone are analysed with a lagrangian-based study (backward trajectories and a Reverse Domain Filling technique) to gain a comprehensive understanding of transport effects on trace gas distributions. The study demonstrates that summertime cyclones can be associated with deep stratosphere-troposphere transport.
A tropopause fold is sampled twice in its life cycle, once in the lower troposphere (O3 ≈ 100 ppbv; CO ≈ 90 ppbv) in the dry airstream of the cyclone, and again in the upper troposphere (O3 ≈ 200 ppbv; CO ≈ 90 ppbv ) on the northern side of the large scale potential vorticity feature associated with baroclinic development.
In agreement to the maritime development of the cyclone, the chemical composition of the anticyclonic part outflow of the warm conveyor belt (O3 ≈ 40 ppbv; CO ≈ 85 ppbv) corresponds to the lowest mixing ratios of both ozone and carbone monoxide in upper tropospheric airborne observations.
The uncertain degree of confidence of the Lagrangian-based technique applied to a 100 km segment of upper level airborne observations with high ozone (200 ppbv) and relatively low CO (80 ppbv) observed northwest of the cyclone prevents to identify the ozone enrichment process of air parcels embedded in the cyclonic part of the upper level outflow of the warm conveyor belt. Hypothesis accompanying such stratosphere-troposphere exchange are discussed.

MOZAIC vertical profile showing a tropopause fold over New-York: ozone (blue line, ppbv), carbone monoxide (red line, ppbv) and relative humidity (black line, %), July 16, 2002, 1800 UTC. The scale for relative humidity (%) is the bottom axis.

Reference:
Brioude J., Cammas J.-P., Cooper O. R., Stratosphere-Troposphere Exchange in a summertime extratropical low: Analysis. Submitted to Atmos. Chem. and Phys. Disc., October 2005.

SEPTEMBER 2005 : Enhanced view of the “Tropical Atlantic Ozone Paradox” and “Zonal Wave-One” from the in-situ MOZAIC and SHADOZ data

Ozone vertical profiles from the MOZAIC (Measurements of Ozone from Airbus In-service Aircraft) programme over West Africa, the Congo and Kenya are expected to complement pictures of the wave-one pattern and the "Tropical Atlantic Paradox" identified through soundings in the SHADOZ project (Southern Hemisphere Additional Ozonesondes; Thomson et al., 2003). The study presented here aims to go further in the understanding of these two apparently non-independent phenomena. Specifically, examination of the MOZAIC dataset over Africa highlights another component of the wave-one feature characteristic in the tropospheric ozone mixing ratio viewed in zonal cross-section. Namely, the lower troposphere makes a non-negligible contribution to the regionally higher ozone column during the biomass burning periods of each hemisphere (DJF [December-January-February] north of the equator, JJA [June-July-August] to the south). Moreover, it emerges a more pronounced wave one features in the Southern Hemisphere. MOZAIC profiles of ozone over west Africa and the Congo allow evaluation of the continental ozone latitudinal distribution during the period of the "Atlantic Paradox," a phrase that refers to a greater tropospheric ozone column amount
over the south Atlantic than the north Atlantic during the west African biomass burning season (Thompson et al., 2000). During DJF, the lower troposphere over Africa exhibits a higher ozone signal in the burning hemisphere, i.e. north of the equator, so the "Paradox" do not appear over land. Specific features during DJF are responsible for high ozone levels in the free troposphere over the south tropical Atlantic.

Tropical tropospheric ozone column to 100 hPa in DU in December-January-February from the MOZAIC program.

Reference:
Sauvage B., V. Thouret, A.M. Thompson, J. Witte, J.-P. Cammas, P. Nédélec, and G. Athier : Enhanced view of the Tropical Atlantic Ozone Paradox and Zonal Wave-One from the in-situ MOZAIC and SHADOZ data. J. Geophys. Res., accepted, September 2005.

JULY 2005 : Tropopause referenced Ozone Climatology and Inter-annual Variability (1994 - 2003) from the MOZAIC Programme

The MOZAIC programme collects ozone and water vapour data using automatic equipment installed on board five long-range Airbus A340 aircraft flying regularly all over the world since August 1994. Those measurements made between September 1994 and August 1996 allowed the first accurate ozone climatology at 9-12 km altitude to be generated. The seasonal variability of the tropopause height has always provided a problem when constructing climatologies in this region. To remove any signal from the seasonal and synoptic scale variability in tropopause height we have chosen in this further study of these and subsequent data to reference our climatology to the altitude of the tropopause. We define the tropopause as a mixing zone 30 hPa thick across the 2 pvu potential vorticity surface. A new ozone climatology is now available for levels characteristic of the upper troposphere (UT) and the lower stratosphere (LS) regardless of the seasonal variations of the tropopause over the period 1994-2003. Moreover, this new presentation has allowed an estimation of the monthly mean climatological ozone concentration at the tropopause showing a sine seasonal variation with a maximum in May (120 ppbv) and a minimum in November (65 ppbv). Besides, we present a first assessment of the inter-annual variability of ozone in this particular critical region. The overall increase in the UTLS is about 1%/yr for the 9 years sampled. However, enhanced concentrations about 10-15 % higher than the other years were recorded in 1998 and 1999 in both the UT and the LS. This so-called "1998-1999 anomaly" may be attributed to a combination of different processes involving large scale modes of atmospheric variability, circulation features and local or global pollution, but the most dominant one seems to involve the variability of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) as we find a strong positive correlation (above 0.60) between ozone recorded in the upper troposphere and the NAO index. A strong anti-correlation is also found between ozone and the extremes of the Northern Annular Mode (NAM) index, attributing the lower stratospheric variability to dynamical anomalies. Finally this analysis highlights the coupling between the troposphere, at least the upper one, and the stratosphere, at least the lower one.

Ozone seasonal and horizontal distribution for the pressure interval between 15 and 45 hPa below the local tropopause. Averages have been made seasonally from data collected between August 1994 and December 2003 over areas five degrees latitude by five degrees longitude.

Reference:
V. Thouret, J.-P. Cammas, B. Sauvage, G. Athier, R. Zbinden, P. Nédélec, P. Simon, F. Karcher
Page(s) 1033-1051. SRef-ID: 1680-7324/acp/2006-6-1033
http://www.copernicus.org/EGU/acp/acpd/5/5441/acpd-5-5441.pdf

JUNE 2005 : Mid-Latitude Tropospheric Ozone Columns from the MOZAIC Program: Climatology and Interannual Variability

Several thousands of ozone vertical profiles collected in the course of the MOZAIC program from August 1994 to February 2002 are investigated to bring out climatological and interannual variability aspects. The study is centred on the most frequently visited MOZAIC airports, i.e. Frankfurt (Germany), Paris (France), New-York (U.S.A.) and the cluster of Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka (Japan). The analysis focuses on the vertical integration of ozone from the ground to the dynamical tropopause and the vertical integration of stratospheric-origin ozone throughout the troposphere. The characteristics of the MOZAIC profiles, frequency of flights, accuracy, precision, and depth of the troposphere observed, are presented. The climatological analysis shows that the Tropospheric Ozone Column (TOC) seasonal cycle ranges from a wintertime minimum at all four stations to a spring-summer maximum in Frankfurt, Paris, and New-York. Over Japan, the maximum occurs in spring because of the earlier springtime sun. The invasion of monsoon air masses in the boundary layer and in the mid-troposphere then steeply diminishes the summertime value. Boundary layer contributions to the TOC are 10% higher in New-York compared to Frankfurt and Paris during spring and summer, and are 10% higher in Japan compared to New-York, Frankfurt and Paris during autumn and early spring. Local and remote anthropogenic emissions as well as biomass burning over upstream regions of Asia may be responsible for the larger low- and mid-tropospheric contributions to the tropospheric ozone column over Japan throughout the year except during the summer-monsoon season. A simple Lagrangian analysis has shown that a minimum of 10% of the TOC is of stratospheric-origin throughout the year. Investigation of the short-term trends of the TOC over the period 1995-2001 shows a linear increase of 0.7%/year in Frankfurt, 0.8%/year in Japan, 0.9%/year in Paris, and 1.1%/year in New-York. Essential ingredients to these positive short-term trends are the continuous increase of wintertime tropospheric ozone columns from 1996 to 1999 and the positive contributions of the mid-troposphere whatever the season.

Time series of monthly mean Tropospheric Ozone Column TOC (DU, red solid lines) from August 1994 to February 2002 for the 4 MOZAIC stations. Indication on the right summarize the annual-mean TOC (DU) and short-term trends (%/year) for the 1995-2001 period

Reference:
R. M. Zbinden, J.-P. Cammas, V. Thouret, P. Nédélec, F. Karcher, P. Simon
Page(s) 1053-1073. SRef-ID: 1680-7324/acp/2006-6-1053
http://www.copernicus.org/EGU/acp/acpd/5/5489/acpd-5-5489.pdf

MAY 2005 : Extreme CO concentrations in the upper troposphere over North-East Asia in June 2003 from the in-situ MOZAIC aircraft data

MOZAIC flights performed in 2003 between Europe and Eastern Asia clearly show the influence in the upper troposphere (9-12 km altitude) of plumes from boreal forest fires burning around Lake Baikal between April and July. On many flights, CO concentrations were above 300 ppbv over several hundred kilometers, with values above 500 ppbv averaged over 50 kilometers and peaks ranging from 500 to 800 ppbv. On the regional and seasonal scale, MOZAIC monthly-mean concentrations were above 150 ppbv on average, i.e. 30% above the northern hemisphere background as determined over Europe.

MOZAIC flight track color-coded with CO concentration (ppbv) from Tokyo to Vienna on June 4th, 2003, plotted over a composite of two MODIS satellite images taken on the same day at 02:05 and 03:40 UT. Time and altitude of the aircraft are plotted along the flight route. ATSR fire spots are plotted for June 3rd and 4th.

Reference:
Nédélec P., V. Thouret, J. Brioude, B. Sauvage, and J.-P. Cammas, A. Sthol : Extreme CO concentrations in the upper troposphere over North-East Asia in June 2003 from the in-situ MOZAIC aircraft data. Geophysical Research Letters, 32, L14807, doi:10.1029/2005GL023141, 2005.
http://www.agu.org/journals/gl/gl0514/2005GL023141/2005GL023141.pdf

APRIL 2005 : IAGOS kick-off meeting (18-19 April, 2005, Brussels)

IAGOS is a Design Study for New Infrastructures in FP6. It pursues the preparation of a distributed infrastructure for observations of atmospheric composition, aerosols, clouds and contrails on the global scale from commercial in-service aircraft. For this purpose, new instrument packages are developed based on the former MOZAIC instrumentation for O3, H2O, CO and NOy/NOx. Central elements are the aeronautical certification for installation and deployment on Airbus longrange aircraft, the design of new instrumentation for aerosol, cloud particles and for stratospheric water vapour, and the design of real time data provision to meteorological services. IAGOS will also establish the logistic and financial boundary conditions for the operation of the new infrastructure.

Observations in the Upper Troposphere and Lower Stratosphere (UTLS) are critical for improving the scientific understanding of chemistry-climate interactions, particularly those associated with the roles of clouds, aerosols and chemical composition. This information is essential for improving the scientific basis related to predictions of global climate change and for the assessment of surface air pollution, including the influence of aviation impacts and of emissions from other parts of the world on Europe.

IAGOS web site: http://www.fz-juelich.de/icg/icg-ii/iagos

FEBRUARY 2005 : Measurements of total odd nitrogen (NOy) aboard MOZAIC in-service aircraft: instrument design, operation and performance

A small system for the unattended measurement of total odd nitrogen (NOy, i.e. the sum of NO and its atmospheric oxidation products) aboard civil in-service aircraft in the framework of MOZAIC is described. The instrument employs the detection of NO by its chemiluminescence with ozone in combination with catalytic conversion of the other NOy compounds to NO at 300°C on a gold surface in presence of H2. The instrument has a sensitivity of 0.4-0.7 cps/pp and is designed for unattended operation during 1-2 service cycles of the aircraft (400-800 flight hours). The total weight is 50 kg, including calibration system, compressed gases, mounting and safety measures. The layout and inlet configuration are governed by requirements due to the certification for passenger aircraft.

Schematics of the MOZAIC NOy instrument.

Reference:
A. Volz-Thomas, M. Berg, T. Heil, N. Houben, A. Lerner, W. Petrick, D. Raak, H. -W. Pätz, Measurements of total odd nitrogen (NOy) aboard MOZAIC in-service aircraft: instrument design, operation and performance, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vol. 5, pp 583-595, 25-2-2005
http://www.copernicus.org/EGU/acp/acp/5/583/acp-5-583.pdf

JANUARY 2005 : Tropospheric ozone over Equatorial Africa: regional aspects from the MOZAIC data

Ozone observations recorded over Equatorial Africa between April 1997 and March 2003 with the MOZAIC program provide the first ozone climatology deriving from continental in-situ data over this region.

Seasonal ozone vertical profiles over Lagos and Brazzaville during their respective biomass burning season December-February and June-August.

Reference:
Sauvage B., V. Thouret, J.-P. Cammas, F. Gheusi, G. Athier, P. Nédélec, 2004 : Tropospheric ozone over Equatorial Africa : regional aspects from the MOZAIC data. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vol. 4, pp 3285-3322.
http://www.copernicus.org/EGU/acp/acp/5/311/acp-5-311.pdf

JANUARY 2004 : INFORMATION ABOUT THE MOZAIC FLIGHTS

On August 31, 2003, 20963 flights - corresponding to 161968 flight hours - had already been performed since the commencement of MOZAIC flight operations in August, 1994.

In order to better provide the users of MOZAIC with data regarding profiles at most visited cities, histograms of distributions are now available for data collected between 08/1994 and 31/07/2003.

OCTOBER 2003 : INFORMATION ABOUT THE MOZAIC MEETING

The MOZAIC-III final meeting will be held on Carcassonne on 14-15 january, 2004.

SEPTEMBER 2003 : An improved infrared carbon monoxide analyser for routine measurements aboard commercial Airbus aircraft: Technical validation and first scientific results of the MOZAIC III programme

A new infrared carbon monoxide analyser has been developed for installation on the MOZAIC equipped aircraft. Improvements in the basic characteristics of commercial CO analysers have achieved performance suitable for routine aircraft measurements: ± 5 ppbv, ± 5% for a 30s response time. The first year of operation on board 4 aircraft with more than 900 flights has proven the reliability and the usefulness of this CO analyser. The first scientific results are presented.

Regression of the overlapping CO measurements during five intercomparison flights, with MOZAIC measurements on the vertical scale. Blue points are measurements by other instruments in research aircraft.

Reference:
Nedelec P., Cammas J.-P., Thouret V. , Athier G., Cousin J.-M., Legrand C., Abonnel C., Lecoeur F., Cayez G., and Marizy C., An improved infra-red carbon monoxide analyser for routine measurements aboard commercial Airbus aircraft: Technical validation and first scientific results of the MOZAIC III Program. Atmos. Chem. And Phys., Vol. 3, pp 1551-1564, 29-9-2003.
http://www.copernicus.org/EGU/acp/acp/3/1551/acp-3-1551.pdf

MAY 2003 : INFORMATION ABOUT THE INTERNAL REPORT ON AIRCRAFT IMPACT

The internal report on aircraft impact is available on Participant Domain zone

DECEMBER 2002 : INFORMATION ABOUT THE MOZAIC MEETING

The MOZAIC-III meeting will be held on Julich january, 2003.

2002 : CHECK OF CO DATA QUALITY

see the test

OCTOBER 2001 : INFORMATION ABOUT THE MOZAIC PROGRAM

FAREWELL

After 38 years in scientific research, I am retiring at the beginning of October. My colleague Jean-Pierre Cammas takes the coordination of the MOZAIC programme.

I leave MOZAIC in excellent hands and no doubt that the programme will continue in the future at least as successfully as before.

Philippe Nédélec continues his "fabulous job" in the technical coordination of MOZAIC, and Valérie Thouret is the new PI for O3 and CO researches.

It was a real pleasure and an honour to collaborate with all of you - Participants, Airlines, Aircraft manufacturers, Co-Investigators, etc...- since the beginning of MOZAIC in 1993 and I want to thank you very sincerely.

I am leaving environmental research for other activities, i.e. organisation of medical research in the field of Cystic Fibrosis, a genetic disease by which I am personally concerned.

Farewell and all the best for the following.

Alain Marenco
former MOZAIC Coordinator

DECEMBER 2000 : INFORMATION ABOUT THE MOZAIC PROGRAM

Certification of the CO and Data Acquisition Devices (LACNRS) will be achieved by EADS Airbus in January 2001 and their installation into the A340 F-ZGZG of Air France is schedulled for March 2001 in Toulouse during aircraft modifications by SOGERMA.
Installation of the NOy instrument and the oxygen cylinder (FZJ) into the A340 D-AIGI of Lufthansa was realised during the IL-check between 14/10/2000 and 3/12/2000 in Hong Kong.

The test flight (EMI interference in flight) necessary for the certification was successfully realised on 1/12/2000.

The NOy instrument was removed from the aircraft on 07/12/2000 for maintenance and will be re-installed in January 2001 during the next A-check for its first measuring period.

NOVEMBER 2000 : INFORMATION ABOUT THE MOZAIC PROGRAM

The MOZAIC-III meeting was hold in Toulouse on November 13-14 , 2000 and was very successfull. About 35 participants attended the meeting which was divided into 2 sessions.

SEPTEMBER 2000 : INFORMATION ABOUT THE MOZAIC PROGRAM

The lag time between the collection of data and their introduction in the database at CNRM is now about 4 months.
On June 30, 2000, 14,432 flights - corresponding to 105,449 flight hours - had already been performed since the commencement of MOZAIC flight operations in August, 1994 .
Between June and September, 2000, 3 papers were submitted to international scientific journals (click here). Since 1997, 25 papers using MOZAIC data have been published.

MAY 2000 : INFORMATION ABOUT THE MOZAIC PROGRAM

A program of intercomparison of CO airborne analyzers was started by Laboratoire d'Aérologie / Toulouse (LA/CNRS), Centre d'Aviation Météorologique / Brétigny (CAM) and Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement / Gif sur Yvette (LSCE). (1) The improved CO Thermo-Electron prototype of LA/CNRS, (2) a standard version of CO Thermo-Electron analyzer of CAM and (3) CO Environment SA equipment and grab samples (GCA analysis) from LSCE were operated on board the Merlin aircraft of Météo-France. Two flights above and around Paris took place on May 19 and 24, 2000.
In order to better provide the users of MOZAIC with data regarding profiles at most visited cities, histograms of distributions are now available for data collected between 08/1994 and 01/01/2000.

MARCH 2000 : INFORMATION ABOUT THE MOZAIC PROGRAM

The MOZAIC-III contract was signed by the European Commission on February 25, and officially started on March 1, 2000.

This will allow a rapid start of the procedures for the certification of the following new equipment :

(1) CO, Data Acquisition System, pumps (LA/CNRS) by Aerospatiale-Matra-Airbus, and

(2) NOy, inlet/converter (FZJ) by Lufthansa-Techniks.

The goal is to equip one of the Lufthansa A340s with the whole set of instruments in September, 2000, and the 4 other aircraft with CO/DAS/pumps before March, 2001.

Alain MARENCO visited Professor Roseanne Diab (School of Life and Environmental Sciences , University of Natal in Durban / South Africa) between March 12 and 20 in order to start a collaboration on O3 variations over Africa (MOZAIC data; O3 sonde data from the Irene lauching station near Pretoria; tropospheric O3 residual; O3 transients in Tropics...)

On December 31, 1999 , 13 000 flights had already been performed since the commencement of MOZAIC flight operations in August, 1994.

FEBRUARY 2000 : INFORMATION ABOUT THE MOZAIC PROGRAM

THE FOURTH TEST FLIGHT with MSN001 occured on February 10, 2000, between 10:00 and 12:00 (UT) and was very successful. The CO, NOy and Aerosol devices and the new Data Acquisition System were checked again in flight conditions, after modifications and improvements were made according to the experiences of previous flights. A new correlation wheel was installed on the CO device, resulting in a much more stable baseline, now less sensitive to temperature variations. For the NOy device, the gold converter was installed very close to the inlet system and 2 types of heated inlets (Rosemount; simple tube) were tested. The flight departed from Toulouse and was conducted over Southwestern France and the Mediterranean Sea, reaching an altitude of 41,000 feet within one hour.

JANUARY 2000 : INFORMATION ABOUT THE MOZAIC PROGRAM

THE THIRD TEST FLIGHT with MSN001 occured on January 26, 2000, between 14:00 and 16:00 (UT). It was dedicated to making an aircraft parameter acquisition at 10 hz in order to investigate the possibility of processing turbulence parameters and vertical wind velocity. The flight was very successful, with the A340 "surfing" on the waves resulting from the impact of the SE Autan wind on the Pyrénéen range. As soon as the data is evaluated, conclusions will be made regarding the possibility of processing turbulence parameters in the frame of MOZAIC-III.

The MOZAIC-III contract was signed by the participants and returned to the European Commission for final signature. MOZAIC-III is expected to start in March, 2000, for 3 years (03/2000 - 02/2003).

NOVEMBER 1999 : INFORMATION ABOUT THE MOZAIC PROGRAM

THE SECOND TEST FLIGHT with MSN001 occured on November 18, between 14:15 and 16:30 (UT), and was very successful. The CO and Aerosol devices and the new Data Acquisition System were again checked in flight conditions, on a flight departing from Toulouse and flying over southwestern France and the Mediterranean Sea.
A 35,000 foot altitude was reached and maintained during 1:30 hour, and CO and aerosol vertical profiles were established, showing tropospheric mixing ratios up to 28,000 feet and stratospheric values above. In addition, various aircraft parameters were recorded at high frequency (10 Hz) for 5 minutes in order to explore the possibility of using some of them in the future for turbulence rate evaluation.
Four papers making use of the MOZAIC data have recently been submitted to J. Geophys. Res. and Ann. Geophysicae

OCTOBER 1999 : INFORMATION ABOUT THE MOZAIC PROGRAM

The test of new equipment (CO, NOy, Aerosols, New Data acquisition System) in flight conditions was planned using the test aircraft of Airbus Industrie A340 MSN001 (click on image below to view plane). This new equipment will be installed and operated on-board the 5 MOZAIC aircraft during the third phase MOZAIC-III (2000-2002).

THE FIRST TEST FLIGHT with MSN001 occured on October 25, between 12:30 and 17:30 (UT), and was very successful. The CO, NOy, Aerosol devices and the new Data Acquisition System were checked in flight conditions, in a flight departing from Toulouse and flying over Biarritz, Nantes, Brest and western Germany (see the results).

Several vertical profile readings were performed between ground level and stabilized levels at about 35,000 feet. The 41,000 foot maximum altitude was reached within one hour. The stratosphere was penetrated in the upper part of the flight, as clearly shown by the lower CO concentrations. Aerosols were detected only in the continental boundary layer (0-1500 m). NOy concentrations of a few ppbv were recorded in the upper troposphere / lower stratosphere; but it must be noted that this first test flight was dedicated mainly to checking the system functioning and the quality of measurements of nitrogen oxides, not including here the HNO3 because it was mostly trapped in the very simple Teflon line (3 meter length; not heated) which was used during this first flight. The next flights scheduled for the following weeks will allow a check of the whole NOy measurement, now using a convenient heated Teflon line.

The MOZAIC-III proposal was accepted by the European Commission on September 3, 1999. MOZAIC-III will be funded by the EC for 2.1M Euros for a duration of 36 months. The contract is at the moment under negotiations with the Commission and is expected to start in December, 1999, or January, 2000.

1998 : CHECK OF OZONE DATA QUALITY

see the test

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