VOCs in the Troposphere Retrieved from ACE Satellite Measurements

The emission of organic molecules along with nitrogen oxides is responsible for air pollution. Air quality is perhaps the most important issue in atmospheric science because of its negative effect on human health and ecosystems. Trace organic molecules lead to the production of tropospheric ozone, which is a major factor in anthropogenic climate change. We propose to use measurements from the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE) satellite to study organic molecules in the free troposphere on a regional and global scale. We plan to retrieve the profiles of acetone and propane from observations made with the infrared Fourier transform spectrometer on-board ACE. The necessary spectroscopic data for propane will be obtained from laboratory measurements made primarily at the NERC-supported Molecular Spectroscopy Facility at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. A research version of the operational ACE retrieval code will be used to obtain atmospheric profiles. The set of global measurements from ACE will be compared with several of chemical transport models, with the goal of improving model predictions. These chemical models are useful in predicting climate change.