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    Pollution events observed during CARIBIC flights in the upper troposphere between South China and the Philippines
    (München : European Geopyhsical Union, 2010) Lai, S.C.; Baker, A.K.; Schuck, T.J.; van Velthoven, P.; Oram, D.E.; Zahn, A.; Hermann, M.; Weigelt, A.; Slemr, F.; Brenninkmeijer, C.A.M.; Ziereis, H.
    A strong pollution episode in the upper troposphere between South China and the Philippines was observed during CARIBIC flights in April 2007. Five pollution events were observed, where enhancements in aerosol and trace gas concentrations including CO, CO2, CH4, non-methane hydrocarbons (NMHCs) and halocarbons were observed along the flight tracks during four sequential flights. The importance of the contribution of biomass/biofuel burning was investigated using chemical tracers, emission factor analysis, back-trajectory analysis and satellite images. The Indochinese peninsula was identified as the probable source region of biomass/biofuel burning. However, enhancements in the urban/industrial tracer C2Cl4 during the events also indicate a substantial contribution from urban anthropogenic emissions. An estimation of the contribution of fossil fuel versus biomass/biofuel to the CO enhancement was made, indicating a biomass/biofuel burning contribution of ~54 to ~92% of the observed CO enhancements. Biomass/biofuel burning was found to be the most important source category during the sampling period.
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    CARIBIC aircraft measurements of Eyjafjallajökull volcanic clouds in April/May 2010
    (München : European Geopyhsical Union, 2012) Rauthe-Schöch, A.; Weigelt, A.; Hermann, M.; Martinsson, B.G.; Baker, A.K.; Heue, K.-P.; Brenninkmeijer, C.A.M.; Zahn, A.; Scharffe, D.; Eckhardt, S.; Stohl, A.; van Velthoven, P.F.J.
    The Civil Aircraft for the Regular Investigation of the Atmosphere Based on an Instrument Container (CARIBIC) project investigates physical and chemical processes in the Earth's atmosphere using a Lufthansa Airbus long-distance passenger aircraft. After the beginning of the explosive eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano on Iceland on 14 April 2010, the first CARIBIC volcano-specific measurement flight was carried out over the Baltic Sea and Southern Sweden on 20 April. Two more flights followed: one over Ireland and the Irish Sea on 16 May and the other over the Norwegian Sea on 19 May 2010. During these three special mission flights the CARIBIC container proved its merits as a comprehensive flying laboratory. The elemental composition of particles collected over the Baltic Sea during the first flight (20 April) indicated the presence of volcanic ash. Over Northern Ireland and the Irish Sea (16 May), the DOAS system detected SO2 and BrO co-located with volcanic ash particles that increased the aerosol optical depth. Over the Norwegian Sea (19 May), the optical particle counter detected a strong increase of particles larger than 400 nm diameter in a region where ash clouds were predicted by aerosol dispersion models. Aerosol particle samples collected over the Irish Sea and the Norwegian Sea showed large relative enhancements of the elements silicon, iron, titanium and calcium. Non-methane hydrocarbon concentrations in whole air samples collected on 16 and 19 May 2010 showed a pattern of removal of several hydrocarbons that is typical for chlorine chemistry in the volcanic clouds. Comparisons of measured ash concentrations and simulations with the FLEXPART dispersion model demonstrate the difficulty of detailed volcanic ash dispersion modelling due to the large variability of the volcanic cloud sources, extent and patchiness as well as the thin ash layers formed in the volcanic clouds.
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    Comparison between CARIBIC aerosol samples analysed by accelerator-based methods and optical particle counter measurements
    (München : European Geopyhsical Union, 2014) Martinsson, B.G.; Friberg, J.; Andersson, S.M.; Weigelt, A.; Hermann, M.; Assmann, D.; Voigtländer, J.; Brenninkmeijer, C.A.M.; van Velthoven, P.J.F.; Zahn, A.
    Inter-comparison of results from two kinds of aerosol systems in the CARIBIC (Civil Aircraft for the Regular Investigation of the atmosphere Based on a Instrument Container) passenger aircraft based observatory, operating during intercontinental flights at 9–12 km altitude, is presented. Aerosol from the lowermost stratosphere (LMS), the extra-tropical upper troposphere (UT) and the tropical mid troposphere (MT) were investigated. Aerosol particle volume concentration measured with an optical particle counter (OPC) is compared with analytical results of the sum of masses of all major and several minor constituents from aerosol samples collected with an impactor. Analyses were undertaken with the following accelerator-based methods: particle-induced X-ray emission (PIXE) and particle elastic scattering analysis (PESA). Data from 48 flights during 1 year are used, leading to a total of 106 individual comparisons. The ratios of the particle volume from the OPC and the total mass from the analyses were in 84% within a relatively narrow interval. Data points outside this interval are connected with inlet-related effects in clouds, large variability in aerosol composition, particle size distribution effects and some cases of non-ideal sampling. Overall, the comparison of these two CARIBIC measurements based on vastly different methods show good agreement, implying that the chemical and size information can be combined in studies of the MT/UT/LMS aerosol.