Airborne CH2O measurements over the North Atlantic during the 1997 NARE campaign: Instrument comparisons and distributions

Abstract

Airborne CH2O measurements were acquired by tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS) and coil/2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine (CDNPH) techniques over remote regions of the North Atlantic Ocean from the surface to 8 km during the North Atlantic Regional Experiment (NARE-97) in September of 1997. There were eight aircraft flights when both instruments were simultaneously operating, producing 665 overlapping time intervals for comparisons. A number of approaches were used in the comparisons, and indicated that on average both instruments measured identical ambient CH2O concentrations to within 0.1 ppbv, and more typically within 0.08 ppbv, over the 0 to 0.8 ppbv-concentration range. However, significant differences, larger than the combined 2σ total uncertainty estimates, were observed in 29% of the full time-coincident data set. The two instruments produced very similar altitude trends. Under clean background conditions in the 35° to 55°N latitude band, the median TDLAS and CDNPH CH2O concentrations were 0.399 and 0.410 ppbv for 0-2 km, 0.250 and 0.355 ppbv for 2-4 km, and 0.217 and 0.280 ppbv for 4-8 km, respectively. Elevated CH2O concentrations were observed in this study at both high altitudes (4-8 km) and in the marine boundary layer by both instruments. Thus vertical transport of CH2O and/or its precursors may provide a greater contribution to upper tropospheric HOx than previously thought. The results of this study, which are based upon instruments employing entirely different measurement principles, calibration, and sampling approaches, not only reinforce this conclusion but also provide a high-quality database necessary to further explore CH 2O measurement-model relationships in the clean background atmosphere. Copyright 2002 by the American Geophysical Union.