Summary

resulted in devastating bushfires igniting in south-eastern Australia. As a result, a significant amount of smoke aerosols was injected into the upper troposphere-lower stratosphere (UTLS) region. Its properties, in particular H2O enhancement inside the smoke plume, are studied with several satellite instruments, mainly with the Optical Spectrograph and Infrared Imager System (OSIRIS) onboard Odin. The other instruments used are: the Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER) onboard the Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) platform, the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier-Transform Spectrometer (ACE-FTS), the Sub-Millimeter Radiometer (SMR) onboard Odin, and Atmospheric Infra-Red Sounder (AIRS) onboard Aqua. Water vapour emissions from biomass burning events have not been well-studied outside the laboratory. A possible uptake of water molecules by the smoke plume into the UTLS region is even less documented. The powerful smoke injection from the Black Saturday fires provided a unique opportunity to analyze the related hydration in the UTLS region. OSIRIS detected a 40% enhancement in the water vapor at 16-18 km and up to 15% enhancement above 18 km inside the smoke plume during the two weeks from 11 February. Significant water vapor enhancements at these locations were also observed by

Authors:Siddaway J.M. Petelina S.V. Feofilov A.G. Zasetsky A.Y. Klekociuk A.R. Urban J. Published in: 2010 Category 3: Poster Program area: Ice, Ocean, Atmosphere and Climate
Siddaway J.M., Petelina S.V., Feofilov A.G., Zasetsky A.Y., Klekociuk A.R., Urban J. (2010) UTLS hydration from the smoke plume from the 2009 Australian Black Saturday bushfire, 2010 Fall Meeting of the American Geophysical Union, 13-17 December 2010, San Francisco Abstract A218-0059;

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