TI3GER: Technological Innovation Into Iodine and GV Environmental Research

Summary

Anthropogenic (pollution) ozone has increased oceanic emissions of iodine since pre industrial times, but the implications for ozone radiative forcing and new particle formation remain poorly understood. The 2018 WMO Ozone Assessment report recently recognized (for the first time in decades) the relevance of iodine for ozone loss, citing first measurements of iodine oxide (IO) radicals in the tropical transition layer (TTL) that had been conducted by the University of Colorado Airborne MAX-DOAS instrument aboard the NSF/NCAR GV aircraft (i.e., TORERO project; Volkamer et al., 2015). The TI3GER test program advances the GV aircraft's capabilities for environmental research by deploying and testing an unprecedented suite of state-of the-art instruments to measure gas- and particulate iodine species simultaneously for the first time, and to better characterize condensable vapors and ambient ions. TI3GER conducts limited exploratory science into the chemical processes by which iodine participates in ion-induced nucleation, grows nanoparticles, and destroys ozone in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere, where radiative forcing is particularly sensitive to changes in ozone, and ozone circulation feedbacks affect climate sensitivities. The experiment will be conducted in Colorado, Hawaii and Alaska from March - mid April, 2022.