Climate Data Record of Stratospheric Aerosols (CREST)

Climate-related studies need information about the distribution of stratospheric aerosols, which influence the energy balance of the Earth’s atmosphere. A team of Finnish Meteorological Institute scientists, led by Viktoria Sofieva, has published a merged aerosol extinction profiles and stratospheric optical depth dataset available online: https://doi.org/10.57707/fmi-b2share.dfe14351fd8548bcaca3c2956b17f6655  

The created aerosol climate record covers the period from October 1984 until December 2023, and it is intended to be extended in the future. The aerosol climate record can be used in various climate-related studies.

The recently published paper by Sofieva et al. (2024) presents the merged dataset of vertically resolved stratospheric aerosol extinction coefficients, which is derived using data from six limb and occultation satellite instruments: SAGE (Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment) II on ERBS (Earth Radiation Budget Satellite), GOMOS (Global Ozone Monitoring by Occultation of Stars) and SCIAMACHY (Scanning Imaging Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography) on Envisat, OSIRIS (Optical Spectrograph and InfraRed Imaging System) on Odin, OMPS (Ozone Monitor Profiling Suite Limb Profiler) on Suomi NPP, and SAGE III on the ISS (International Space Station).

The merged time series of vertically resolved monthly mean aerosol extinction coefficients at 750 nm is provided in 10° latitudinal bins from 90° S to 90° N, in the altitude range from 8.5 to 39.5 km. The time series of the stratospheric aerosol optical depth (SAOD) is created via the integration of aerosol extinction profiles from the tropopause to 39.5 km; it is also provided as monthly mean data in 10° latitudinal bins.

More information

Viktoria Sofieva, Dr., Adj. Prof., FMI Space and Earth Observation Centre, viktoria.sofieva@fmi.fi

Sofieva, V. F., Rozanov, A., Szelag, M., Burrows, J. P., Retscher, C., Damadeo, R., Degenstein, D., Rieger, L. A., and Bourassa, A.: CREST: a Climate Data Record of Stratospheric Aerosols, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 16, 5227–5241, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-16-5227-2024, 2024.

The merged CREST aerosol dataset (v2) is available at https://doi.org/10.57707/fmi-b2share.dfe14351fd8548bcaca3c2956b17f6655