Deep convection in the Asian summer monsoon is a significant transport process for lifting pollutants from the planetary boundary layer to the tropopause level. This process enables efficient injection into the stratosphere of reactive species such as chlorinated very short-lived substances (Cl-VSLSs) that deplete ozone. Past studies of convective transport associated with the Asian summer monsoon have focused mostly on the south Asian summer monsoon. Airborne observations reported in this work identify the East Asian summer monsoon convection as an effective transport pathway that carried record-breaking levels of ozone-depleting Cl-VSLSs (mean organic chlorine from these VSLSs ~500 ppt) to the base of the stratosphere. These unique observations show total organic chlorine from VSLSs in the lower stratosphere over the Asian monsoon tropopause to be more than twice that previously reported over the tropical tropopause. Considering the recently observed increase in Cl-VSLS emissions and the ongoing strengthening of the East Asian summer monsoon under global warming, our results highlight that a reevaluation of the contribution of Cl-VSLS injection via the Asian monsoon to the total stratospheric chlorine budget is warranted.

A concise insight into the outputs provided by the latest prototype of visible‐near infrared (Vis‐NIR) multispectral scanner (National Research Council‐National Institute of Optics, CNR‐INO, Italy) is presented. The analytical data acquired on an oil paintingMadonna of the Rabbitby É. Manet are described. In this work, the Vis‐NIR was complemented with X‐ray fluorescence (XRF) mapping for the chemical and spatial characterization of several pigments. The spatially registered Vis‐NIR data facilitated their processing by spectral correlation mapping (SCM) and artificial neural network (ANN) algorithm, respectively, for pigment mapping and improved visibility ofpentimentiand of underdrawing style. The data provided several key elements for the comparison with a homonymous original work by Titian studied within the ARCHive LABoratory (ARCHLAB) transnational access project.

Measurements of the spectrum of the atmospheric emission in the far-infrared (FIR) range, between 100 and 667 cm⁻¹ (100–15 µm) are scarce because of the detection complexity and of the strong absorption of air at ground level preventing the sounding of the FIR from low altitude. Consequently, FIR measurements need to be made from high-altitude sites or on board airborne platforms or satellites. This paper describes the dataset of FIR spectral radiances of the atmosphere and snow surface emission measured in the 100–1000 cm⁻¹ range by the Far-Infrared Radiation Mobile Observation System (FIRMOS) instrument during a 2-month campaign carried out from the ground at about 3000 m of altitude on the top of Mt. Zugspitze in the German Alps in 2018–2019. This campaign is part of the preparatory activity of a new space FIR mission, named Far-infrared Outgoing Radiation Understanding and Monitoring (FORUM), which is under development by the European Space Agency (ESA). The dataset acquired during the campaign also includes all the additional measurements needed to provide a full characterisation of the observed atmospheric state and the local atmospheric and surface conditions. It includes co-located spectral measurements in the infrared range from 400 to 1800 cm⁻¹; lidar backscatter profiles; radio soundings of temperature, humidity and aerosol backscatter profiles; local weather parameters; and snow/ice microphysical properties. These measurements provide a unique dataset that can be used to perform radiative closure experiments to improve modelling parameters in the FIR that are not well-characterised, such as water vapour spectroscopy, scattering properties of cirrus clouds, and the FIR emissivity of the surface covered by snow. The consolidated dataset is freely available via the ESA campaign dataset website at https://doi.org/10.5270/ESA-38034ee (Palchetti et al., 2020 a).

The long-wave downwelling spectral radiance measurements performed by means of the Far-Infrared Radiation Mobile Observation System (FIRMOS) spectrometer at the summit of the Zugspitze (German Alps) in the winter 2018/19 allowed the retrieval of the optical and micro-physical properties of ice and mixed clouds, showing a good agreement of the statistical relationship between the ice water path and the ice optical depth with the ones from previous works. In this paper the optical depths retrieved from FIRMOS are initially compared with selected cases calculated from backscattering light detection and ranging (lidar) data by using a transmittance method. Then, in order to compare the whole FIRMOS dataset, the power-law relationship between backscattering and extinction is used to apply the Klett method and automatize the routine. Minimizing the root mean square differences, the exponent k of the power-law relationship is assessed to be 0.85 with a variability in the range of 0.60–1.10 for ice clouds and 0.50 with a variability within 0.30–0.70 for mixed clouds.

The Asian Summer Monsoon (ASM) has garnered attention in recent years for its impacts on the composition of the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) via deep convection. A recent observational effort into this mechanism, the Asian Summer Monsoon Chemical and CLimate Impact Project (ACCLIP), sampled the composition of the ASM UTLS over the northwestern Pacific region during boreal summer 2022 using two airborne platforms. In this work, we integrate Lagrangian trajectory modeling with convective cloud top observations to diagnose ASM convective transport which contributed to ACCLIP airborne observations. This diagnostic is applied to explore the properties of convective transport associated with prominent ASM sub‐systems, revealing that for species ranging in lifetime from days to months, transport from convection along the East Asia Subtropical Front was generally associated with more UTLS pollutants than transport from convection over South Asia. The convective transport diagnostic is used to isolate three convective transport events over eastern Asia which had distinct chemical tracer relationship behaviors, indicating the different economical behaviors of the contributing source regions. One of these transport events is explored in greater detail, where a polluted air mass was sampled from convection over the Northeast China Plain which may have been high enough in altitude to impact the composition of the stratosphere. Overall, the presented diagnosis of convective transport contribution to ACCLIP airborne sampling indicates a key scientific success of the campaign and enables process studies of the climate interactions from the two ASM sub‐systems.

Context. Since its arrival at the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko in August 2014, the Rosetta spacecraft followed the comet as it went past the perihelion and beyond until September 2016. During this time there were many scientific instruments operating on board Rosetta to study the comet and its evolution in unprecedented detail. In this context, our study focusses on the distribution and evolution of exposed bright features that have been observed by OSIRIS, which is the scientific imaging instrument aboard Rosetta. Aims. We envisage investigating various morphologies of exposed bright features and the mechanisms that triggered their appearance. Methods. We co-registered multi-filter observations of OSIRIS images that are available in reflectance. The Lommel–Seeliger disk function was used to correct for the illumination conditions and the resulting colour cubes were used to perform spectrophotometric analyses on regions of interest. Results. We present a catalogue of 57 exposed bright features observed on the nucleus of the comet, all of which are attributed to the presence of H₂O ice on the comet. Furthermore, we categorise these patches under four different morphologies and present geometric albedos for each category. Conclusions. Although the nucleus of 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko appears to be dark in general, there are localised H₂O ice sources on the comet. Cometary activity escalates towards the perihelion passage and reveals such volatile ices. We propose that isolated H₂O ice patches found in smooth terrains in regions, such as Imhotep, Bes, and Hapi, result from frost as an aftermath of the cessation of the diurnal water cycle on the comet as it recedes from perihelion. Upon the comet’s return to perihelion, such patches are revealed when sublimation-driven erosion removes the thin dust layers that got deposited earlier. More powerful activity sources such as cometary outbursts are capable of revealing much fresher, less contaminated H₂O ice that is preserved with consolidated cometary material, as observed on exposed patches resting on boulders. This is corroborated by our albedo calculations that attribute higher albedos for bright features with formations related to outbursts.