Our changing atmosphere: Evidence based on long-term infrared solar observations at the Jungfraujoch since 1950
View/ Open
Authors
Zander, R.
Mahieu, E.
Demoulin, P.
Duchatelet, P.
Roland, G.
Servais, C.
De Mazière, M.
Reimann, S.
Rinsland, C.P.
Discipline
Physical sciences
Subject
Climate change
Fertilizers
Infrared spectroscopy
Photometry
Remote sensing
Atmospheric composition changes
Infrared remote sensing
Montreal and Kyoto Protocols
Astrophysics
chlorine
chlorofluorocarbon
fertilizer
fluorinated hydrocarbon
nitrogen
atmospheric pollution
climate change
concentration (composition)
fertilizer application
infrared spectroscopy
Kyoto Protocol
Montreal Protocol
mountain region
nitrogen
photolysis
remote sensing
air monitoring
air pollution
altitude
article
atmospheric radioactivity
catalysis
environmental release
fertilizer application
industrial waste
ozone layer
photolysis
photometry
pollution monitoring
priority journal
solar radiation
stratosphere
Switzerland
ultraviolet radiation
Air Pollutants
Atmosphere
Environmental Monitoring
Gases
History, 20th Century
History, 21st Century
Infrared Rays
Solar System
Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared
Switzerland
Bern [Switzerland]
Central Europe
Eurasia
Europe
Jungfraujoch
Switzerland
Audience
Scientific
Date
2008Metadata
Show full item recordDescription
The Institute of Astrophysics of the University of Liège has been present at the High Altitude Research Station Jungfraujoch, Switzerland, since the late 1940s, to perform spectrometric solar observations under dry and weakly polluted high-mountain conditions. Several solar atlases of photometric quality, extending altogether from the near-ultra-violet to the middle-infrared, were produced between 1956 and 1994, first with grating spectrometers then with Fourier transform instruments. During the early 1970s, scientific concerns emerged about atmospheric composition changes likely to set in as a consequence of the growing usage of nitrogen-containing agricultural fertilisers and the industrial production of chlorine-bearing compounds such as the chlorofluorocarbons and hydro-chlorofluorocarbons. Resulting releases to the atmosphere with ensuing photolysis in the stratosphere and catalytic depletion of the protective ozone layer prompted a worldwide consortium of chemical manufacturing companies to solicit the Liège group to help in clarifying these concerns by undertaking specific observations with its existing Jungfraujoch instrumentation. The following pages evoke the main steps that led from quasi full sun-oriented studies to priority investigations of the Earth's atmosphere, in support of both the Montreal and the Kyoto Protocols.
Citation
Zander, R.; Mahieu, E.; Demoulin, P.; Duchatelet, P.; Roland, G.; Servais, C.; De Mazière, M.; Reimann, S.; Rinsland, C.P. (2008). Our changing atmosphere: Evidence based on long-term infrared solar observations at the Jungfraujoch since 1950. , Science of the Total Environment, Vol. 391, Issue 2-3, 184-195, DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2007.10.018.Identifiers
scopus: 2-s2.0-37649022757
Type
Article
Peer-Review
Yes
Language
eng