The goal of the SPARC Data Initiative is to improve our knowledge and understanding of the overall uncertainty in chemical trace gas and aerosol observations from a multi-national suite of limb-viewing satellite instruments. This knowledge is crucial when using datasets from multiple instruments for data merging activities and the validation of chemistry-climate models. The SPARC Data Initiative Team, which consists of representatives from each instrument team and data analysts, has compiled zonal mean monthly mean time series of all available chemical trace gas and aerosol data in a common format (NetCDF). Data description and analyses are summarized in the SPARC report No. 8 (2017), with an update to the evaluations published in Hegglin et al. (2021). Report conclusions are based on the existing data versions at the time of the report formulation and should be used as basis for the evaluation of updated versions.

References

Hegglin, M. I., Tegtmeier, S., Anderson, J., Bourassa, A. E., Brohede, S., Degenstein, D., Froidevaux, L., Funke, B., Gille, J., Kasai, Y., Kyrölä, E. T., Lumpe, J., Murtagh, D., Neu, J. L., Pérot, K., Remsberg, E. E., Rozanov, A., Toohey, M., Urban, J., von Clarmann, T., Walker, K. A., Wang, H.-J., Arosio, C., Damadeo, R., Fuller, R. A., Lingenfelser, G., McLinden, C., Pendlebury, D., Roth, C., Ryan, N. J., Sioris, C., Smith, L., and Weigel, K., 2021: Overview and update of the SPARC Data Initiative: comparison of stratospheric composition measurements from satellite limb sounders, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 13, 1855-1903, doi: 10.5194/essd-13-1855-2021.

Hegglin, M. I., S. Tegtmeier, and the SPARC Data Initiative Team, Overview of the SPARC Data Initiative: Trace gas and aerosol comparisons from international satellite limb sounders, J. Geophys. Res., in preparation.

Hegglin, M. I., S. Tegtmeier, and the SPARC Data Initiative Team (2013), SPARC Data Initiative: Comparison of water vapour climatologies from international satellite limb sounders, J. Geophys. Res., doi:10.1029/2013JD019614.

Tegtmeier, S., M. I. Hegglin, and the SPARC Data Initiative Team (2013), SPARC Data Initiative: Comparison of ozone climatologies from international  satellite limb sounders, J. Geophys. Res., doi:10.1029/2013JD019877.

Toohey, M., M. I. Hegglin, S. Tegtmeier, and the SPARC Data Initiative Team (2013), Characterizing sampling bias in the trace gas climatologies of the SPARC Data Initiative, J. Geophys. Res., doi:10.1029/2013JD020298.

Data Access

The SPARC Data Initiative trace gas climatologies are public, and freely available for data users via the Zenodo archive: 

Hegglin, M. I., S. Tegtmeier, J. Anderson, A. E. Bourassa, S. Brohede, D. Degenstein, L. Froidevaux, B. Funke, J. Gille, Y. Kasai, E. Kyrölä, J. Lumpe, D. Murtagh, J. L. Neu, K. Pérot, E. Remsberg, A. Rozanov, M. Toohey, T. von Clarmann, K. A. Walker, H.-J. Wang, R. Damadeo, R. Fuller, G. Lingenfelser, C. Roth, N. J. Ryan, C. Sioris, L. Smith, and Weigel, K. (2020). SPARC Data Initiative monthly zonal mean composition measurements from stratospheric limb sounders (1978-2018) (Version p01) [Data set]. Earth System Science Data (ESSD). Zenodo. doi: 10.5281/zenodo.4265393.

Data users are requested to cite the data (Hegglin et al., 2020) and ESSD overview publication (Hegglin et al., 2021) as well as other relevant SPARC Data Initiative publications (see main SPARC Data Initiative webpage). The datasets will be updated with newer data versions as soon as they become available and have undergone required quality controls. Aerosol climatologies are currently undergoing some updates (status autumn 2021) and will be published at a later stage.