Keywords
Upper Troposphere and Lower Stratosphere, Aerosols, Volcanic eruptions, Extreme Fire Events, Asian Monsoon Anticyclone, Radiative Impact
Short description of my Past work
Throughout my career I developed expertise in the lab and analysis of observations with the goal of a better understanding of the processes governing stratospheric compounds (gases and aerosols) and their role in the climate. By analyzing flask samples, new ozone depleting substances with resulting emissions, which are not conform with the Montreal agreement, were discovered in my early career. I developed a spectrometer ‘AMICA’ for high-altitude airborne trace gas measurements (CO, OCS, H2O). With AMICA, I was involved throughout the whole phase of the EU project StratoClim, for an improved understanding of the role of the Asian monsoon (AM) on the composition of the upper troposphere/lower stratosphere. With satellite, ground-based and airborne in situ observations, I investigated aerosol and trace gas anomalies in the AM anticyclone. Furthermore, I studied the stratospheric evolution and impact of plumes from recent volcanic eruptions and extreme wildfires, raising awareness of the new discovered importance of the role that major wildfires play for the Earth’s climate, the motivation for the proposed project.
My CV (Jan 2022)
The Hunga Tonga eruption – Balloon Campaign
On the 15th and 16th of January 2022 the Hunga Tonga volcano erupted, injecting aerosols and a variety of chemical compounds into particularly high altitudes of up to 30 km (see preliminary Figures, showing OMPS aerosol extinction profiles during the second eruption on January 16th 2022). Later on, the injected plume was observed at altitudes of up to 40 km. Forward trajectories and satellite observations showed that the plume would pass over La Réunion. Within the atmospheric team at LPC2E we directly managed to set up a small campaign at La Réunion at the ‘observatoire de l’atmosphère du maido’ (21.08°S 55.38°E, in cooperation with LACY, Nelson Bègue). A spontaneous LABEX project was created for the funding of travel expenses for this campaign and directly accepted. A LPC2E technician and myself (as the LPC2E research PI of this campaign) travelled spontaneously to La Réunion to sample the plume with the Light Optical Aerosol Counter (LOAC) during three measurement flights on small sized balloons (23/1, 25/1 and 26/1/2022). LOAC measures aerosol size distribution between 200 nm and 30 μm, concentration and gives some indication about the typology of the measured particles. Simultaneous aerosol, wind and ozone lidar observations at the observatory will be analyzed and compared with LOAC observations.
During all three flights we observe enhanced aerosol concentrations within the stratospheric Hunga Tonga plume. Furthermore, the LOAC typology analysis points to a layer of absorbing and semi-transparent aerosols.
A 4th LOAC measurement flight was planned for 3/2/2022 (to sample the Hunga Tonga plume, reaching La Réunion a second time after circling the Earth). A tropical cyclone cancelled those plans and we travelled back to France. We left one functional LOAC with the now trained staff at La Réunion, ready for one more flight (possibly within the coming weeks to sample the more diluted plume).
Within the SSiRC volcano emailing list, more than 100 emails were exchanged discussion the extraordinary nature of this event. At multiple occasions, the issue of very limited in situ observations within this plume (to my knowledge only one more team has performed in situ measurements within the Hunga Tonga plume so far) was mentioned.
The fast coordination of the scientific expertise and administrative efforts at LPC2E demonstrate that the establishment of LOAC measurements around the world within aerosol plumes from extreme events are spontaneously feasible also for future aerosol plume events.
SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS
- Kloss C. et al.‚ ‘Atmospheric Abundances, Trends and Emissions of CFC-216ba, CFC-216ca and HCFC-225ca ‘, atmosphere (2014) https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/5/2/420
- Lennartz et al. ‘Direct oceanic emissions unlikely to account for the missing source of atmospheric carbonyl sulfide’, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (2017) https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/17/385/2017/
- Kloss C. ‚ ‘Carbonyl Sulfide in the Stratosphere: airborne instrument development and satellite based data analysis’, ISBN: 978-3-95806-276-4, Ph.D. Dissertation (2017) https://d-nb.info/1151245410/34
- Kloss C. et al., ‘Sampling bias adjustment for sparsely sampled satellite measurements applied to ACE-FTS carbonyl sulfide observations ‘, Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (2019) https://amt.copernicus.org/articles/12/2129/2019/
- Kloss C. et al., ‘Transport of the 2017 Canadian wildfire plume to the tropics and global stratosphere via the Asian monsoon circulation ‘, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (2019) https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/19/13547/2019/
- Kloss C. et al., ‘Impact of the 2018 Ambae eruption on the global stratospheric aerosol layer and climate’, Journal of Geophysical Research (2020) https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1029/2020JD032410
- Kloss et al., ‘Stratospheric aerosol layer perturbation caused by the 2019 Raikoke and Ulawun eruptions and climate impact’, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (2021), highlight paper in ACP https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/21/535/2021/
- Von Hobe M. et al. ‘Transport pathways in the Asian monsoon UTLS inferred from (StratoClim) trace gas observations’, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (2021) https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/21/1267/2021/
- Keun-Ok L. et al., ‘Convective uplift of pollution from the Sichuan basin into the Asian monsoon anticyclone during the StratoClim aircraft campaign’, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussion (2021) https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/21/3255/2021/
- Bossolasco A. et al., ‘Global modelling studies of composition and decadal trends of the Asian Tropopause Aerosol Layer’, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussion (2021) https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/21/2745/2021/
- Kloss C., et al., ‘Australian fires 2019-2020: tropospheric and stratospheric pollution throughout the whole fire season’, Frontiers in Environmental Science (2021) https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fenvs.2021.652024/full
- Kloss C. et al., ‘The airborne Mid-Infrared Cavity enhanced Absorption spectrometer (AMICA): A two channel ICOS instrument’, Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (2021) https://amt.copernicus.org/articles/14/5271/2021/amt-14-5271-2021.html
- Bègue N., et al., ‘Transport and Variability of Tropospheric Ozone over Oceania and Southern Pacific during the 2019–20 Australian Bushfires’, MDPI remote sensing (2021) https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/13/16/3092
- Tidiga M., et al., ‘Variability of the aerosol content in the tropical lower stratosphere from 2013 to 2019: evidence of volcanic eruption impacts’, atmosphere (2022) https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/13/2/250
