Global Characterization of Stratospheric Sulfate Aerosols by the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE)

Authors

• Peter Bernath, Old Dominion UniversityFollow
• Manish Bhusal, Old Dominion UniversityFollow
• Michael Lecours, University of Waterloo
• Chris Boone, University of Waterloo

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2026

DOI

10.1029/2025JD046214

Publication Title

Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres

Volume

131

Issue

14

Pages

e2025JD046214 (12 pp.)

Abstract

Stratospheric sulfate aerosol (SSA) is an important part of the Earth's climate system. SSA climate impact is determined in part by particle composition, which has been measured from orbit. The weight percent of sulfuric acid in SSA has been determined from atmospheric infrared transmittance spectra recorded with the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier Transform Spectrometer (ACE-FTS) in limb geometry using the Sun as a light source (solar occultation). The global average SSA composition varies from about 50 to 80 percent with lowest values during the Antarctic winter. Atmospheric extinction at a wavelength of 1 μm was included in the analysis to improve the determination of the median radius of the aerosol particles and the slant column particle density. An introduction and overview of the new ACE SSA data product is provided here. The composition and size of SSA particles are key parameters for reliable calculation of radiative transfer needed in climate research.

Rights

© 2026 The Authors

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Data Availability

Article states: "Underlying data for Figure 1 is provided in the Supporting Information S1. The sulfate aerosol data used for particle composition, particle size, and column density in the study are available at Zenodo via https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18010279."

Original Publication Citation

Bernath, P., Bhusal, M., Lecours, M., & Boone, C. (2026). Global characterization of stratospheric sulfate aerosols by the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE). Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 131(14), Article e2025JD046214. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025JD046214

ORCID

0000-0002-1255-396X (Bernath), 0009-0008-6042-3271 (Bhusal)

Repository Citation

Bernath, Peter; Bhusal, Manish; Lecours, Michael; and Boone, Chris, "Global Characterization of Stratospheric Sulfate Aerosols by the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE)" (2026). Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications. 396.
https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/chemistry_fac_pubs/396