TRENDS IN ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION FROM THE ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY EXPERIMENT (ACE) SATELLITE

After almost 17 years in low-Earth orbit, the ACE satellite is making near-real time measurements of numerous trace gases, thin clouds, aerosols and temperature by solar occultation. The primary instrument is a high-resolution (0.02 cm$^{-1}$) infrared Fourier transform spectrometer (FTS) operating in the 750--4400 cm$^{-1}$ region, which provides data for the vertical distribution of trace gases. Our current version of ACE-FTS processing, v.4.0 (soon to be 4.1), retrieves an unprecedented 44 molecules (H$_2$O, O$_3$, N$_2$O, NO, NO$_2$, HNO$_3$, N$_2$O$_5$, H$_2$O$_2$, HO$_2$NO$_2$, O$_2$, N$_2$, SO$_2$, HCl, HF, ClO, ClONO$_2$, CFC-11, CFC-12, CFC-113, COF$_2$, COCl$_2$, COFCl, CF$_4$, SF$_6$, CH$_3$Cl, CCl$_4$, HCFC-22, HCFC-141b, HCFC-142b, HFC-134a, HFC-23, CO, CH$_4$, CH$_3$OH, H$_2$CO, HCOOH, C$_2$H$_2$, C$_2$H$_6$, OCS, HCN, CH$_3$C(O)CH$_3$, CH$_3$CN, PAN (CH$_3$C(O)OONO$_2$), high and low altitude CO$_2$ as well as 24 additional isotopologues. ACE monitors the Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer, and all of the main greenhouse gases, including CO$_2$. Altitude-latitude distributions and trends in atmospheric abundance will be presented for a subset of the ACE molecules. See http://www.ace.uwaterloo.ca for more information