Organics in the stratosphere: new insights from weather balloon flights conducted in France
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Atmospheric aerosols significantly influence the Earth’s climate, yet they remain a major source of uncertainty in climate projections. Here, we present a set of unique offline analysis of organics collected from the ground to the stratosphere with ultimate sensitivity using a new balloon-borne sampling technique deployed on simple weather balloons. Activated and functionalized carbon fabrics were used to target chemical compounds in the gaseous and aerosol forms during three flights over France. Ultra-high-resolution mass spectrometry, enabling the detection of thousands of organic compounds, and highlighted high-carbon-number organics, indicating oligomerization in long-lived tropical stratospheric air masses. Our measurements suggest that large stratospheric sulfate aerosols from volcanic eruptions could play a role in the formation of secondary aerosols in internally mixed particles and may explain the presence of organics with higher carbon numbers. These measurements revealed a drop in the number of unsaturated carbons at higher altitudes.
Institutions: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut de Combustion Aérothermique Réactivité et Environnement, Université d'Orléans, Groupe de Spectrométrie Moléculaire et Atmosphérique, Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l’Environnement et de l’Espace, Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne, Langley Research Center, National Institute of Aerospace, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Interfaces, Confinement, Matériaux et Nanostructures, École Polytechnique, Université Paris-Saclay, Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique
Language: English
Subfield: Atmospheric Science
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Climate action
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,590
OpenAlex ID: W4411351793