Measurement of atmospheric composition by the ATMOS instrument from Table Mountain Observatory

Following its first flight on board the Space Shuttle 'Challenger' as part of the Spacelab 3 payload, the Atmospheric Trace Molecule Spectroscopy (ATMOS) instrument has been operated at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Table Mountain Observatory (TMO; 34.4 deg N, 117.7 deg W, 2.23 km altitude) in the San Gabriel Mountains of Southern California. With the delay in the resumption of regular Shuttle flights, ATMOS has acquired a large number of high-quality, high-resolution infrared solar absorption spectra, spanning a period between late-1985 and mid-1990. These spectra are being analyzed to derive the column abundances of several atmospheric species including O3, HCl, HF, and HNO3. Although limited in temporal coverage, the preliminary results for these gases are discussed here in the context of the requirement and contribution to be made by similar instruments in detecting long term changes in stratospheric composition.