Detection of atmosphere CCl<sub>2</sub>F<sub>2</sub> spatio-temporal variations by ground-based high resolution Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy
Authors: Zeng Xiang-Yu , Wang Wei , Liu Cheng , Shan Chang-Gong , Xie Yu , Hu Qi-Hou , Sun You-Wen , Polyakov Alexander Viktorovich ,   Key Laboratory of Environmental Optics and Technology, Anhui Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230031, China,   Department of Precision Machinery and Instrumentation, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China,   Department of Automation, Hefei University, Hefei 230601, China,   Faculty of Physics, Saint Petersburg State University, Saint Petersburg 199034, Russia
Published: October 2021

Atmospheric dichlorodifluoromethane (CCl<sub>2</sub>F<sub>2</sub>, CFC-12), as a synthetic chemical agent, is a main stratospheric ozone-depleting substance in atmosphere. Studies of the detection techniques and the temporal and spatial distribution of CFC-12 have great significance in understanding the variation trend of regional CFCs and their influence on stratospheric ozone. In this study, the method of retrieving the vertical profile and total column for CFC-12 is studied based on ground-based high-resolution Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The spectral window for CFC-12 retrieval is selected as 922.5–923.6 cm<sup>–1</sup>, where the interfering gases are H<sub>2</sub>O, O<sub>3</sub>, and CO<sub>2</sub>. The result of error analysis shows that the average total error is 1.27%, including the systematic error 0.76% and random error 1.02%. The vertical profiles and total columns of atmospheric CFC-12 in Hefei during the period from 2017 to 2020 were retrieved based on the optimal estimation algorithm. The vertical profiles of CFC-12 show that the concentration of atmospheric CFC-12 is high in the troposphere and low stratosphere at the altitude of 0–20 km, and then decreases, very low at height above 40 km. The total column average kernel of retrieved CFC-12 profiles is higher at 15–20 km, and the typical signal degree of freedom of CFC-12 is 1.217. Moreover, the long-term total columns of atmosphere CFC-12 observed show obvious seasonal variation in Hefei. Total columns of atmosphere CFC-12 are higher in summer and lower in winter and early spring. The maximum monthly concentration of CFC-12 is about 1.13 × 10<sup>16</sup> mol·cm<sup>–2</sup> in July, and the minimum monthly concentration is 1.00 × 10<sup>16</sup> mol·cm<sup>–2</sup> in March. Also, the annual average total columns of atmospheric CFC-12 decreased slightly from 2017 to 2020, with an increasing rate of –0.68%. This reflects the effect of China's implementation of CFCs control ban policy. Furthermore, in order to verify the accuracy of ground-based FTIR observation, we compare our ground-based observation data with ACE-FTS/ SCISAT satellite version 4.1 level 2 data. There are 16 pairs of matching points between satellite observation and ground observation data, and the correlation coefficient is 0.73 for two CFC-12 partial columns at the height of 16–28 km, showing good agreement between ground-based FTIR data and satellite data. The long-term observations demonstrate the accuracy and reliability of ground-based high-resolution FTIR technology for detecting the vertical distribution and seasonal variation of atmosphere CFC-12.