Previous contributors: Curtis A. Trimble, Bob Johnson, Rudy Killian, Hugh Clarke, Blake Wilson, Jim Riccio, Ron Howe, Dr. Robert T. Menzies, Dick Zanteson, Ernie Nordqvist, Charles Rutledge, Carlos Esproles, Don Hassler
Modelling support: Dr. Lyatt Jaegle, Dr. John Pyle, Dr. Ralf Toumi, Dr. David Lary, Dr. Mark Allen
The BLISS spectrometer was built at JPL and flown in a series of 12 balloon flights from 1983 through 1992. This instrument uses TDL absorption over a pathlength of up to 1 km defined by a retroreflector lowered below the balloon gondola. BLISS has provided measurements of NO2, NO, and HNO3 for studies of the partitioning of active nitrogen in the stratosphere, in addition to producing measurements of other gases such as HCl, CH4, O3, N2O, CO, and CO2. Its ability to measure photochemically-active species such as NO and NO2 at any time of day, coupled with the open-path sampling geometry and IR spectroscopic detection through laser absorption, makes it a sensitive, non-invasive means of in situ measurement specifically suited to NO2. In the lower atmosphere, these in situ measurements were critical to establishing the repartitioning of reactive nitrogen due to heterogeneous processing on background sulfate aerosol.A significant achievement of the BLISS flight series was the recording of the diurnal variation in NO2, covering a full cycle through both sunrise and sunset transitions (Webster et al., 1990). With simultaneous measurement of O3 concentrations, the measured night-time decay in NO2 abundance was used to model the formation of N2O5 during the night through the NO2+NO3+M reaction.
