News

A recent publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences entitled Global stratospheric methane loss from satellite observations has shown that incorporating ACE satellite data helps reconcile the top-down and bottom-up estimates of the global methane budget. A press release in Phys.org provides more information on this important study and includes the importance of this satellite data.

The University of Waterloo published a news report on our research!

"Celebrating ACE’s contributions to atmospheric monitoring on World Ozone Day"

ACE data is featured prominently in the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) 2025 Scientific Assessment Panel of the Montreal Protocol review of HFC-23 as the sole source of satellite data. This was based on the recent publication by Dodangodage, et al. entitled HFC-23 from updated Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment Fourier transform spectrometer (ACE-FTS) retrievals. Click the title to go to the UNEP Report.

On August 13, 2023 (UTC time), the satellite SCISAT was launched. 22 years later, SCISAT performs flawlessly and the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE) continues to provide data users with important atmospheric measurements of over 46 molecules.

The fifth edition of Spectra of Atoms and Molecules (Oxford University Press, 2025) is an invaluable companion for the ACE mission. For example, the book has a chapter on spectra of clouds and aerosols based on ACE data.

ACE-FTS version 5.2 processing ended on Nov. 30, 2024 and has been replaced by v5.3. This version change was required because of a change in processing computers. A small change was also made in the retrieval code, which has minimized the number of “spikes” in the VMR profiles near 30 km. As in v5.2, v5.3 removes any occultations with spikes at 30 km. About 1500 occultations have been recovered in v5.3. Processing for the Imagers has not changed. ACE-FTS v5.3 winds will be available soon. V5.3 is therefore the current and complete ACE-FTS and Imager processing version and can be viewed at our ACE-FTS v5.3 database. More details are available in the ACE documents.

The Waterloo Region Record published a news article on ACE!

"While other studies measure the gas on the ground or much lower in the atmosphere, this study by the university’s “Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment” (ACE) research group is the only one which uses a satellite to measure it between 11 and 25 kilometres above the globe."

The University of Waterloo published a news report on our research!

"Waterloo study is the first to use satellites to measure HFC-125 in the atmosphere for a more accurate picture of climate change."

On May 22, 2024, Project Scientist Dr. Chris Boone was awarded the Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (AMT) Outstanding Referee Award.

Click here to read the full press release provided by AMT.

Congratulations Chris!

Recent scientific discoveries reported by the Canadian Space Agency expose a chemical process in the atmosphere through which intense wildfires contribute to ozone layer depletion. These discoveries have been made possible by ABB technology on board the SCISAT satellite.