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<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">EGUsphere</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>EGUsphere</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub"></issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/egusphere-2026-4647</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Climatology and trends in stratospheric mean age of air from correlations of multiple trace gases measured by ACE-FTS</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Voet</surname>
<given-names>Florian</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0009-0007-5027-7744</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Ploeger</surname>
<given-names>Felix</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Laube</surname>
<given-names>Johannes C.</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9683-5931</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Saunders</surname>
<given-names>Laura N.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Sheese</surname>
<given-names>Patrick E.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Mainika</surname>
<given-names>Attahir</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Preusse</surname>
<given-names>Peter</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Grooß</surname>
<given-names>Jens-Uwe</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9485-866X</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Walker</surname>
<given-names>Kaley A.</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3420-9454</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Tegtmeier</surname>
<given-names>Susann</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9206-3161</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Hegglin</surname>
<given-names>Michaela Imelda</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Institute of Climate and Energy Systems: Stratosphere (ICE-4), Forschungszentrum Jülich, Jülich, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Institute for Atmospheric and Environmental Research, University of Wuppertal, Wuppertal, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>Department of Physics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff4">
<label>4</label>
<addr-line>Institute of Space and Atmospheric Studies, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff5">
<label>5</label>
<addr-line>Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, Reading, UK</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>02</day>
<month>09</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>40</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Florian Voet et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-4647/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-4647/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-4647/egusphere-2026-4647.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-4647/egusphere-2026-4647.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>We develop and apply a novel method for estimating stratospheric mean age of air (AoA) from trace gases observed by the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment &amp;ndash; Fourier Transform Spectrometer (ACE-FTS). The method combines SF&lt;sub&gt;6&lt;/sub&gt; with five additional long-lived tracers, N&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;O, CH&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt;, CFC-11, CFC-12, and HCFC-22, and is evaluated for ACE-FTS dataset versions 3.6 and 5.2. A proof of concept using the Chemical Lagrangian Model of the Stratosphere (CLaMS) shows that the multi-tracer approach reduces the uncertainty of zonal-mean AoA by about 50 % relative to conventional methods based only on SF&lt;sub&gt;6&lt;/sub&gt; and yields AoA estimates at individual profiles with an average uncertainty of about 0.3 years. Applied to ACE-FTS data, the multi-tracer method produces smoother AoA fields and strongly suppresses noise in sparsely sampled regions compared with the conventional convolution method. Comparison with in situ AoA estimates from SF&lt;sub&gt;6&lt;/sub&gt; and CO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; generally favors the multi-tracer product, although some discrepancies remain. The method provides a precise and spatially resolved satellite-based AoA product and a promising basis for future studies of long-term changes in stratospheric circulation. Comparison of ERA5 AoA with the new satellite product indicates a slow bias in the reanalysis. The long-term AoA trend pattern over 2004&amp;ndash;2021 shows increasing age in the Northern Hemisphere stratosphere between about 18&amp;ndash;28 km and decreasing age in the tropics and Southern Hemisphere subtropics, largely consistent with ERA5. In particular, AoA increases in the Northern relative to the Southern Hemisphere.</p>
</abstract>
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<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft</funding-source>
<award-id>462476233</award-id>
</award-group>
<award-group id="gs2">
<funding-source>European Space Agency</funding-source>
<award-id>4000142090/23/I-NB</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
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