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<front>
<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>
<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-2026-6733</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Balloon-based trace gas observations reveal Asian Summer Monsoon impact in the UTLS over Germany</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><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>Rolf</surname>
<given-names>Christian</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5329-0054</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>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>Engel</surname>
<given-names>Andreas</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0557-3935</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Geldenhuys</surname>
<given-names>Markus</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Vogel</surname>
<given-names>Bärbel</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9763-3055</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>Wagenhäuser</surname>
<given-names>Thomas</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4501-6108</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Hegglin</surname>
<given-names>Michaela I.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff6">
<sup>6</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, 52425, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Institute for Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, Goethe University of Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>South African Weather Service, 1263 Heuwel Road, Centurion, South Africa</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff4">
<label>4</label>
<addr-line>Institute for Coastal and Marine Research, Nelson Mandela University, Gqeberha, 6001, South Africa</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff5">
<label>5</label>
<addr-line>Institute for Atmospheric and Environmental Research, University of Wuppertal, Wuppertal, Germany</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff6">
<label>6</label>
<addr-line>Department of Meteorology, University of Reading, Reading, UK</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>13</day>
<month>11</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>31</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Johannes C. Laube 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-2026-6733/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-6733/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-6733/egusphere-2026-6733.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-6733/egusphere-2026-6733.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>For many important trace gases, precise observations in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) are spatially and/or temporally sparse and/or inhomogeneous. This is particularly limiting in the UTLS as a highly variable transition region between the troposphere and stratosphere. We here present a new and unique dataset obtained from weather balloon-based sensors across the summer of 2025. Between 27&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; May and 5&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; November, 46 balloons were launched on an almost weekly basis from near J&amp;uuml;lich, Germany, typically reaching altitudes of around 30 km. Of those flights, 37 focused on trace gases, with 18 near-simultaneous double launches quantifying the vertical distribution of water vapour and ozone as well as multiple halogenated species; thus, enabling access to the temporal evolution of many key UTLS components over a period of about five months. We here focus mainly on ozone-depleting chlorinated very short-lived substances (Cl-VSLSs) with model-based surface-origin tracers to investigate the source regions of the air masses. In particular, we investigate the influence of the Asian Summer Monsoon region &amp;ndash; a source of Cl-VSLSs such as CH&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;Cl&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; &amp;ndash; as the upper-level anticyclone exports air masses into the global northern hemispheric UTLS during the monsoon season. We find that the &amp;ldquo;background&amp;rdquo; lower stratospheric composition in summer and autumn is clearly impacted by the Asian monsoon-related stratospheric entrance pathway, and for Cl-VSLSs much more so than estimated in previous studies.</p>
</abstract>
<counts><page-count count="31"/></counts>
<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>Helmholtz Association</funding-source>
<award-id>MOSES (Modular Observation Solutions for Earth Systems)</award-id>
</award-group>
<award-group id="gs2">
<funding-source>Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft</funding-source>
<award-id>428312742</award-id>
</award-group>
<award-group id="gs3">
<funding-source>European Commission</funding-source>
<award-id>101081430</award-id>
</award-group>
<award-group id="gs4">
<funding-source>Bundesministerium für Forschung, Technologie und Raumfahrt</funding-source>
<award-id>01LK2001I</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
</front>
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<back>
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</article>