Observational evidence for the role of denitrification in Arctic stratospheric ozone loss

Gao, R. S.; Richard, E. C.; Popp, Peter; Toon, G. C.; Hurst, D. F.; Newman, Paul A.; Holecek, J. C.; Northway, M. J.; Fahey, D. W.; Danilin, M. Y.; Sen, B.; Aikin, K.; Romashkin, P. A.; Elkins, J. W.; Webster, Christopher R.; Schauffler, S.; Greenblatt, Jeffery B.; McElroy, C. T.; Lait, Leslie R.; Bui, T. P.; Baumgardner, Darrel

doi:10.1029/2001gl013173

Cited by 36 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 19 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…In this period, the loss rate inside the vortex was found to be 0.041 G 0.008 ppmv/day (90% confidence interval). These findings, and results, are consistent with other observations, and suggest that the large ozone loss rate is most likely due to the formation of PSCs, the widespread denitrification (Santee et al 2000;Sinnhuber et al 2000;Popp et al 2001;Gao et al 2001) and the increase of active chlorine compounds (Santee et al 2000) in the lower stratosphere inside the very cold vortex during the winter of 1999/ 2000.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…Anyway, they conclude that the MLS HNO 3 data in the 2000 late-winter period suggest moderate denitrification over a fairly large area. The widespread denitrification was also reported by Popp et al (2001), and Gao et al (2001).…”

Section: Meteorological Conditions Over the Eureka Stationsupporting

confidence: 61%

“…The large ozone loss rate is most likely due to the formation of PSCs, the widespread denitrification (Santee et al 2000;Popp et al 2001;Gao et al 2001) and the increase of active chlorine compounds in the lower stratosphere inside the very cold vortex. Enhanced chlorine monoxide (ClO) was observed in 1999/2000 (Santee et al 2000).…”

Section: Chemical Ozone Lossmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Stratospheric Ozone Loss over Eureka in 1999/2000 Observed with ECC Ozonesondes

Hirota¹,

Miyagawa

Yoshimatsu

et al. 2003

Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In 1999/2000, as many as 51 Electrochemical Concentration Cell (ECC) ozonesondes were launched from December to March at the Canadian Arctic Eureka observatory (80 N, 86 W), one of the most northern stations in the Arctic, and the temporal evolution of the vertical ozone profiles was obtained in detail. During the winter, monthly average total ozone and temperature at 50 hPa, both observed with the ECC ozonesondes, were substantially lower than normal over Eureka since 1993. From December to March, Eureka was most of the time inside the polar vortex in the lower stratosphere (475 K isentropic surface level), except for early March. When Eureka was inside the polar vortex, very low temperatures were observed in the lower stratosphere, in accordance with the detection of Polar Stratospheric Clouds (PSCs) by Mie lidar between the 17 and 22 km level in January. However, PSCs were not observed over Eureka around the same altitude in February. Together with the observations of large HNO 3 -containing Corresponding author: Michio Hirota, Meteorological Research Institute, 1-1, Nagamine, Tsukuba, 305-0052, Japan. E-mail: mhirota@mrj-jma.go.jp ( 2003, Meteorological Society of Japan particles by the ER-2, and depleted HNO 3 by the UARS Microwave Limb Sounder, the lidar observations suggest the denitrification in the lower stratosphere in late winter inside the vortex. Under these conditions, the intravortex ozone mixing ratio on the 475 K isentrope decreased by about 2.2 ppmv from 3.1 ppmv on the 497 K isentrope (4 February), to 0.9 ppmv on the 475 K isentrope (29 March) in late winter to early spring, following the diabatic descent. In this period, the loss rate inside the vortex was found to be 0.041 G 0.008 ppmv/day (90% confidence interval). These findings and results are consistent with other observations (THESEO 2000/SOLVE campaign), and suggest that significant chemical ozone loss did occur in the lower stratosphere inside the polar vortex during the winter of 1999/2000.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Meteorological Conditions Over the Eureka Stationsupporting

confidence: 61%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Stratospheric Ozone Loss over Eureka in 1999/2000 Observed with ECC Ozonesondes

Hirota¹,

Miyagawa

Yoshimatsu

et al. 2003

Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Several studies of the implications of mesoscale temperature fluctuations and the microphysics of polar stratospheric cloud formation and evolution have been published (Wofsy et al, 1993;Murphy and Gary, 1995;Tabazedeh et al, 1996;Carslaw et al, 1998;Voigt et al, 2000;Gao et al, 2001;Doernbrack et al, 2002;Fueglistaler et al, 2003;Murphy, 2003;Karcher and Strom, 2003;Hoyle et al, 2005). Murphy and Gary (1995) use microphysical arguments involving time constants for various effects to conclude that rapid temperature fluctuations should affect the nucleation of polar stratospheric cloud droplets, and the large cooling rates experienced by air parcels have important implications for denitrification and dehydration.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mesoscale temperature fluctuations in the stratosphere

Gary

2006

Atmos. Chem. Phys.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. An airborne instrument that measures altitude temperature profiles is ideally suited for the task of characterizing statistical properties of the vertical displacement of isentrope surfaces. Prior measurements of temperature fluctuations during level flight could not be used to infer isentrope altitude variations because lapse rate information was missing. The Microwave Temperature Profiler instrument, which includes lapse rate measurements at flight level as a part of temperature profiles, has been used on hundreds of flights to produce altitude versus ground track crosssections of potential temperature. These cross-sections show isentrope altitude variations with a horizontal resolution of ∼3 km for a >6 km altitude region. An airborne isentropealtitude cross-section (IAC) can be compared with a counterpart IAC generated from synoptic scale data, based on radiosondes and satellite instruments, in order to assess differences between the altitudes of isentrope surfaces sampled at mesoscale versus synoptic scale. It has been found that the synoptic scale isentropes fail to capture a significant component of vertical displacement of isentrope surfaces, especially in the vicinity of jet streams. Under the assumptions that air parcels flow along isentrope surfaces, and change temperature adiabatically while undergoing altitude displacements, it is possible to compute mesoscale temperature fluctuations that are not present in synoptic scale back trajectory parcel temperature histories. It has been found that the magnitude of the mesoscale component of temperature fluctuations varies with altitude, season, latitude and underlying topography. A model for these dependences is presented, which shows, for example, that mesoscale temperature fluctuations increase with altitude in a systematic way, are greatest over mountainous terrain, and are greater at polar latitudes during winter.

show abstract

“…Ice formation in the tropopause region regulates stratospheric humidity through particle sedimentation and controls the radiative properties of high clouds (Jensen et al, 1996). Polar stratospheric clouds, when composed of NAT (HNO 3 ·3H 2 O), sediment and denitrify the lower stratosphere in winter and thereby enhance photochemical ozone destruction (Davies et al, 2005;Rex et al, 1997;Gao et al, 2001). Theoretical efforts have had limited success in identifying and quantifying atmospheric nucleation processes, in part, because of incomplete knowledge of aerosol composition and how composition affects nucleation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%