The Impact of Energetic Particle Precipitation on the Chemical Composition of the Middle Atmosphere: Measurements and Model Predictions

Sinnhuber, Miriam; Wieters, Nadine; Winkler, Holger

doi:10.1007/978-94-007-4348-9_16

Cited by 3 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 50 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Qualitatively, these results agree very well with observations. However, while the amount of NOx produced by the solar particle event is in reasonable agreement with observations in the stratosphere and lower mesosphere (see, for example, Funke et al 2011), the amount of NOx transported down after the strong warming is underestimated by the model quite considerably (see, for example, Lopez-Puertas et al 2006 andSinnhuber et al 2012) (2006) and Seppälä et al (2007a). There are two possible sources for the underestimation of the NOx values: (1) a problem with the parameterisation of NOx formation by ion chemistry in the upper mesosphere/lower thermosphere; the model uses a parameterisation of NOx production based on Porter et al (1976) and Rusch et al (1981), which underestimates NOx production in the upper mesosphere and lower thermosphere (see Sect.…”

Section: Sudden Stratospheric Warmings and The Role Of Dynamicssupporting

confidence: 77%

“…Rusch et al (1981); the ground state and excited states of N are partitioned according to Porter et al (1976), see also Tables 3, 4 , 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. 2 More details can be found in Winkler (2007), Winkler et al (2008), and Sinnhuber et al (2012). A full list of the reactions, reaction rates, and references for the reaction rates used for the positive ion chemistry of UBIC as used here is given in Tables 3-11. UBIC may act as an ion-chemistry module, attached to a neutral chemistry host model.…”

Section: The Response Of Stratospheric and Tropospheric Dynamics To Ementioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Energetic Particle Precipitation and the Chemistry of the Mesosphere/Lower Thermosphere

2012

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Precipitation of energetic particles into the atmosphere greatly disturbs the chemical composition from the upper stratosphere to the lower thermosphere. Most important are changes to the budget of atmospheric nitric oxides (NOx = N, NO, NO 2) and to atmospheric reactive hydrogen oxides (HOx = H, OH, HO 2), which both contribute to ozone loss in the stratosphere and mesosphere. The impact of energetic particle precipitation on the chemical composition of the atmosphere has been studied since the 1960s, and there are a number of observations as well as model studies concerning especially the auroral impact and large solar particle events. Changes to the NOx budget due to energetic particle precipitation can be quite long-lived during polar winter and can then be transported down into the lower mesosphere and stratosphere, where NOx is one of the main participants in catalytic ozone destruction. Energetic particle precipitation can also affect temperatures and dynamics of the atmosphere from the source region down to the stratosphere and possibly even down to the surface, due to a coupling of chemical composition changes affecting atmospheric heating and cooling rates, the mean circulation, and wave propagation and breaking. Thus, energetic particle precipitation impacts have been implemented in chemistry-climate models reaching from the surface up to the mesosphere or lower thermosphere. However, there are still a number of open questions in the theoretical description of the energetic particle precipitation impact; the most important are uncertainties in the formation rate of different NOx species due to energetic particle precipitation, and the complex coupling between chemical changes, atmospheric heating and cooling rates, and atmospheric dynamics.

show abstract

Section: Sudden Stratospheric Warmings and The Role Of Dynamicssupporting

confidence: 77%

Section: The Response Of Stratospheric and Tropospheric Dynamics To Ementioning

confidence: 99%

Energetic Particle Precipitation and the Chemistry of the Mesosphere/Lower Thermosphere

2012

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For instance, solar proton events (SPEs) occurring in relation to solar variabilities such as solar flares and coronal mass ejections are known to cause significant changes in ozone and other chemical constituents in the stratosphere and mesosphere [7,8]. Energetic electrons also precipitate into the polar atmosphere with a broad energy range from a few eV to MeV, resulting from the interactions of the solar wind, the magnetosphere and the polar ionosphere, to change chemical compositions through inelastic collisions with the ambient atmospheric molecular species (N 2 and O 2 ) [9][10][11][12][13]. The low-energy auroral electrons (1 eV-10 keV) precipitate into the lower thermosphere above about 100 km altitude and lead to a significant amount of the production of nitric oxide (NO).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Polar Middle Atmospheric Responses to Medium Energy Electron (MEE) Precipitation Using Numerical Model Simulations

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Energetic particle precipitation (EPP) is known to be an important source of chemical changes in the polar middle atmosphere in winter. Recent modeling studies further suggest that chemical changes induced by EPP can also cause dynamic changes in the middle atmosphere. In this study, we investigated the atmospheric responses to the precipitation of medium-to-high energy electrons (MEEs) over the period 2005–2013 using the Specific Dynamics Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (SD-WACCM). Our results show that the MEE precipitation significantly increases the amounts of NOx and HOx, resulting in mesospheric and stratospheric ozone losses by up to 60% and 25% respectively during polar winter. The MEE-induced ozone loss generally increases the temperature in the lower mesosphere but decreases the temperature in the upper mesosphere with large year-to-year variability, not only by radiative effects but also by adiabatic effects. The adiabatic effects by meridional circulation changes may be dominant for the mesospheric temperature changes. In particular, the meridional circulation changes occasionally act in opposite ways to vary the temperature in terms of height variations, especially at around the solar minimum period with low geomagnetic activity, which cancels out the temperature changes to make the average small in the polar mesosphere for the 9-year period.

show abstract

“…Precipitating energetic electrons and protons (eV–MeV) from the Earth's magnetosphere are important sources of the production of nitrogen oxides, NO x = NO + NO 2 , in the polar middle and upper atmosphere. Precipitating energetic particles produce NO x by colliding with the abundant molecular species (N 2 and O 2 ), which leads to excitation, dissociation, ionization, or dissociative ionization of these species and subsequent ion chemistry (Nieder et al, ; Porter et al, ; Rusch et al, ; Sinnhuber et al, , ). The most of nitric oxide (NO) in the lower thermosphere, above 100 km, is directly produced by auroral electrons (1 eV to 10 keV) in the auroral oval (geomagnetic altitudes of 60–75°; Siskind et al, ; Solomon et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another important mechanism by particle precipitation is the formation of odd hydrogen, HO x = H + OH + HO 2 , from water vapor (H 2 O) via positive ion chemistry involving water clusters (Swider & Keneshea, ). This process is only effective below about 80‐km altitude, where water vapor is enough (Andersson et al, , ; Sinnhuber et al, , ; Solomon et al, ). Below 80 km, however, HO x is negligibly abundant because the chemical lifetime of HO x is fairly short, 0.1–1 day at 75–80 km (Pickett et al, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Responses of Nitrogen Oxide to High‐Speed Solar Wind Stream in the Polar Middle Atmosphere

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

During high-speed solar wind stream (HSS) events, energetic electrons from the Earth's inner magnetosphere transfer solar wind energy to the high-latitude upper atmosphere, which may affect chemical compositions in the region. We conduct a study on the production of nitrogen oxides (NO x ) in the polar middle atmosphere by energetic electron precipitation (EEP) during HSS events in the period of international polar year 2007-2008 northern winter. During this period, the geomagnetic activity was generally quiet and there were no major solar events, which indicates that the EEPs were mostly associated with HSS events. The electron flux immediately increases with the onset of HSS events and remains elevated during the passage of the events. The estimation of the directly produced NO x by EEPs was attempted by using the correlation between NO x and dynamic tracers such as CO and CH 4 . It was found that the direct effect of EEPs on NO x reaches down to about 55-km altitude and the amount is estimated to be about 2 ppbv. This result indicates that the variations of polar stratospheric NO x in winter are mostly associated with dynamical processes such as vertical transport and horizontal mixing. We also found that the middle atmospheric O 3 depletion during HSS events seems to be related to the EEP-induced NO x at least in the uppermost stratosphere in the polar region. Another important mechanism by particle precipitation is the formation of odd hydrogen, HO x = H + OH + HO 2 , from water vapor (H 2 O) via positive ion chemistry involving water clusters LEE ET AL.9788

show abstract

The Impact of Energetic Particle Precipitation on the Chemical Composition of the Middle Atmosphere: Measurements and Model Predictions

Cited by 3 publications

References 50 publications

Energetic Particle Precipitation and the Chemistry of the Mesosphere/Lower Thermosphere

Energetic Particle Precipitation and the Chemistry of the Mesosphere/Lower Thermosphere

Polar Middle Atmospheric Responses to Medium Energy Electron (MEE) Precipitation Using Numerical Model Simulations

Responses of Nitrogen Oxide to High‐Speed Solar Wind Stream in the Polar Middle Atmosphere

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About