skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: High-Altitude Aircraft and Balloon-Borne Observations of OH, HO2, ClO, BrO, NO2, ClONO2, ClOOCl, H2O, and O3 in Earth`s Stratosphere. Progress report, 1 January-31 December 1995

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:236820

Research executed over calendar year 1995 focused on three primary objectives. The first is the dissection of free radical catalytic cycles. The objective is to determine both the mechanisms for ozone loss in the lower stratosphere, by establishing the hierarchy of rate limiting steps in the nitrogen, halogen, and hydrogen cycles, and to determine the response of the stratosphere to changing levels of NO(sub x), aerosols, etc., by directly observing the partial derivatives of the constituent concentrations. Observations are made from the NASA ER-2 aircraft. The second is to incorporate fast-response water vapor measurements into the ER-2 payload, to obtain high spatial resolution data on water vapor. This is a particularly powerful technique for diagnosing dynamical behavior of the stratosphere when combined with the rapid time-response CO2 observations available on the ER-2. The third objective is the development of a new instrument designed for the ER-2 superpod, which will observe ClONO2 in situ for the first time, and also will observe ClO, BrO, and NO2 simultaneously. The authors present the progress made in each category.

Research Organization:
Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)
OSTI ID:
236820
Report Number(s):
N-96-23334; NASA-CR-200514; NAS-1.26:200514; NIPS-96-35456; CNN: NAG1-1305; TRN: 9623334
Resource Relation:
Other Information: PBD: Feb 1996
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English