Airborne measurements of stratospheric constituents over the Arctic in the winter of 1989

Journal Article · Wed Feb 28 23:00:00 EST 1990 · Geophysical Research Letters (American Geophysical Union); (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/GL017i004p00473· OSTI ID:5329561

Mankin, W G; Coffey, M T; Goldman, A ^[1]; Schoeberl, M R; Lait, L R; Newman, P A ^[2]

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1. National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (USA)
2. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD (USA)

The authors have used a Fourier transform spectrometer aboard the NASA DC-8 aircraft during the Airborne Arctic Stratospheric Expedition (AASE) to record infrared absorption spectra of the polar stratosphere. From these high resolution spectra the authors have derived vertical column amounts above flight altitude of O{sub 3}, CH{sub 4}, N{sub 2}O, HCl, HF, NO, NO{sub 2}, ClONO{sub 2}, and HNO{sub 3} for eleven flights poleward of 60{degree}N. The authors report here measurements on the flight of 26 January 1989 when the flight path during the observations crossed from outside the polar vortex to inside. This allowed a clear comparison of the conditions of the air within the vortex with that outside. Observations of passive tracers such as CH{sub 4} and HF indicate that air of a certain composition within the polar vortex occurs at lower altitude than air outside. Within the vortex, they observed markedly reduced columns of HCl and NO{sub 2}. The ratio of HCl to HF column dropped from its typical midlatitude value of 4.5 to as low as 1.7 within the vortex, implying that the HCl had been chemically or physically removed from the air in the vortex. NO{sub 2} values within the vortex were near 3.0{times}10{sup 14} molecules-cm{sup {minus}2}, about a factor of two less than columns outside. In contrast to the Antarctic observations, HNO{sub 3} values were elevated within the vortex. HNO{sub 3} columns inside the vortex reached values of 30{times}10{sup 15} molecules-cm{sup {minus}2}. The ClONO{sub 2} column was largest within the vortex, peaking at 4{times}10{sup 15} molecules-cm{sup {minus}2} near the boundary of the vortex, and decreasing farther into the vortex.

• OSTI ID: 5329561
• Journal Information: Geophysical Research Letters (American Geophysical Union); (United States), Journal Name: Geophysical Research Letters (American Geophysical Union); (United States) Vol. 17:4; ISSN 0094-8276; ISSN GPRLA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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