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CRISTA‐2 observations of the South Polar Vortex in winter 1997: A new dataset for polar process studies
Author(s) -
Spang Reinhold,
Riese Martin,
Offermann Dirk
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2000gl012374
Subject(s) - polar vortex , stratosphere , polar , atmospheric sciences , atmosphere (unit) , environmental science , total ozone mapping spectrometer , ozone , potential temperature , water vapor , geology , ozone layer , meteorology , physics , astronomy
During the second mission of the Cryogenic Spectrometers and Telescopes for the Atmosphere (CRISTA) in August 1997 considerable and highly variable cloud cover in the stratosphere was seen over Antarctica. Two large areas of polar stratospheric clouds (PSC) could be observed. One region of PSCs near the vortex edge was caused by a meteorological situation as it is typical for an ozone minihole event and dissolved within two days. The temperature dependence of the HNO 3 measured by CRISTA suggests that outside of their center the clouds consists of type I particles. However, a further discrimination between nitric acid trihydrate (NAT) or supercooled ternary solutions (STS) is not possible, due to the uncertainties in the meteorological temperatures and the amount of water vapor.