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Sensitivity of Arctic ozone loss to stratospheric H 2 O
Author(s) -
Feck T.,
Grooß J.U.,
Riese M.
Publication year - 2008
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 - 10.1029/2007gl031334
Subject(s) - ozone , stratosphere , atmospheric sciences , ozone depletion , arctic , ozone layer , nitric acid , troposphere , sulfate , environmental science , chlorine , chemistry , meteorology , physics , geology , inorganic chemistry , oceanography , organic chemistry
Likely causes of a future increase in stratospheric H 2 O are a rise in tropospheric CH 4 and H 2 leakages from an increased integration of hydrogen into the energy supply system. Here we evaluate the impact of potential future stratospheric H 2 O increases on Arctic ozone loss by comparing ozone loss proxies based on two different mechanisms of chlorine activation. In particular, the H 2 O dependence of the volume of air is analyzed where temperatures are low enough to form nitric acid trihydrate, denoted as V PSC , and for Cl activation on liquid sulfate aerosols, denoted as V ACl . We show that V ACl increases faster than V PSC with increasing H 2 O mixing ratios in the altitude range of 400 K to 550 K potential temperature. As a consequence, the additional ozone column loss is expected to be most pronounced for cold winters and large H 2 O increases and to be significantly higher when V ACl is used as a proxy.