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An evaluation of O 2 ( b ¹Σ g ) as a possible source of OH and odd‐nitrogen in the stratosphere and mesosphere
Author(s) -
Siskind David E.,
Summers Michael E.,
Mlynczak Martin G.
Publication year - 1993
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 - 10.1029/93gl02471
Subject(s) - stratosphere , mesosphere , nitrogen , atmosphere (unit) , yield (engineering) , production (economics) , quenching (fluorescence) , nitrogen oxides , physics , atmospheric sciences , analytical chemistry (journal) , chemistry , meteorology , environmental chemistry , thermodynamics , fluorescence , optics , quantum mechanics , macroeconomics , economics , engineering , waste management
A one dimensional photochemical model has been used to evaluate the hypothesis that the oxidation of H 2 and N 2 O by O 2 ( b ¹Σ g ) could lead to significant production of OH and odd‐nitrogen in the middle atmosphere. For the reaction with H 2 , even if all the quenchings lead to oxidation, the change in the OH column is only 13%. This is still too small to resolve the discrepancy between the model and ground based measurements and furthermore could not account for the apparent change in the ground based column with time. For the reaction with N 2 O , it is possible to produce significant odd‐nitrogen in the lower stratosphere only if the oxidation yield is at least 5–10%. However, one then gets a surplus of odd‐nitrogen in the upper stratosphere unless one makes the additional assumption that the production of O 2 ( b ¹Σ g ) from O (¹ D ) quenching is small.