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The lifetime of leewave‐induced ice particles in the Arctic stratosphere: I. Balloonborne observations
Author(s) -
Deshler Terry,
Peter Thomas,
Müller Rolf,
Crutzen Paul
Publication year - 1994
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 - 10.1029/93gl03228
Subject(s) - stratosphere , atmospheric sciences , arctic , frost (temperature) , environmental science , aerosol , polar , evaporation , ozone , ozone depletion , the arctic , climatology , meteorology , geology , physics , oceanography , astronomy
During the European Arctic Stratospheric Ozone Experiment (EASOE) in 1991/1992 there were only a few occasions when polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) were observed. One of these was on 27 January 1992 when PSCs were detected by two balloonborne aerosol instruments released from Esrange near Kiruna, Sweden (68°N). High concentrations of particles were found at altitudes between 19 and 24 km, in a series of many very thin layers. Particles as large as 5 µm were detected. The surface area concentration in the densest layers exceeded 100 µm² cm −3 , as estimated from retrieved size distributions. Estimates of the total mass of the particles suggest that ice must have been the main constituent, although the air temperature was 3 K or more above the frost point. The particles were probably formed during leewave cooling over the Norwegian mountains, some hours earlier, and some 300 km upstream of the measurements. A possible explanation for the slow evaporation observed is offered in part II of this paper (Peter et. al., this issue).