Open AccessFive years of NO 2 vertical column measurements at Faraday (65°S): Evidence for the hydrolysis of BrONO 2 on Pinatubo aerosols
Author(s) -
Slusser J. R.,
Fish D. J.,
Strong E. K.,
Jones R. L.,
Roscoe H. K.,
Sarkissian A.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: atmospheres
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/97jd00359
Subject(s) - aerosol , atmospheric sciences , ozone , stratosphere , environmental science , bromine , annual cycle , volcano , troposphere , quasi biennial oscillation , climatology , meteorology , physics , chemistry , geology , organic chemistry , seismology
Summertime measurements Of NO 2 vertical column amounts over a 5 year period from May 1990 until February 1995 from Faraday Base, Antarctica, show a marked reduction following the arrival of the Mount Pinatubo volcanic aerosol in December 1991. Model calculations show that this reduction can be explained by BrONO 2 and N 2 O 5 hydrolysis on the volcanically enhanced aerosol, with the former dominating. Given the measurement and model uncertainties and lack of any treatment the effects of the quasi‐biennial oscillation, the reduction in NO 2 is consistent with a BrONO 2 sticking coefficient gamma of 0.4. However, the best agreement between the model and the measurements occurs using a gamma of 0.2. Over the time span of the measurements the known increases in chlorine and bromine loadings have an effect of less than 2% on midsummer NO 2 columns. With background aerosols, summertime ozone catalytic losses are dominated by the HO x cycle between 12 and 18 km and by the NO x cycle at greater altitudes. With heavy aerosol loading, HO x is the primary loss cycle from 12 to 22 km. The total ozone loss increases by 38% at 16 km as a result of heavy aerosol loading.