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Estimate of the contribution of the space shuttle effluent to the natural stratospheric aerosol
Author(s) -
Hofmann D. J.,
Carroll D. E.,
Rosen J. M.
Publication year - 1975
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/gl002i003p00113
Subject(s) - space shuttle , aerosol , stratosphere , environmental science , solid fuel rocket , atmospheric sciences , meteorology , rocket (weapon) , aerospace engineering , physics , engineering , propellant
During the period 1979–1990, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is planning some 580 (or approximately one per week) space shuttle flights. Each of these flight configurations will include two large solid fuel rocket boosters (SRB) which will emit aluminum oxide (Al 2 O 3 ) particles as exhaust products. We estimate the equilibrium distribution of such particles in the stratosphere and suggest that the shuttle contribution of very small particles, r∼0.01 µm may be nonnegligible.