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Error in Dasibi flight measurements of atmospheric ozone due to instrument wall‐loss
Author(s) -
Ainsworth J. E.,
Hagemeyer J. R.,
Reed E. I.
Publication year - 1981
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/gl008i010p01071
Subject(s) - ozone , laminar flow , environmental science , altitude (triangle) , atmospheric sciences , turbulence , balloon , meteorology , atmospheric pressure , mechanics , geology , physics , mathematics , medicine , geometry , cardiology
Theory suggests that in laminar flow the percent loss of a trace constituent to the walls of a measuring instrument varies as P −2/3 , where P is the total gas pressure. Preliminary laboratory ozone wall‐loss measurements confirm this P −2/3 dependence. Accurate assessment of wall‐loss is thus of particular importance for those balloon‐borne instruments utilizing laminar flow at ambient pressure, since the ambient pressure decreases by a factor of 350 during ascent to 40 km. Measurements and extrapolations made for a Dasibi ozone monitor modified for balloon flight indicate that the wall‐loss error at 40 km was between 6 and 30 percent and that the wall‐loss error in the derived total ozone column‐content for the region from the surface to 40 km altitude was between 2 and 10 percent. At 1000 mb, turbulence caused an order of magnitude increase in the Dasibi wall‐loss.