Constraints on the photolysis and the equilibrium constant of ClO-dimer from airborne and balloon-borne measurements of chlorine compounds
Abstract
Significant differences exist between different laboratory measurements of the photolysis cross-sections of ClO-dimer, and the rate constant controlling the thermal equilibrium between ClO-dimer and ClO. This leads to uncertainties in the calculations of stratospheric ozone loss in the winter polar regions. One way to constrain the plausibility of these parameters is the measurement of ClO across the terminator in the activated polar vortex. Here we analyze measurements of ClO taken by the airborne submillimeter radiometer ASUR in the Arctic winter of 1999/2000. We use measured ClO at low solar zenith angles (SZA) to estimate the total active chlorine (ClOx). We estimate total available inorganic chlorine (Cly) using ASUR measurements of N2O in January 2000 and a N2O-Cly correlation established by a balloon measurement of the MarkIV interferometer in December 1999. We compare the ClOx estimates based on different photolysis rates of ClO-Dimer. Our results show that cross-sections leading to fast photolysis rates like the ones by Burkholder et al. [1990] or Papanastasiou et al. [2009] give ClOx mixing ratios that overlap with our estimated range of available Cly. Slower photolysis rates like the ones by von Hobe et al. [2009] and Pope et al. [2007] lead to ClOx values that are significantly higher than the available Cly. We use the calculated ClOx from low SZA to estimate the ClO in darkness with different equilibrium constants, and compare it with ASUR ClO measurements before sunrise (SZA > 95). We find that calculations with equilibrium constants published in the JPL evaluation of the last few years all give good agreement with observed ClO mixing ratios. The equilibrium constant estimated by von Hobe et al. [2005] yields ClO values that are higher than the ones observed.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2011
- Bibcode:
- 2011AGUFM.A43C0166K
- Keywords:
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- 0340 ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE / Middle atmosphere: composition and chemistry;
- 3360 ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES / Remote sensing