The effect of large meteoroid impacts on the ozone and nitric oxide budget in the Earth's upper atmosphere

Peter Butka¹, Elizabeth A. Silber², Maria Gritsevich^3,4,5, Reynold E. Silber⁶

¹ Department of Cybernetics and Arti ficial Intelligence, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Informatics, Technical University of Kosice, Kosice, Slovakia

² Department of Earth Sciences, Western University, London, ON, Canada

³ Finnish Geospatial Research Institute (FGI), Masala, Finland

⁴ Department of Physics, Helsinki University, Finland

⁵ Institute of Physics and Technology, Ural Federal University, Ekaterinburg, Russia

⁶Yale University, Geology and Geophysics, New Haven, CT, 06511, United States

Most optically detectable meteors (0 magnitude or brighter) generate shockwaves during the lower transitional flow regimes in the mesosphere-lower thermosphere (MLT) region of the Earth's atmosphere. Meteor generated shockwaves can modify the surrounding atmosphere and produce a range of physicochemical effects, including removal of ozone (O₃) and production of nitric oxide (NO) (Silber et al. 2017; 2018a). It was previously shown that centimeter-sized meteoroids are capable of producing NO in the MLT region (Menees & Park 1976; Park & Menees 1978); however, as per most recent estimates, the total annual contribution is only about 1000 tons (Silber et al. 2018b). We expand on that work to explore the effect of large meteoroids (the Chelyabinsk class) on the surrounding atmosphere during their descent, and evaluate whether there is a detectable (albeit temporary) contribution to the O₃ and NO budget. We also contrast the NO production e fficiency of large bolides and cm-sized meteoroids. Moreover, we explore long term effects of meteoric species deposition in the upper atmosphere with the focus on the Chelyabinsk class events.

References:

Menees G.P. & Park C. (1976) Atm. Env. 10, 535-545.

Park C. & Menees G.P. (1978) JGR: Oceans. 83, 4029-4035.

Silber E. A. et al. (2018a) Adv. Sp. Res., 62(3), 489-532.

Silber E.A. et al. (2018b) Atmosphere, 9(202), 1-21.