HR: 1330h
AN: A32B-0154    [PDF]
TI: In-Situ Stratospheric Observations of a Volatile Component in Rocket Exhaust Aerosol Particles.
AU: Whitefield, P D
EM: pwhite@umr.edu
AF: University of Missouri - Rolla Cloud and Aerosol Sciences Laboratory, Norwood Hall G-11 1870 Miner Circle P.O. box 92957, Rolla, MO 65409-0001 United States
AU: * Rutter, A P
EM: aprutter@wisc.edu
AF: University of Missouri - Rolla Cloud and Aerosol Sciences Laboratory, Norwood Hall G-11 1870 Miner Circle P.O. box 92957, Rolla, MO 65409-0001 United States
AU: Hagen, D E
EM: hagen@umr.edu
AF: University of Missouri - Rolla Cloud and Aerosol Sciences Laboratory, Norwood Hall G-11 1870 Miner Circle P.O. box 92957, Rolla, MO 65409-0001 United States
AU: Gadbury, G L
EM: gadburyg@umr.edu
AF: University of Missouri - Rolla Cloud and Aerosol Sciences Laboratory, Norwood Hall G-11 1870 Miner Circle P.O. box 92957, Rolla, MO 65409-0001 United States
AU: Schmid, O
EM: oschmid@mpch-mainz.mpg.de
AF: University of Missouri - Rolla Cloud and Aerosol Sciences Laboratory, Norwood Hall G-11 1870 Miner Circle P.O. box 92957, Rolla, MO 65409-0001 United States
AU: Brinkman, M
EM: byfieldr@umr.edu
AF: University of Missouri - Rolla Cloud and Aerosol Sciences Laboratory, Norwood Hall G-11 1870 Miner Circle P.O. box 92957, Rolla, MO 65409-0001 United States
AU: Ross, M N
EM: Martin.N.Ross@aero.org
AF: The Aerospace corporation, 2350 E. El Segundo Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90009-2957 United States
AB: Aerosol in the plume wake of an Athena II solid fuel rocket was sampled between 16 and 19 km altitude using a two channel laser particle counter with heated and unheated sample inlets and carried by the WB-57F aircraft during the ACCENT campaign. Total and non-volatile aerosol size distributions were obtained for particles with diameters between 360nm and 4100nm during five plume encounters up to 45 minutes after launch. The average fraction of the total aerosol volume accounted for by the volatile component for all of the encounters was 66$\pm19$, approximately constant for all of the encounters. Persistence of the volatile component until the last plume encounter 45 minutes after launch, along with other recent models and observations of rocket plumes, suggest that the composition of the volatile component was primarily water ice and HCl with a surface layer of HNO3. In this view, a thin HNO3 layer suppresses ice evaporation and so accounts for the unexpectedly long lifetime of the plume volatile aerosol. Our data strongly reinforce previous work suggesting that rocket plumes contain HNO3 coated ice particles and so are more reactive than has been widely assumed.
DE: 0300 ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE
DE: 0305 Aerosols and particles (0345, 4801)
DE: 0320 Cloud physics and chemistry
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting