HR: 17:45h
AN: A52G-08    [PDF]
TI: Inferring Denitrification From Twenty Years of Solar Occultation Measurements of Arctic PSCs
AU: * Alfred, J
EM: alfred@cpi.com
AF: Computational Physics Inc, 8001 Braddock Rd Suite 210, Springfield, VA 22151 United States
AU: Bevilacqua, R
EM: bevilacqua@nrl.navy.mil
AF: Naval Research Lab, 4555 Overlook Avenue, S.W., Washington, DC 20375 United States
AU: Fromm, M
EM: mike.fromm@nrl.navy.mil
AF: Computational Physics Inc, 8001 Braddock Rd Suite 210, Springfield, VA 22151 United States
AB: Recently, Fromm et al. [J. Geophys. Res., 108(D12), 4366, doi:10.1029/2002JD002772, 2003] have reanalyzed the Polar Ozone and Aerosol Measurement (POAM II and POAM III) and the NASA Stratospheric Aerosol Measurement (SAM II) satellite PSC databases using a unified detection algorithm and methodology. This has yielded an internally consistent, nearly unbroken PSC climatology extending from 1979 to the present. A technique has been developed by Bevilacqua et al. [J. Geophys. Res., 107(D20), 8281, doi:10.1029/2001JD000477, 2002] to infer irreversible denitrification. This technique stems from the assumption that irreversible denitrification lowers the NAT saturation temperature which in turn lowers the temperature for PSC formation. This results in a decreased PSC frequency at a given temperature as the Arctic vortex season progresses. In this paper we apply this technique to the long-term Arctic PSC database provided by Fromm et al. to yield a proxy climatology of denitrification which extends back for more than 20 years. Results suggest that denitrification is a relatively common occurrence in cold Arctic winters.
DE: 0305 Aerosols and particles (0345, 4801)
DE: 0340 Middle atmosphere--composition and chemistry
DE: 0341 Middle atmosphere--constituent transport and chemistry (3334)
DE: 0370 Volcanic effects (8409)
DE: 0394 Instruments and techniques
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting