Polar nighttime chemistry produces intense reactive bromine events

International audience By examining the origin of air masses that arrive at Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow) Alaska soon after polar sunrise (late January/early February), we identified periods when air arriving at Utqiaġvik had previously resided primarily at higher latitudes in near total darkness. Upo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geophysical Research Letters
Main Authors: Simpson, W., Frieß, U., Thomas, Jennie L., Lampel, J., Platt, U.
Other Authors: Geophysical Institute Fairbanks, University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Fairbanks, Institut für Umweltphysik Heidelberg, Universität Heidelberg Heidelberg, TROPO - LATMOS, Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales (LATMOS), Sorbonne Université (SU)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: HAL CCSD 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01877525
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01877525/document
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01877525/file/2018GL079444.pdf
https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL079444
Description
Summary:International audience By examining the origin of air masses that arrive at Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow) Alaska soon after polar sunrise (late January/early February), we identified periods when air arriving at Utqiaġvik had previously resided primarily at higher latitudes in near total darkness. Upon illumination, these air masses produced high concentrations of reactive bromine, which was detected by differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS) as bromine monoxide (BrO). These observations are consistent with nighttime production of a photolabile reactive bromine precursor (e.g. Br2 or BrCl). A large polar‐night source of photolabile reactive bromine precursors would contribute seed reactive bromine to daytime reactive bromine events and could export reactive halogens to lower latitudes and the free troposphere.