Diurnal and nocturnal distribution of stratospheric NO: from solar and stellar occultation measurements in the Arctic vortex' Comparison with models and ILAS satellite measurements

• Published in: Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
• Main Authors: Payan, Sébastien, Camy-Peyret, Claude, Jeseck, P., Hawat, T., Pirre, Michel, Renard, Jean-Baptiste, Robert, Claude, Lefèvre, Franck, Kanzawa, H., Sasano, Y.
• Other Authors: Laboratoire de Physique Moleculaire pour l'Atmosphere et l'Astrophysique (LPMAA), Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), University of Balamand - UOB (LIBAN), Laboratoire de physique et chimie de l'environnement (LPCE), Université d'Orléans (UO)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement et de l'Espace (LPC2E), Observatoire des Sciences de l'Univers en région Centre (OSUC), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université d'Orléans (UO)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université d'Orléans (UO)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Université Paris sciences et lettres (PSL)-Centre National d’Études Spatiales Paris (CNES), Centre national de recherches météorologiques (CNRM), Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Météo France-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Service d'aéronomie (SA), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 1999
• Subjects: [PHYS.PHYS.PHYS-AO-PH]Physics [physics]/Physics [physics]/Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics [physics.ao-ph]; Arctic; Ilas
• Online Access: https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-02879231; https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-02879231/document; https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-02879231/file/1999JD900276.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1029/1999JD900276

International audience NO2 mixing ratio profiles were measured at sunset between 14 and 30 km using the Limb Profile Monitor of the Atmosphere (LPMA) experiment and during the night between 13 and 31 km using the Absorption par Minoritaires Ozone et NOx (AMON) experiment inside the Arctic vortex, both on February 26, 1997. Coinciding profiles measured by the Improved Limb Atmospheric Spectrometer (ILAS) instrument on board ADEOS have been used to check the consistency between the satellite and balloon profiles for NO2, 03, and HNO3. A box model has been used for the photochemical correction of the LPMA NO2 profiles at sunset. The resulting NO2 balloon-borne profiles of LPMA and AMON are compared to each other after accounting for the day/night photochemical variation using the box model initialized with measurements. The comparisons thus performed show an average difference less than 9% between the two measurements (considered to sample similar air masses) when the box model is initialized with little chlorine activation (i.e., when the major burden of chlorine is stored in C1ONO2) for a 1 day integration. The comparison with the Reprobus 3-D chemistry transport model (CTM) seasonal simulations clearly confirms an underestimation of NO2 by the model below 25 km, in the altitude range where aerosols lead to a complete removal of NOx in the model. Recent updates of rate coefficients for conversion of HNO3 into NO2 only slightly improve the NO2 model results in vortex conditions. These results suggest that a source of NO2 is still lacking in the CTM.