Reduced Antarctic Ozone Depletions in a Model with Hydrocarbon Injections

• Main Authors: Cicerone, RJ, Elliott, Scott, Turco, RP
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: eScholarship, University of California 1991
• Subjects: General Science & Technology; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Austral; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3vc92918

Motivated by increased losses of Antarctic stratospheric ozone and by improved understanding of the mechanism, a concept is suggested for action to arrest this ozone loss: injecting the alkanes ethane or propane (E or P) into the Antarctic stratosphere. A numerical model of chemical processes was used to explore the concept. The model results suggest that annual injections of about 50,000 tons of E or P could suppress ozone loss, but there are some scenarios where smaller E or P injections could increase ozone depletion. Further, key uncertainties must be resolved, induding initial concentrations of nitrogen-oxide species in austral spring, and several poorly defined physical and chemical processes must be quantifed. There would also be major difficulties in delivering and distributing the needed alkanes.