Polar Stratospheric Clouds: Satellite Observations, Processes, and Role in Ozone Depletion ...

• Main Authors: Tritscher, Ines, Pitts, Michael C., Poole, Lamont R., Alexander, Simon P., Cairo, Francesco, Chipperfield, Martyn P., Grooß, Jens-Uwe, Höpfner, Michael, Lambert, Alyn, Luo, Beiping, Molleker, Sergey, Orr, Andrew, Salawitch, Ross J., Snels, Marcel, Spang, Reinhold, Woiwode, Wolfgang, Peter, Thomas
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: ETH Zurich 2021
• Subjects: Antarc*; Antarctic
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000492852; http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/492852

Polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) play important roles in stratospheric ozone depletion during winter and spring at high latitudes (e.g., the Antarctic ozone hole). PSC particles provide sites for heterogeneous reactions that convert stable chlorine reservoir species to radicals that destroy ozone catalytically. PSCs also prolong ozone depletion by delaying chlorine deactivation through the removal of gas-phase HNO3 and H2O by sedimentation of large nitric acid trihydrate (NAT) and ice particles. Contemporary observations by the spaceborne instruments Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS), Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS), and Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) have provided an unprecedented polar vortex-wide climatological view of PSC occurrence and composition in both hemispheres. These data have spurred advances in our understanding of PSC formation and related dynamical processes, especially the firm evidence of widespread heterogeneous nucleation of both ... : Reviews of Geophysics, 59 (2) ...