A 2003 stratospheric aerosol extinction and PSC climatology from GOMOS measurements on Envisat

• Main Authors: F. Vanhellemont, D. Fussen, C. Bingen, E. Kyrölä, J. Tamminen, V. Sofieva, S. Hassinen, P. Verronen, A. Seppälä, J. L. Bertaux, A. Hauchecorne, F. Dalaudier, O. Fanton d'Andon, G. Barrot, A. Mangin, B. Theodore, M. Guirlet, J. B. Renard, R. Fraisse, P. Snoeij, R. Koopman, L. Saavedra
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2005
• Subjects: Physics; QC1-999; Chemistry; QD1-999; Antarctic; Arctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://doaj.org/article/c2cf3afb3e0e47eda3574428f644b8b3

Stratospheric aerosols play an important role in a number of atmospheric issues such as midlatitude ozone depletion, atmospheric dynamics and the Earth radiative budget. Polar stratospheric clouds on the other hand are a crucial factor in the yearly Arctic and Antarctic ozone depletion. It is therefore important to quantify the stratospheric aerosol/PSC abundance. In orbit since March 2002, the GOMOS instrument onboard the European Envisat satellite has provided a vast aerosol extinction data set. In this paper we present aerosol/PSC zonal median values that were constructed from this data set, together with a discussion of the results.