Vortex-wide chlorine activation by a mesoscale PSC in the Arctic winter of 2009/10
In the Arctic polar vortex of the 2009/10 winter temperatures were low enough to allow widespread formation of polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs). These clouds occurred during the initial chlorine activation phase which provided the opportunity to investigate the impact of PSCs on chlorine activation...
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ftfzjuelichnvdb:oai:juser.fz-juelich.de:824376 2024-09-15T18:10:03+00:00 Vortex-wide chlorine activation by a mesoscale PSC in the Arctic winter of 2009/10 Wegner, Tobias Pitts, Michael C. Poole, L. R. Tritscher, Ines Grooss, Jens-Uwe Nakajima, H. DE 2016 https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/824376 https://juser.fz-juelich.de/search?p=id:%22FZJ-2016-06976%22 eng eng EGU info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/wos/WOS:000374703000021 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/1680-7316 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.5194/acp-16-4569-2016 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/hdl/2128/13082 https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/824376 https://juser.fz-juelich.de/search?p=id:%22FZJ-2016-06976%22 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Atmospheric chemistry and physics 16, 4569-4577 (2016). doi:10.5194/acp-16-4569-2016 info:eu-repo/classification/ddc/550 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2016 ftfzjuelichnvdb https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-4569-2016 2024-08-05T23:55:46Z In the Arctic polar vortex of the 2009/10 winter temperatures were low enough to allow widespread formation of polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs). These clouds occurred during the initial chlorine activation phase which provided the opportunity to investigate the impact of PSCs on chlorine activation. Satellite observations of gas-phase species and PSCs are used in combination with trajectory modeling to assess this initial activation. The initial activation occurred in association with the formation of PSCs over the east coast of Greenland at the beginning of January 2010. Although this area of PSCs covered only a small portion of the vortex, it was responsible for almost the entire initial activation of chlorine vortex wide. Observations show HCl (hydrochloric acid) mixing ratios decreased rapidly in and downstream of this region. Trajectory calculations and simplified heterogeneous chemistry modeling confirmed that the initial chlorine activation continued until ClONO2 (chlorine nitrate) was completely depleted and the activated air masses were advected throughout the polar vortex. For the calculation of heterogeneous reaction rates, surface area density is estimated from backscatter observations. Modeled heterogeneous reaction rates along trajectories intersecting with the PSCs indicate that the initial phase of chlorine activation occurred in just a few hours. These calculations also indicate that chlorine activation on the binary background aerosol is significantly slower than on the PSC particles and the observed chlorine activation can only be explained by an increase in surface area density due to PSC formation. Furthermore, there is a strong correlation between the magnitude of the observed HCl depletion and PSC surface area density. Article in Journal/Newspaper Greenland Forschungszentrum Jülich: JuSER (Juelich Shared Electronic Resources) Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics 16 7 4569 4577 |
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Forschungszentrum Jülich: JuSER (Juelich Shared Electronic Resources) |
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language |
English |
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info:eu-repo/classification/ddc/550 |
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info:eu-repo/classification/ddc/550 Wegner, Tobias Pitts, Michael C. Poole, L. R. Tritscher, Ines Grooss, Jens-Uwe Nakajima, H. Vortex-wide chlorine activation by a mesoscale PSC in the Arctic winter of 2009/10 |
topic_facet |
info:eu-repo/classification/ddc/550 |
description |
In the Arctic polar vortex of the 2009/10 winter temperatures were low enough to allow widespread formation of polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs). These clouds occurred during the initial chlorine activation phase which provided the opportunity to investigate the impact of PSCs on chlorine activation. Satellite observations of gas-phase species and PSCs are used in combination with trajectory modeling to assess this initial activation. The initial activation occurred in association with the formation of PSCs over the east coast of Greenland at the beginning of January 2010. Although this area of PSCs covered only a small portion of the vortex, it was responsible for almost the entire initial activation of chlorine vortex wide. Observations show HCl (hydrochloric acid) mixing ratios decreased rapidly in and downstream of this region. Trajectory calculations and simplified heterogeneous chemistry modeling confirmed that the initial chlorine activation continued until ClONO2 (chlorine nitrate) was completely depleted and the activated air masses were advected throughout the polar vortex. For the calculation of heterogeneous reaction rates, surface area density is estimated from backscatter observations. Modeled heterogeneous reaction rates along trajectories intersecting with the PSCs indicate that the initial phase of chlorine activation occurred in just a few hours. These calculations also indicate that chlorine activation on the binary background aerosol is significantly slower than on the PSC particles and the observed chlorine activation can only be explained by an increase in surface area density due to PSC formation. Furthermore, there is a strong correlation between the magnitude of the observed HCl depletion and PSC surface area density. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Wegner, Tobias Pitts, Michael C. Poole, L. R. Tritscher, Ines Grooss, Jens-Uwe Nakajima, H. |
author_facet |
Wegner, Tobias Pitts, Michael C. Poole, L. R. Tritscher, Ines Grooss, Jens-Uwe Nakajima, H. |
author_sort |
Wegner, Tobias |
title |
Vortex-wide chlorine activation by a mesoscale PSC in the Arctic winter of 2009/10 |
title_short |
Vortex-wide chlorine activation by a mesoscale PSC in the Arctic winter of 2009/10 |
title_full |
Vortex-wide chlorine activation by a mesoscale PSC in the Arctic winter of 2009/10 |
title_fullStr |
Vortex-wide chlorine activation by a mesoscale PSC in the Arctic winter of 2009/10 |
title_full_unstemmed |
Vortex-wide chlorine activation by a mesoscale PSC in the Arctic winter of 2009/10 |
title_sort |
vortex-wide chlorine activation by a mesoscale psc in the arctic winter of 2009/10 |
publisher |
EGU |
publishDate |
2016 |
url |
https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/824376 https://juser.fz-juelich.de/search?p=id:%22FZJ-2016-06976%22 |
op_coverage |
DE |
genre |
Greenland |
genre_facet |
Greenland |
op_source |
Atmospheric chemistry and physics 16, 4569-4577 (2016). doi:10.5194/acp-16-4569-2016 |
op_relation |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/wos/WOS:000374703000021 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/1680-7316 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.5194/acp-16-4569-2016 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/hdl/2128/13082 https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/824376 https://juser.fz-juelich.de/search?p=id:%22FZJ-2016-06976%22 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-4569-2016 |
container_title |
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
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16 |
container_issue |
7 |
container_start_page |
4569 |
op_container_end_page |
4577 |
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1810447650905915392 |