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JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH,
VOL. 108, NO. D15,
4437,
doi:10.1029/2002JD002965,
2003
Post-Mount Pinatubo eruption ground-based infrared stratospheric column measurements of HNO3, NO, and NO2 and their comparison with model calculations
Curtis P. Rinsland
NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia, USA
D. K. Weisenstein
Atmospheric and Environmental Research, Inc., Lexington, Massachusetts, USA
M. K. W. Ko
NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia, USA
C. J. Scott
Atmospheric and Environmental Research, Inc., Lexington, Massachusetts, USA
L. S. Chiou
Science Applications International Corporation, Hampton, Virginia, USA
E. Mahieu
Institute of Astrophysics and Geophysics, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
R. Zander
Institute of Astrophysics and Geophysics, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
P. Demoulin
Institute of Astrophysics and Geophysics, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
Abstract
Infrared solar spectra recorded between July 1991 to March 1992 and November 2002 with the Fourier transform spectrometer
on Kitt Peak (31.9°N latitude, 111.6°W longitude, 2.09 km altitude) have been analyzed to retrieve stratospheric columns of
HNO3, NO, and NO2. The measurements cover a decade time span following the June 1991 Mount Pinatubo volcanic eruption and were recorded typically
at 0.01 cm−1 spectral resolution. The measured HNO3 stratospheric column shows a 20% decline from 9.16 × 1015 molecules cm−2 from the first observation in March 1992 to 7.40 × 1015 molecules cm−2 at the start of 1996 reaching a broad minimum of 6.95 × 1015 molecules cm−2 thereafter. Normalized daytime NO and NO2 stratospheric column trends for the full post-Pinatubo eruption time period equal (+1.56 ± 0.45)% yr−1, 1 sigma, and (+0.52 ± 0.32)% yr−1, 1 sigma, respectively. The long-term trends are superimposed on seasonal cycles with ∼10% relative amplitudes with respect
to mean values, winter maxima for HNO3 and summer maxima for NO and NO2. The measurements have been compared with two-dimensional model calculations utilizing version 6.1 Stratospheric Aerosol
and Gas Experiment (SAGE) II sulfate aerosol surface area density measurements through 1999 and extended to the end of the
time series by repeating the 1999 values. The model-calculated HNO3, NO, and NO2 stratospheric column time series agree with the measurements to within ∼8% after taking into account the vertical sensitivity
of the ground-based measurements. The consistency between the measured and model-calculated stratospheric time series confirms
the decreased impact on stratospheric reactive nitrogen chemistry of the key heterogeneous reaction that converts reactive
nitrogen to its less active reservoir form as the lower-stratospheric aerosol surface area density declined by a factor of
∼20 after the eruption maximum.
Received 19
September
2002;
accepted 24
March
2003;
published 1
August
2003.
Index Terms: 0325 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Evolution of the atmosphere; 0340 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Middle atmosphere—composition and chemistry; 0341 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Middle atmosphere—constituent transport and chemistry (3334); 0370 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Volcanic effects (8409); 0368 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Troposphere—constituent transport and chemistry.
Read Full Article (file size: 231111 bytes) Cited by
Citation: Rinsland, C. P., D. K. Weisenstein, M. K. W. Ko, C. J. Scott, L. S. Chiou, E. Mahieu, R. Zander, and P. Demoulin
(2003),
Post-Mount Pinatubo eruption ground-based infrared stratospheric column measurements of HNO3, NO, and NO2 and their comparison with model calculations,
J. Geophys. Res.,
108(D15),
4437,
doi:10.1029/2002JD002965.
Copyright 2003 by the American Geophysical Union.
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