RAPID: Ozone Loss Over the United States in Summer: Advancing Innovative Climate-Chemistry Research via In Situ Observations of ClO and BrO on Solar Powered Stratospheric Aircraft

Harvard University, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

This research includes the deployment of instrumentation to study ozone loss over the central United States in summer. The instrumentation will be integrated onto a new generation of solar powered stratospheric aircraft. Ozone loss over the over the central US in summer could result in an associated increase in exposure to UV radiation at the surface. Recent observations have associated certain atmospheric flow patterns and convective storms over the central U.S. in summer with conditions that may lead to the amplification in the catalytic loss rates of ozone for the dominant halogen, hydrogen, and nitrogen catalytic cycles. These observations define for the first time (a) the frequency and depth of convective penetration of water into the stratosphere over the United States in summer employing the NEXRAD weather radar network, (b) the altitude dependent distribution of inorganic chlorine established in the same coordinate system as the radar observations, (c) the high accuracy, high spatial resolution temperature structure of the stratosphere over the US in summer that resolves spatial and structural variability of temperature, including the impact of gravity waves on the temperature structure, and (d) the resulting amplification in the catalytic loss rates of ozone for the dominant halogen, hydrogen, and nitrogen catalytic cycles. These new observations imply significantly increased risk of ozone loss over the Great Plains in summer.