A global OClO stratospheric layer discovered in GOMOS stellar occultation measurements

Didier Fussen (1) , Filip Vanhellemont (1) , Jan Dodion (1) , Christine Bingen (1) , Nina Mateshvili (1) , Frank Daerden (1) , Dominique Fonteyn (1) , Quentin Errera (1) , Simon Chabrillat (1) , Erkki Kyrölä (2) , Johanna Tamminen (2) , Viktoria Sofieva (2) , Alain Hauchecorne (3) , Francis Dalaudier (3) , Jean-Loup Bertaux (3) , Jean-Baptiste Renard (4) , Renaud Fraisse (5) , Odile Fanton d'Andon (6) , Gilbert Barrot (6) , Marielle Guirlet (6) , Antoine Mangin (6) , Thorsten Fehr (7) , Paul Snoeij (7) , Lidia Saavedra (7)

1 BIRA-IASB - Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy / Institut d'Aéronomie Spatiale de Belgique
2 FMI - Finnish Meteorological Institute
3 SA - Service d'aéronomie
4 LPCE - Laboratoire de physique et chimie de l'environnement
5 Astrium [Toulouse]
6 ACRI-ST - Analytic and Computational Research, Inc. - Earth Sciences
7 ESRIN - European Space Research Institute

The stratospheric ozone depletion observed in polar regions is caused by several catalytic cycles induced by reactive chlorine and bromine species. By reacting with BrO, ClO causes the formation of OClO which is considered as a proxy of the halogen activation. We present the first global determination of the stratospheric OClO distribution measured during the year 2003 by the stellar occultation spectrometer GOMOS. Besides its expected polar abundance, we discovered the presence of a worldwide OClO layer in the upper stratosphere. At lower altitudes, OClO seems also to be present beyond the limit of the polar vortices, an unreported feature.

Domaines: Physique Atmosphérique et Océanique [physics.ao-ph]; Océan, Atmosphère

Didier Fussen, Filip Vanhellemont, Jan Dodion, Christine Bingen, Nina Mateshvili, et al.. A global OClO stratospheric layer discovered in GOMOS stellar occultation measurements. Geophysical Research Letters, 2006, 33 (13), pp.L13815. ⟨10.1029/2006GL026406⟩. ⟨hal-00086125⟩