Publication Date:
2015-04-03
Description:
The Superconducting Submillimeter-Wave Limb-Emission Sounder (SMILES) successfully observed vertical distributions of ozone (O 3 ) concentration in the middle atmosphere during the annular solar eclipse that occurred on 15 January 2010. In the mesosphere, where the photochemical lifetime of O 3 is relatively short (ca. 100 s), altitude-dependent changes in O 3 concentration under reduced solar radiation and their temporal variations were clearly observed as a function of the eclipse obscuration. This study reports the vertical distributions of mesospheric O 3 during a solar eclipse event, and analyzes theoretically the eclipse-induced changes. We show that simple analytical expressions for O 3 concentration, which assume that O 3 and O are in a photochemically steady state, can be used to describe the O 3 concentration under reduced solar radiation. The SMILES data obtained during the eclipse provide a unique opportunity to test our current understanding of mesospheric O 3 photochemistry.
Print ISSN:
0094-8276
Electronic ISSN:
1944-8007
Topics:
Geosciences
,
Physics
Permalink