Articles | Volume 13, issue 6
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-3307-2013
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-3307-2013
Research article
 | 
22 Mar 2013
Research article |  | 22 Mar 2013

Stratospheric BrO abundance measured by a balloon-borne submillimeterwave radiometer

R. A. Stachnik, L. Millán, R. Jarnot, R. Monroe, C. McLinden, S. Kühl, J. Puķīte, M. Shiotani, M. Suzuki, Y. Kasai, F. Goutail, J. P. Pommereau, M. Dorf, and K. Pfeilsticker

Abstract. Measurements of mixing ratio profiles of stratospheric bromine monoxide (BrO) were made using observations of BrO rotational line emission at 650.179 GHz by a balloon-borne SIS (superconductor-insulator-superconductor) submillimeterwave heterodyne limb sounder (SLS). The balloon was launched from Ft. Sumner, New Mexico (34° N) on 22 September 2011. Peak mid-day BrO abundance varied from 16 ± 2 ppt at 34 km to 6 ± 4 ppt at 16 km. Corresponding estimates of total inorganic bromine (Bry), derived from BrO vmr (volume mixing ratio) using a photochemical box model, were 21 ± 3 ppt and 11 ± 5 ppt, respectively. Inferred Bry abundance exceeds that attributable solely to decomposition of long-lived methyl bromide and other halons, and is consistent with a contribution from bromine-containing very short lived substances, BryVSLS, of 4 ppt to 8 ppt. These results for BrO and Bry were compared with, and found to be in good agreement with, those of other recent balloon-borne and satellite instruments.

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