First global observations of atmospheric COClF from the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment mission

✍ Scribed by Dejian Fu; Chris D. Boone; Peter F. Bernath; Debra K. Weisenstein; Curtis P. Rinsland; Gloria L. Manney; Kaley A. Walker

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 633 KB
• Volume: 110
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-4073
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jqsrt.2009.02.018

✦ Synopsis

Carbonyl chlorofluoride (COClF) is an important reservoir of chlorine and fluorine in the Earth's atmosphere. Satellite-based remote sensing measurements of COClF, obtained by the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE) for a time period spanning February 2004 through April 2007, have been used in a global distribution study. There is a strong source region for COClF in the tropical stratosphere near 27 km. A layer of enhanced COClF spans the low-to mid-stratosphere over all latitudes, with volume mixing ratios of 40-100 parts per trillion by volume, largest in the tropics and decreasing toward the poles. The COClF volume mixing ratio profiles are nearly zonally symmetric, but they exhibit a small hemispheric asymmetry that likely arises from a hemispheric asymmetry in the parent molecule CCl 3 F. Comparisons are made with a set of in situ stratospheric measurements from the mid-1980s and with predictions from a 2-D model.