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Polar thermosphere-stratosphere photochemical coupling experiment: Two rocket measurements in polar winter at 69°N

Earth, Planets and Space volume 50, pages 745–753 (1998)Cite this article

Abstract

Two rocket experiments were carried out just before and after the polar night at Andoya (69°N), Norway to investigate transport of nitric oxide produced by auroral processes into the middle atmosphere and its influence on the ozone chemistry. Nitric oxide densities of (2−5) × 108 cm−3 found in the 70–90 km region are one to two orders of magnitude larger than those at middle latitudes. The measured density profiles appear to agree semi-quantitatively with model simulations which includes auroral processes. The influence on ozone densities in the 70–90 km region due to such enhanced nitric oxide abundance is found to be still insignificant as compared to that due to transport in the middle of February, one month after the end of polar night and one month before the spring equinox. The larger ozone densities found in February (in spite of longer sunlit duration) than in November in the 40–60 km region again support predominance of transport over photochemical destruction.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth and Planetary Physics, University of Tokyo, Bunkyo, Tokyo, 113, Japan

    Naomoto Iwagami

  2. Department of Physics, Rikkyo University, Toshima, Tokyo, 171, Japan

    Hiromasa Yamamoto, Ken-ichi Yajima & Hiroyuki Sekiguchi

  3. Tsukuba College of Technology, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305, Japan

    Takashi Watanabe

  4. Faculty of Education, Yokohama National University, Hodogaya, Yokohama, 240, Japan

    Katsuhisa Suzuki

  5. Faculty of Literature, Kokugakuin University, Shibuya, Tokyo, 150, Japan

    Kazuo Shibasaki

  6. Institute of Physical and Chemical Research, Wako, Saitama, 351, Japan

    Hiroshi Amemiya

  7. Faculty of Science, Tohoku University, Aoba, Sendai, 980, Japan

    Masayuki Yamamoto & Takayuki Ono

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  1. Naomoto Iwagami
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  2. Hiromasa Yamamoto
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  3. Ken-ichi Yajima
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  4. Hiroyuki Sekiguchi
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  5. Takashi Watanabe
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  6. Katsuhisa Suzuki
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  7. Kazuo Shibasaki
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  8. Hiroshi Amemiya
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  9. Masayuki Yamamoto
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  10. Takayuki Ono
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Iwagami, N., Yamamoto, H., Yajima, Ki. et al. Polar thermosphere-stratosphere photochemical coupling experiment: Two rocket measurements in polar winter at 69°N. Earth Planet Sp 50, 745–753 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03352167

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03352167

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