Options to Accelerate Ozone Recovery: Ozone and Climate Benefits

The humankind or anthropogenic influence on ozone primarily originated from the chlorofluorocarbons and halons (chlorine and bromine). Representatives from governments have met periodically over the years to establish international regulations starting with the Montreal Protocol in 1987, which greatly limited the release of these ozone-depleting substances (DDSs). Two global models have been used to investigate the impact of hypothetical reductions in future emissions of ODSs on total column ozone. The investigations primarily focused on chlorine- and bromine-containing gases, but some computations also included nitrous oxide (N2O). The Montreal Protocol with ODS controls have been so successful that further regulations of chlorine- and bromine-containing gases could have only a fraction of the impact that regulations already in force have had. if all anthropogenic ODS emissions were halted beginning in 2011, ozone is calculated to be higher by about 1-2% during the period 2030-2100 compared to a case of no additional ODS restrictions. Chlorine- and bromine-containing gases and nitrous oxide are also greenhouse gases and lead to warming of the troposphere. Elimination of N 20 emissions would result in a reduction of radiative forcing of 0.23 W/sq m in 2100 than presently computed and destruction of the CFC bank would produce a reduction in radiative forcing of 0.005 W/sq m in 2100. This paper provides a quantitative way to consider future regulations of the CFC bank and N 20 emission

Short- and Medium-term Atmospheric Effects of Very Large Solar Proton Events

Long-term variations in ozone have been caused by both natural and humankind related processes. In particular, the humankind or anthropogenic influence on ozone from chlorofluorocarbons and halons (chlorine and bromine) has led to international regulations greatly limiting the release of these substances. These anthropogenic effects on ozone are most important in polar regions and have been significant since the 1970s. Certain natural ozone influences are also important in polar regions and are caused by the impact of solar charged particles on the atmosphere. Such natural variations have been studied in order to better quantify the human influence on polar ozone. Large-scale explosions on the Sun near solar maximum lead to emissions of charged particles (mainly protons and electrons), some of which enter the Earth's magnetosphere and rain down on the polar regions. "Solar proton events" have been used to describe these phenomena since the protons associated with these solar events sometimes create a significant atmospheric disturbance. We have used the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM) to study the short- and medium-term (days to a few months) influences of solar proton events between 1963 and 2005 on stratospheric ozone. The four largest events in the past 45 years (August 1972; October 1989; July 2000; and October-November 2003) caused very distinctive polar changes in layers of the Earth's atmosphere known as the stratosphere (12-50 km; -7-30 miles) and mesosphere (50-90 km; 30-55 miles). The solar protons connected with these events created hydrogen- and nitrogen- containing compounds, which led to the polar ozone destruction. The hydrogen-containing compounds have very short lifetimes and lasted for only a few days (typically the duration of the solar proton event). On the other hand, the nitrogen-containing compounds lasted much longer, especially in the Winter. The nitrogen oxides were predicted to increase substantially due to these solar events and led to mid- to upper polar stratospheric ozone decreases of over 20%. These WACCM results generally agreed with satellite measurements. Both WACCM and measurements showed enhancements of nitric acid, dinitrogen pentoxide, and chlorine nitrate, which were indirectly caused by these solar events. Solar proton events were shown to cause a significant change in the polar stratosphere and need to be considered in understanding variations during years of strong solar activity

Ion composition in interchange injection events in Saturn\u27s magnetosphere

Interchange injection events are commonly observed by the Cassini spacecraft in the region between about 6 and 12 Rs (1 Rs = 60,268 km) and even frequently beyond. In this study, 13 examples of interchange injection events are identified in Cassini-Cassini Plasma Spectrometer data under special conditions such that time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectra could be obtained from entirely within the events. Using the TOF data to separate the main ion species H+, H2+, and W+, approximate densities of each species are calculated under the assumption that all distributions were isotropic. The light-ion density ratios, H2+/H+, in the injection events are not discernibly different from those ratios in control intervals from the ambient plasma. However, the water-group ration, W+/H+, is significantly lower than ambient. The comparison of the measured density ratios with the range of values observed throughout Saturn\u27s magnetosphere indicates that the values of W+/H+ that are as low as those observed within the injection events are found primarily beyond L~14 (where L is the equatorial crossing distance, in Saturn radius, of a dipole field line), indicating that the injection events are delivering plasma from the outer magnetosphere at times traveling at least 6 Rs

Scintillation-limited photometry with the 20-cm NGTS telescopes at Paranal Observatory

Ground-based photometry of bright stars is expected to be limited by atmospheric scintillation, although in practice observations are often limited by other sources of systematic noise. We analyse 122 nights of bright star (Gmag ≲ 11.5) photometry using the 20-cm telescopes of the Next-Generation Transit Survey (NGTS) at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. We compare the noise properties to theoretical noise models and we demonstrate that NGTS photometry of bright stars is indeed limited by atmospheric scintillation. We determine a median scintillation coefficient at the Paranal Observatory of CY=1.54⁠, which is in good agreement with previous results derived from turbulence profiling measurements at the observatory. We find that separate NGTS telescopes make consistent measurements of scintillation when simultaneously monitoring the same field. Using contemporaneous meteorological data, we find that higher wind speeds at the tropopause correlate with a decrease in long-exposure (t = 10 s) scintillation. Hence, the winter months between June and August provide the best conditions for high-precision photometry of bright stars at the Paranal Observatory. This work demonstrates that NGTS photometric data, collected for searching for exoplanets, contains within it a record of the scintillation conditions at Paranal

The Roles of Cyclin A2, B1, and B2 in Early and Late Mitotic Events

This paper presents evidence that chromatin condensation, like nuclear envelope breakdown, is brought about through the combined effects of cyclins A2 and B1, and that cyclins B1 and B2 are largely responsible for maintenance of a spindle assembly checkpoint arrest

Multimodel assessment of the factors driving stratospheric ozone evolution over the 21st century

The evolution of stratospheric ozone from 1960 to 2100 is examined in simulations from 14 chemistry‐climate models, driven by prescribed levels of halogens and greenhouse gases. There is general agreement among the models that total column ozone reached a minimum around year 2000 at all latitudes, projected to be followed by an increase over the first half of the 21st century. In the second half of the 21st century, ozone is projected to continue increasing, level off, or even decrease depending on the latitude. Separation into partial columns above and below 20 hPa reveals that these latitudinal differences are almost completely caused by differences in the model projections of ozone in the lower stratosphere. At all latitudes, upper stratospheric ozone increases throughout the 21st century and is projected to return to 1960 levels well before the end of the century, although there is a spread among models in the dates that ozone returns to specific historical values. We find decreasing halogens and declining upper atmospheric temperatures, driven by increasing greenhouse gases, contribute almost equally to increases in upper stratospheric ozone. In the tropical lower stratosphere, an increase in upwelling causes a steady decrease in ozone through the 21st century, and total column ozone does not return to 1960 levels in most of the models. In contrast, lower stratospheric and total column ozone in middle and high latitudes increases during the 21st century, returning to 1960 levels well before the end of the century in most models

NGTS-28Ab: A short period transiting brown dwarf

We report the discovery of a brown dwarf orbiting a M1 host star. We first identified the brown dwarf within the Next Generation Transit Survey data, with supporting observations found in TESS sectors 11 and 38. We confirmed the discovery with follow-up photometry from the South African Astronomical Observatory, SPECULOOS-S, and TRAPPIST-S, and radial velocity measurements from HARPS, which allowed us to characterise the system. We find an orbital period of ~1.25 d, a mass of 69.0+5.3-4.8 MJ, close to the Hydrogen burning limit, and a radius of 0.95 +- 0.05 RJ. We determine the age to be >0.5 Gyr, using model isochrones, which is found to be in agreement with SED fitting within errors. NGTS-28Ab is one of the shortest period systems found within the brown dwarf desert, as well as one of the highest mass brown dwarfs that transits an M dwarf. This makes NGTS-28Ab another important discovery within this scarcely populated region.Comment: 20 pages (inc. appendices), 16 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

NGTS-28Ab:a short period transiting brown dwarf

We report the discovery of a brown dwarf orbiting a M1 host star. We first identified the brown dwarf within the Next Generation Transit Survey data, with supporting observations found in TESS sectors 11 and 38. We confirmed the discovery with follow-up photometry from the South African Astronomical Observatory, SPECULOOS-S, and TRAPPIST-S, and radial velocity measurements from HARPS, which allowed us to characterize the system. We find an orbital period of ∼1.25 d, a mass of 69.0+5.3-4.8 MJ, close to the hydrogen burning limit, and a radius of 0.95 ± 0.05 RJ. We determine the age to be &gt;0.5 Gyr, using model isochrones, which is found to be in agreement with spectral energy distribution fitting within errors. NGTS-28Ab is one of the shortest period systems found within the brown dwarf desert, as well as one of the highest mass brown dwarfs that transits an M dwarf. This makes NGTS-28Ab another important discovery within this scarcely populated region.</div