1,637 research outputs found

    Global impact of the Antarctic ozone hole: Simulations with a 3-D chemical transport model

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    A study of the Antarctic ozone hole was made with a 3-D chemical transport model using linearized photochemistry for ozone based on observed distribution. The tracer model uses the winds and convection from the GISS general circulation model (8 deg x 10 deg x 23 layers). A 3-year control run of the ozone distribution is compared with the observed climatology. In two experiments, a hypothetical Antarctic ozone hole is induced on October 1 and on November 1; the tracer model is integrated for 1 year with the standard linearized chemistry. The initial depletion, 90 percent of the O sub 3 poleward of 70 S between 25 and 180 mbar, amounts to about 5 percent of the total O sub 3 in the Southerm Hemisphere. As the vortex breaks down and the hole is dispersed, significant depletions to column ozone, of order 10 D.U., occur as far north as 36 S during Austral summer. One year later, about 25 percent of the original depletion remains, mostly below 100 mbar and poleward of 30 S. Details of the calculations are shown, along with a budget analysis showing the fraction of the hole filled in by photochemistry versus that transported into the troposhere

    Present state of knowledge of the upper atmosphere 1988: An assessment report

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    This document was issued in response to the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1977, Public Law 95-95, mandating that NASA and other key agencies submit biennial reports to Congress and EPA. NASA is to report on the state of our knowledge of the upper atmosphere, particularly the stratosphere. This is the sixth ozone assessment report submitted to Congress and the concerned regulatory agencies. Part 1 contains an outline of the NASA Upper Atmosphere Research Program and summaries of the research efforts supported during the last two years. An assessment is presented of the state of knowledge as of March 15, 1988 when the Ozone Trends Panel, organized by NASA and co-sponsored by the World Meteorological Organization, NOAA, FAA and the United Nations Environment Program released an executive summary of its findings from a critical in-depth study involving over 100 scientists from 12 countries. Chapter summaries of the International Ozone Trends Panel Report form the major part of this report. Two other sections are Model Predictions of Future Ozone Change and Chemical Kinetics and Photochemical Data for Use in Stratospheric Modeling. Each of these sections and the report in its entirety were peer reviewed

    Present state of knowledge of the upper atmosphere 1990: An assessment report

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    NASA is charged with the responsibility to report on the state of the knowledge of the Earth's upper atmosphere, particularly the stratosphere. Part 1 of this report, issued earlier this year, summarized the objectives, status, and accomplishments of the research tasks supported under NASA's Upper Atmosphere Research Program during the last two years. New findings since the last report to Congress was issued in 1988 are presented. Several scientific assessments of the current understanding of the chemical composition and physical structure of the stratosphere are included, in particular how the abundance and distribution of ozone is predicted to change in the future. These reviews include: a summary of the most recent international assessment of stratospheric ozone; a study of future chlorine and bromine loading of the atmosphere; a review of the photochemical and chemical kinetics data that are used as input parameters for the atmospheric models; a new assessment of the impact of Space Shuttle launches on the stratosphere; a summary of the environmental issues and needed research to evaluate the impact of the newly re-proposed fleet of stratospheric supersonic civil aircraft; and a list of the contributors to this report and the science assessments which have formed our present state of knowledge of the upper atmosphere and ozone depletion

    The atmospheric effects of stratospheric aircraft: A topical review

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    In the late 1960s the aircraft industry became interested in developing a fleet of supersonic transports (SSTs). Between 1972 and 1975, the Climatic Impact Assessment Program (CIAP) studied the possible environmental impact of SSTs. For environmental and economic reasons, the fleet of SSTs was not developed. The Upper Atmosphere Research Program (UARP) has recently undertaken the responsibility of directing scientific research needed to assess the atmospheric impact of supersonic transports. The UARP and the High-Speed Research Program asked Harold Johnston to review the current understanding of aircraft emissions and their effect on the stratosphere. Johnston and his colleagues have recently re-examined the SST problem using current models for stratospheric ozone chemistry. A unique view is given here of the current scientific issues and the lessons learned since the beginning of CIAP, and it links the current research program with the assessment process that began two years ago

    Five blind men and the elephant: what can the NASA Aura ozone measurements tell us about stratosphere-troposphere exchange?

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    We examine whether the individual ozone (O<sub>3</sub>) measurements from the four Aura instruments can quantify the stratosphere-troposphere exchange (STE) flux of O<sub>3</sub>, an important term of the tropospheric O<sub>3</sub> budget. The level 2 (L2) Aura swath data and the nearly coincident ozone sondes for the years 2005–2006 are compared with the 4-D, high-resolution (1° × 1° × 40-layer × 0.5 h) model simulation of atmospheric ozone for the same period from the University of California, Irvine chemistry transport model (CTM). The CTM becomes a transfer standard for comparing individual profiles from these five, not-quite-coincident measurements of atmospheric ozone. Even with obvious model discrepancies identified here, the CTM can readily quantify instrument-instrument biases in the tropical upper troposphere and mid-latitude lower stratosphere. In terms of STE processes, all four Aura datasets have some skill in identifying stratosphere-troposphere folds, and we find several cases where both model and measurements see evidence of high-O<sub>3</sub> stratospheric air entering the troposphere. In many cases identified in the model, however, the individual Aura profile retrievals in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere show too much noise, as expected from their low sensitivity and coarse vertical resolution at and below the tropopause. These model-measurement comparisons of individual profiles do provide some level of confidence in the model-derived STE O<sub>3</sub> flux, but it will be difficult to integrate this flux from the satellite data alone

    Development of a sustainable bioprocess for the production of novel Xylooligosaccharides (XOS) and their potential application

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    The growing demand of novel food products for well-being and age related issues coupled with increasing health care expenditure has attracted global attention on prebiotics. Xylooligosaccarides (XOS) are the only nutraceuticals that can be produced from lignocellulosic biomass. Indeed, XOS can be produced from agricultural crop residues, which is encouraging to the food ingredient industries, as these raw materials are inexpensive, abundant and renewable in nature. XOS beneficial effects include, besides the selective growth stimulation of beneficial gut microflora, enhanced mineral absorption, cholesterol lowering, glucose homeostasis, pathogen exclusion, immune modulation, antioxidant and anticarcinogenic activities, among others. The precursor for XOS is xylan. Xylan is the polysaccharide accounting for 25 to 50% of the dry mass of lignocellulosic-based agriculture residues. XOS can then be produced through chemical or enzymatic processes. The microbial or enzymatic conversion of xylan into value-added useful products, as XOS, holds a great promise for the use of a variety of agro-food and industrial residues. The goal of this PhD project is to develop a sustainable bioprocess by exploring the use of agro-industrial residues for the production of novel XOS and to evaluate their effect on the probiotics viability under simulated gastric conditions. The proposed tasks involve several design and engineering approaches to optimize the production process.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

    A standard test case suite for two-dimensional linear transport on the sphere

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    It is the purpose of this paper to propose a standard test case suite for two-dimensional transport schemes on the sphere intended to be used for model development and facilitating scheme intercomparison. The test cases are designed to assess important aspects of accuracy in geophysical fluid dynamics such as numerical order of convergence, "minimal" resolution, the ability of the transport scheme to preserve filaments, transport "rough" distributions, and to preserve pre-existing functional relations between species/tracers under challenging flow conditions. <br><br> The experiments are designed to be easy to set up. They are specified in terms of two analytical wind fields (one non-divergent and one divergent) and four analytical initial conditions (varying from smooth to discontinuous). Both conventional error norms as well as novel mixing and filament preservation diagnostics are used that are easy to implement. The experiments pose different challenges for the range of transport approaches from Lagrangian to Eulerian. The mixing and filament preservation diagnostics do not require an analytical/reference solution, which is in contrast to standard error norms where a "true" solution is needed. Results using the CSLAM (Conservative Semi-Lagrangian Multi-tracer) scheme on the cubed-sphere are presented for reference and illustrative purposes

    Correction to Oceanic Uptake and the Global Atmospheric Acetone Budget

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    In the paper ‘‘Oceanic uptake and the global atmospheric acetone budget’’ by C. A. Marandino et al. (Geophys. Res. Lett., 32, L15806, doi:10.1029/2005GL023285) it was recently determined that a calculation error was made during flux data processing
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