First observations of iodine oxide from space
Abstract
We present retrievals of IO total columns from the Scanning Imaging Absorption Spectrometer for Atmospheric Chartography (SCIAMACHY) satellite instrument. We analyze data for October 2005 in the polar regions to demonstrate for the first time the capability to measure IO column abundances from space. During the period of analysis (i.e. Southern Hemisphere springtime), enhanced IO vertical columns over 3 × 10^(13) molecules cm^(−2) are observed around coastal Antarctica; by contrast during that time in the Artic region IO is consistently below the calculated instrumental detection limit for individual radiance spectra (2–4 × 10^(12) molecules cm^(−2) for slant columns). The levels reported here are in reasonably good agreement with previous ground‐based measurements at coastal Antarctica. These results also demonstrate that IO is widespread over sea‐ice covered areas in the Southern Ocean. The occurrence of elevated IO and its hitherto unrecognized spatial distribution suggest an efficient iodine activation mechanism at a synoptic scale over coastal Antarctica.
Additional Information
© 2007 by the American Geophysical Union. Received 22 March 2007; revised 30 April 2007; accepted 1 June 2007; published 29 June 2007. A. Saiz‐Lopez was supported by an appointment to the NASA Postdoctoral Program at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, administered by Oak Ridge Associated Universities through a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Research at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, under a contract with NASA, was supported by the NASA Upper Atmosphere Research and Tropospheric Chemistry Programs. Research at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory was supported by NASA and the Smithsonian Institution. We thank Chris Sioris for providing help with SCIAMACHY data. We are also grateful for the ongoing cooperation of the European Space Agency and the German Aerospace Center in the SCIAMACHY program.Attached Files
Published - Saiz-Lopez_et_al-2007-Geophysical_Research_Letters.pdf
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Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 91263
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20181127-160004088
- NASA Postdoctoral Program
- NASA/JPL/Caltech
- Smithsonian Institution
- Created
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2018-11-28Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-16Created from EPrint's last_modified field