Visible and near‐ultraviolet spectroscopy at McMurdo Station, Antarctica: 6. Observations of BrO

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Observations of the evening twilight BrO abundance over McMurdo Station, Antarctica during austral spring, 1987, are described. The observed variation of the slant column abundance with increasing solar zenith angles suggests that most of the BrO is located near 15 km. The total vertical column abundance observed during 1 week of measurements yielded an average value of 2.5×1013 cm−2, assuming the room temperature absorption cross sections measured by Cox et al. (1982). These values are consistent with BrO mixing ratios of about 5–15 parts per trillion by volume distributed from 150 to 20 mbar. If the differential absorption cross section of BrO increases by 30% at temperatures characteristic of the Antarctic lower stratosphere, as indicated by Sander and Watson (1981), then the BrO measurements reported in this paper should be decreased by 30%.