Scientific objectives

The primary scientific questions that we will answer are summarized as follows:
  1. Chemistry : Characterization of the chemical state in different geophysical conditions
    • Chlorine: Diurnal variation, partitioning and budget
      1. What is the equilibrium constant between ClO and its dimer ClOOCl and is the ClOCl photolysis in accord with laboratory data?
      2. How important is the ClO-dimer cycle for ozone depletion?
    • Bromine: Diurnal variation, partitioning and budget, trends by linking to previous measurements
      1. What is the Brx budget and trend?
      2. Are atmospheric observations of bromine species and OClO in accord with the recommended photolysis rate of BrONO2 and the branching ratios of the ClO+BrO reaction?
      3. What are the consequences for the speed of the catalytic ClO/BrO ozone depletion cycle?
    • Nitrogen oxides:
      1. What is the rate of de/renitrification?
  2. Dynamics : Characterization of the dynamical state in different geophysical conditions
    • Dynamical evolution in the climate change context
      1. What is this evolution of tracer-tracer correlations from vortex conditions to springtime?
      2. Is there an acceleration of the Brewer Dobson circulation?
    • Fast transport, filamentation and mixing
      1. What is the time evolution of turbulent diffusivity?
      2. What is the link between tropical and polar region during springtime?
  3. Cross comparisons
    • What is the consistency of the spectroscopic parameters used in different spectral windows?
    • What is the consistency of in situ versus remote sensing measurements?
  4. Validation
    • Validation of T, O3, N2O, CH4, H2O, NO, NO3, NO2, HNO3, ClONO2, BrO, OClO measured on ENVISAT platform from MIPAS, SCIAMACHY and GOMOS instruments.