Impact of middle range energy electron precipitations on polar winter ozone losses

Abstract

In this paper we present the study of polar winter atmospheric response to middle range energy electron precipitations. We analse the variability of the odd nitrogen group NOx, hydrogen group HOx in the polar wonter atmosphere and estimate the ozone (O3) depletion caused by the middle range energy electron precipitations. For the study we exploit 1-D radiative-convective model with interactive neutral and ion chemistry. Ionization rates induced by middle-energy electrons were taken from the CMIP6 (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6) solar forcing dataset. The atmospheric response to ionization rates induced by middleenergy electrons during polar night consists of increase of mesospheric HOx by 0.1-0.4 ppbv and NOx by 10-90 ppbv driving ozone losses up to 5% over zonal band of about 750 NH.