OH radical concentration in the stratosphere

Abstract

The consumption of both methane and carbon monoxide in the lower stratosphere is due predominantly to reaction with OH radicals. The possibility of deriving OH concentration from measurements of the decrease of CH4 and CO mixing ratios above the tropopause is explored. The observations and the basic chemistry are briefly summarized. Simple one-dimensional diffusion models are employed to derive expressions for the decrease of CH4 and CO mixing ratios with altitude above the tropopause, and the influence of important parameters is discussed. Vertical air velocities resulting from large-scale organized mean motion and from synoptic variations are shown to distort the concentration altitude profiles of methane and carbon monoxide, respectively. Suitable averaging of observational data is required to eliminate the effects due to vertical motion. Then a reliable value for the effective OH number density should be obtainable. At present an estimate of 4×106 molecules/cm3 is derived.