Studies of stratospheric ozone layer from near-earth orbit utilizing ultraviolet polarimeter

Abstract

Stratospheric aerosols (at altitudes above 30 km) play an important role in formation of the thermal condition and the ozone layer thickness. Nowadays, there are data on optical thickness of aerosols at these altitudes in the visible wavelength band received by spectrophotometric methods. At the same time, the origin of these aerosols, as well as particle distribution function, has not been completely studied (the real part of refractive exponent). Amongst remote methods, only polarization measurements (data gaining of changing light polarization reflected by the Earth atmosphere from a phase angle) allow to gain these characteristics. The principal astronomic observatory of the NAS of Ukraine proposes to carry out the polarization measurements of the stratospheric aerosol at a wavelength of approximately 260 nm from near-earth orbit. Currently, NASA is carrying out a similar experiment; however, these measurements are being carried out in the wavelength interval above 412 nm. Their data are formed basically by dispersed light of the troposphere and its reflection from the Earth surface and clouds. Our experiment makes it possible to exclude the influence of troposphere and underlying surface, and explore the light flux dispersed by the Earth atmosphere at altitudes above 30 km.