Accessibility navigation


Chlorine peroxide reaction explains observed wintertime hydrogen chloride in the Antarctic vortex

Grooß, J.-U., Müller, R., Crowley, J. N. and Hegglin, M. I. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2820-9044 (2025) Chlorine peroxide reaction explains observed wintertime hydrogen chloride in the Antarctic vortex. Communications Earth and Environment, 6. 496. ISSN 2662-4435

[thumbnail of Open Access]
Preview
Text (Open Access) - Published Version
· Available under License Creative Commons Attribution.
· Please see our End User Agreement before downloading.

1MB
[thumbnail of hcl_commsenv_revised.pdf] Text - Accepted Version
· Restricted to Repository staff only

1MB

It is advisable to refer to the publisher's version if you intend to cite from this work. See Guidance on citing.

To link to this item DOI: 10.1038/s43247-025-02499-4

Abstract/Summary

It is well established that the drastic ozone loss in the Antarctic stratosphere, commonly known as the ozone hole, is primarily driven by gas-phase and heterogeneous chemical processes. While chemistry transport models generally reproduce observed ozone depletion well, they fail to capture the rapid early-winter decline of hydrogen chloride. We here examine the impact of the heterogeneous reaction between chlorine peroxide and hydrogen chloride forming HOOCl, followed by its photolysis. Incorporating this reaction and an additional hypochlorous acid loss pathway into a chemical mechanism significantly improves model agreement with observed levels of several chlorine compounds in the lower polar vortex stratosphere. This revised mechanism increases simulated ozone partial column depletion by over 15% between early July and mid-September 2011. Laboratory confirmation of these proposed reactions is needed to validate the mechanism.

Item Type:Article
Refereed:Yes
Divisions:Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
ID Code:123770
Publisher:Nature

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

University Staff: Request a correction | Centaur Editors: Update this record

Page navigation