Studies of extended planetary atmospheres

Abstract

There was a theoretical study of physical and chemical processes in the stratosphere, later broadened to include the mesosphere. Particular emphasis was laid on testing of proposed height profiles of the eddy diffusion coefficient against observed tracer data. Eventually the effort shifted to study of ozone time series in satellite data, and interpretation in terms of aeronomical processes. Since all this work is computer-intensive, the first year of funding also contributed to the acquisition of a powerful minicomputer system, in collaboration with several other faculty members. This proved to be highly successful and cost effective.