Perturbation of Tropical Stratospheric Ozone Through Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Chemistry Due To Pinatubo

Abstract

The Pinatubo eruption in 1991 injected 10–20 Tg SO2 into the stratosphere, which formed sulfate aerosols through oxidation. Our modeling results show that volcanic heating significantly perturbs the heterogeneous and homogeneous chemistry including NOx and HOx catalytic cycles in the tropical stratosphere. The simulated tropical chemical ozone tendency is positive at 20 mb while negative at 10 mb in the tropics. The simulated ozone chemical tendency is of the same magnitude as the dynamical ozone tendency caused by the accelerated tropical upwelling, but with the opposite sign. Our study finds that the tropical ozone chemical tendency due to homogeneous chemistry becomes more important than heterogeneous chemistry 3 months after eruption. Sensitivity simulations further suggest that the tropical ozone tendency through heterogeneous chemistry is saturated when the injected amount exceeds 2 Tg.