Feng, W orcid.org/0000-0002-9907-9120, Plane, JMC orcid.org/0000-0003-3648-6893, Chipperfield, MP orcid.org/0000-0002-6803-4149 et al. (2 more authors) (2023) Potential stratospheric ozone depletion due to iodine injection from small satellites. Geophysical Research Letters, 50 (7). e2022GL102300. ISSN 0094-8276
Abstract
We use the 3-D Whole Atmospheric Community Climate Model to investigate stratospheric ozone depletion due to the launch of small satellites (e.g., CubeSats) with an iodine propulsion system. The model considers the injection of iodine from the satellites into the Earth's thermosphere and suggests a 4-yr timescale for transport of the emissions down to the troposphere. The base case scenario is 40,000 small satellite launches per year into low orbit (100–600 km), which would inject 8 tons I yr−1 above 120 km as I+ ions and increase stratospheric inorganic iodine by ∼0.1 part per trillion (pptv). The model shows that this scenario produces a negligible impact on global stratospheric ozone (∼0.05 DU column depletion). In contrast, a 100-fold increase in the launch rate, and therefore thermospheric iodine injection, is predicted to result in modeled ozone depletion of up to 14 DU (approximately 2%–7%) over the polar regions.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2023 The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Chemistry (Leeds) > Physical Chemistry (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Inst for Climate & Atmos Science (ICAS) (Leeds) The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > National Centre for Atmos Science (NCAS) (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 20 Feb 2023 11:12 |
Last Modified: | 30 May 2023 22:38 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Geophysical Union |
Identification Number: | 10.1029/2022GL102300 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:196168 |