A study of the effectiveness of the ClX catalytic ozone loss mechanisms

The importance of catalytic mechanisms involving chlorine species for destroying stratospheric ozone is now well recognized. In this study, we determine that there are at least four catalytic cycles of varying importance for analyzing potential odd oxygen destruction from chlorine species in the stratosphere. The relative efficiency of these cycles varies significantly with altitude. Since individual halocarbons release chlorine atoms over a wide range of different altitudes in the stratosphere, their impact on stratospheric ozone must be due to the combined effect of each of these cycles. Indeed, changes in the vertical ozone distribution for various halocarbon perturbations were found to differ significantly owing to differences in the altitude range of inorganic chlorine releases and to differences in relative catalytic efficiencies.