Purdue Climate Change Research Center

Using Oxygen Isotopes to Constrain Ozone Sources and Sinks

Funded by the National Science Foundation

Ozone plays a critical role in global and regional atmospheric chemistry and has a significant impact on global climate, making it vital to understand ozone source and sink processes. Although substantial progress has been made, there are many open questions regarding ozone dynamics, long-range transport, and the importance of stratospheric exchange. Variation in the oxygen isotope composition of ozone provides a window into these processes; however, data are very limited because existing methods for sampling ozone for isotopic analysis are complex, cumbersome, and impractical for routine application. Uncertainties in laboratory-determined pressure and temperature dependencies of ozone isotopic composition also hinder progress. This work will focus on the development and application of a new analytical and experimental framework for the analysis of ozone dynamics.

Investigator(s)

Greg Michalski, Department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences