Perturbations of the Stratosphere and Mesosphere by Aerospace Vehicles

The work discussed in this paper is directed toward possible environmental effects of high-altitude craft such as the SST and the space shuttle vehicle. The model includes the chemistry of the O-H-N system and vertical eddy transport. When the predicted NOX emission from an SST fleet projected for 1990 is introduced, it is found that the reduction in ozone column density is less than 15%. Furthermore, flight altitudes near 16 km lead to ozone reductions which are much less than are associated with flight altitudes near 20 km. The effect of projected space shuttle operations on mesospheric composition is negligible.