An analysis of the Antarctic Halogen Occultation Experiment trace gas observations

Analysis of the version 16 Halogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE) CH 4 data shows that this long‐lived trace gas is well correlated with potential vorticity (PV) computed from National Meteorological Center balanced winds. Analyzing late September and October 1992 data, we show that very low CH 4 values are confined to the interior of a vortex edge defined by the maximum gradient in PV. The CH 4 and HF time tendency is used to estimate the descent rate in the Antarctic vortex. After removing a component of the trend correlated with the HALOE sampling pattern, we compute the lower stratosphere vertical descent rates and net heating rates in the spring Antarctic vortex. Our computations of the spring Antarctic vortex heating rates give −0.5 to −0.1 K/day. Over the winter season, the overall lower stratospheric descent rate averages about 1.8–1.5 km/month. These computations are in line with radiative transfer estimates of the heating and descent rate. The HALOE data thus appear to be consistent with the picture of an isolated lower stratospheric Antarctic vortex.