Effect of water vapor on the destruction of ozone in the stratosphere perturbed by ClX or NOxpollutants

We describe results of a self-consistent one-dimensional coupled flow calculation for Ox, NOx, HOx, ClX, H2O, H2, CH4, H2O2, and N2O densities between 10 and 120 km. Our results agree well with observations for the normal mid-latitude atmosphere over this altitude range. We have varied ClX, NOx, and H2O independently in our model. We show that the effect of depletion of ozone by ClX is to remove ozone preferentially above 30 km and to lower the altitude of maximum ozone density. This leads to enhanced solar heating of the lower stratosphere and tropopause and suggests the possibility of an increased flux of water into the stratosphere. We show that increasing water vapor in the stratosphere greatly enhances the rate of destruction of O3 by ClX and also causes an increase in the rate of destruction of O3 in the NOx-perturbed atmosphere.