Measurements of the yield of important trace gas species such as ozone, evolved during photolytic reactions have been made under Martian environmental conditions in one of the The Open University’s Mars simulation chambers. The simulation chamber can mimic Martian temperatures and pressures and a UV solar simulator can be added to irradiate a Marslike gas mixture within the chamber to drive che...

Atmospheric composition is controlled by the emission, photochemistry and transport of many trace gases. Understanding the time scale as well as the chemical and spatial patterns of perturbations to trace gases is needed to evaluate possible environmental damage (e.g. stratospheric ozone depletion or climate change) caused by anthropogenic emissions. This paper reviews lessons learned from trea...

Earth's atmospheric composition at the time of the origin of life is not known, but it has often been suggested that chemical transformation of reactive species in the atmosphere was a significant source of prebiotic organic molecules. Experimental and theoretical studies over the past half century have shown that atmospheric synthesis can yield molecules such as amino acids and nucleobases, bu...

Human activities have increased atmospheric nitrogen and phosphorus deposition rates relative to pre-industrial background. In the Western U.S., anthropogenic nutrient deposition has increased nutrient concentrations and stimulated algal growth in at least some remote mountain lakes. The Georeferenced Lake Nutrient Chemistry (GLNC) Database was constructed to create a spatially-extensive lake c...

Organic peroxy radicals (often abbreviated RO(2)) play a central role in the chemistry of the Earth's lower atmosphere. Formed in the atmospheric oxidation of essentially every organic species emitted, their chemistry is part of the radical cycles that control the oxidative capacity of the atmosphere and lead to the formation of ozone, organic nitrates, organic acids, particulate matter and oth...

ACE is a Canadian-led satellite mission that is measuring the concentrations of more than thirty atmospheric constituents by absorption spectroscopy using the sun as a light source. The principal goal of the ACE mission is to make measurements which will lead to an improved understanding of the chemical and dynamical processes that control the distribution of ozone in the upper troposphere and ...

The term "Anthropocene" was coined by Professor Paul Crutzen in 2000 to describe an unprecedented era in which anthropogenic activities are impacting planet Earth on a global scale. Greatly increased emissions into the atmosphere, reflecting the advent of the Industrial Revolution, have caused significant changes in both the lower and upper atmosphere. Atmospheric reactions of the anthropogenic...

The atmospheric chemistry of sulphuryl fluoride, SO2F2, was investigated in a series of laboratory studies. A competitive rate method, using pulsed laser photolysis (PLP) to generate O(1D) coupled to detection of OH by laser induced fluorescence (LIF), was used to determine the overall rate coefficient for the reaction O(D)+SO2F2→products (R1) of k1 (220–300 K) = (1.3±0.2)× 10−10 cm3 molecule−1...

In this paper we study the temporal and spatial variability of scavenging ratios (SRs) based upon 2 years of continuous aerosol and precipitation data collected at three sites of the Atmosphere-Ocean Chemistry Experiment (AEROCE): Barbados, Bermuda and Ireland. At Barbados and Bermuda, the SRs for nss SO:, NO, and CH,SO; fell within a relatively narrow range: 21G374; for the individual species,...