Abstract

Nitric acid measurements had been previously been conducted in the winter from flights of large balloons at Cold Lake, Alberta and at Saskatoon, Saskatchewan using an emission spectrometer. The mixing ratio profile of nitric acid was derived from the observation of atmospheric emission in the 11.3 micron region during a the balloon ascents. More recently, a miniature version of the instrument and payload has been developed. On an engineering test flight on March 8,1988, a single profile was measured from Alert at 82.6 N . The total nitric acid amount above the tropopause was 0.9 matm-cm. Two peaks at 16.5 and 25.5 km were observed with a maximum mixing ratio of 8.8 ppbv. A local minimum of 3 ppbv was located between these levels at 19.5 km.

© 1990 Optical Society of America