TY  - JOUR
AU  - Grooß, Jens-Uwe
AU  - Müller, Rolf
AU  - Crowley, John N.
AU  - Hegglin, Michaela I.
TI  - Chlorine peroxide reaction explains observed wintertime hydrogen chloride in the Antarctic vortex
JO  - Communications earth & environment
VL  - 6
IS  - 1
SN  - 2662-4435
CY  - London
PB  - Springer Nature
M1  - FZJ-2025-02911
SP  - 496
PY  - 2025
AB  - It is well established that the drastic ozone loss in the Antarctic stratosphere, commonly known as the ozone hole, is primarily driven by gas-phase and heterogeneous chemical processes. While chemistry transport models generally reproduce observed ozone depletion well, they fail to capture the rapid early-winter decline of hydrogen chloride. We here examine the impact of the heterogeneous reaction between chlorine peroxide and hydrogen chloride forming HOOCl, followed by its photolysis. Incorporating this reaction and an additional hypochlorous acid loss pathway into a chemical mechanism significantly improves model agreement with observed levels of several chlorine compounds in the lower polar vortex stratosphere. This revised mechanism increases simulated ozone partial column depletion by over 15% between early July and mid-September 2011. Laboratory confirmation of these proposed reactions is needed to validate the mechanism.
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:001518514400001
DO  - DOI:10.1038/s43247-025-02499-4
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/1043537
ER  -