From: | Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@igc.org> |
Date: | Thu, 30 May 1996 23:22:05 -0700 (PDT) |
Reply: | cpeo-military |
Subject: | ROCKETS AND OZONE DEPLETION |
From: Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@igc.org> ROCKETS AND OZONE DEPLETION The Air Force continues to probe the impact of solid rocket launches, such as its own Titan IV and NASA's Space Shuttle boosters, on the ozone layer. Its contractor, the Aerospace Corporation, published a scientific report this March reinforcing models suggesting that stratospheric emissions from solid motors directly catalyze ozone depletion. Specificially, laboratory simulations of solid rocket motor afterburning showed that a significant fraction of the hydrogen chloride (HCl) released by the rockets' primary burn is broken down by afterburning, and that the chlorine thus liberated "ends ups almost exclusively in the form of Cl2 [the chlorine molecule]." The study warns that while "gaseous HCl is inert toward ozone and is slow to photodisssociate in the stratosphere, ... Cl2 (which rapidly photodissociates), Cl atoms, or ClO may readily contribute to ozone destruction cycles." M.L. Burke and P.F. Zittel, "Laboratory Generation of Free Chlorine from HCl Under Stratospheric Afterburning Conditions," The Aerospace Corporation [TR-96(1306)-3], March 1, 1996, prepared for Space and Missile Systems Center, Air Force Materiel Command (SMC-TR-96-10). Lenny Siegel | |
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