Observation of Polar Stratospheric Clouds (PSCs) in Canadian Arctic by Lidar and Balloonborne Optical Particle Counter

Abstract

PSCs play important roles not only in global climate change through its own effects on radiation budget of the earth but also in ozone depletion through heterogeneous chemical processes which occur on the surfaces of the PSCs. The mechanisms of the processes, however, have never clarified enough because of scarcity of data especially in arctic stratosphere. Japanese lidar group started operating Japan Arctic Lidar Network in arctic region in 1993, and plenty of lidar data have been obtained so far. The PSC lidar at Eureka station (80° N, 86° W) in Canadian arctic forms a link in the chain of the network. Adding to the lidar observation, we started to perform balloonborne observation of the PSCs in the last winter. In this presentation, the results of the balloonborne and lidar observation of PSCs are shown.