Identification

Title

Ozone perturbation from medium-size asteroid impacts in the ocean

Abstract

We present results of an investigation aimed at characterizing the effects of oceanic impacts of 500 m and 1 km diameter asteroids on the lower and middle atmosphere, estimating ozone loss and potential danger from UV radiation at the Earth's surface. Little work has been done so far to assess the atmospheric perturbation from the impact of objects in this size range, even though their sizes are close to the threshold for causing global environmental effects. In particular, at the Earth's surface oceanic impacts are twice more likely to occur than land impacts. This work represents the first attempt at combining impact simulations with a three-dimensional shock physics code (SOVA), and atmospheric simulations using the general circulation model with interactive chemistry WACCM. SOVA simulations provided an estimate of the amount and state of material ejected into the atmosphere by the impacts. Estimated water vapor in the upper atmosphere was then introduced in the initial conditions for the WACCM simulations that modeled the subsequent perturbation of atmospheric chemistry Final estimates of the change over time in UV flux at the surface due to the impact-induced ozone change are then carried out using the TUV radiative transfer model. The results suggest that mid-latitude oceanic impacts of 1 km asteroids can produce a significant, global perturbation of upper atmospheric chemistry, including multi-year global ozone depletion comparable to ozone hole records registered in the mid-1990 s. Asteroids 500 m in diameter cause limited perturbations of upper atmospheric chemistry with significant ozone depletion confined to the hemisphere in which the impact occurred. Impact-induced ozone depletion affects UV irradiance at the Earth's surface, resulting in levels of UV-B irradiance that can be dangerous for living organisms, and, in the tropics and initial midlatitude summers, far exceed levels currently experienced anywhere on Earth.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d72z1731

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2010-11-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

NOTICE: This is the author's version of a work accepted for publication by Elsevier. Changes resulting from the publishing process, including peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting and other quality control mechanisms, may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication.

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact