7. SUMMARY The following conclusions are based on detailed theoretical analyses of HLLV operations in the middle atmosphere. 1. “Corridor” effects, that is, enhancements of important constituents in a narrow latitude zone centered on the launch point, are not likely to occur below 60 km (36 mi). The reason is that meridional transport is sufficiently rapid to spread the effluents fairly uniformly over the globe before a steady state is reached (see Ref. 29). 2. With the possible exception of mesospheric nitric oxide, changes in neutral composition of the atmosphere below 90 km (56 mi) are not likely to be significant. Specifically, ozone decreases would probably be less than 0.1% globally. 3. Deposition of carbon dioxide in the stratosphere should not cause noticeable changes in the stratospheric thermal balance; thus, the coupling to photochemistry is insignificant. 4. The climatic effects of extended HLLV operations are probably negligible. The effects considered here include enhancements of stratospheric aerosol opacity due to SO2 deposition by launch motors and alteration of planetary wave propagation characteristics in the stratosphere. 5. There may be worldwide buildup of thermospheric hydrogen, perhaps a doubling of the hydrogen globally for continuous H2 and H2O deposition above 70 km (43 mi). The possibility that enhanced hydrogen in the magnetospheric ring-current region may reduce the population of current-carrying protons through charge exchange should be investigated. None of the above effects appears to be hazardous; however, the perturbations noted above in item 5 are large enough to warrant more complete investigation in the future. Acknowledgment — This research was partially supported under Interagency Agreement AI-01-79ER- 10035. The editor wishes to thank Michael Mendillo and John Zinn for reviewing this paper. REFERENCES I. Satellite Power System Concept Development and Evaluation Program, Reference System Report, U.S. Department of Energy/NASA Report DOE/ER-0023, Washington, DC, 1978. 2. R.P. Turco and R.C. Whitten, A Comparison of Several Computational Techniques for Solving Some Common Aeronomic Problems, J. Geophys. Res. 79, 3179, 1974. 3. R.P. Turco and R.C. Whitten, The NASA-Ames Research Center One- and Two-Dimensional Stratospheric Models. I. The One-Dimensional Model, NASA TP-1002, 1977. 4. W.J. Borucki, R.C. Whitten. V.R. Watson, H.T. Woodward, C.A. Riegel. L.A. Capone, and T. Becker, Predictions of Latitude-Dependent Ozone Depletion due to Supersonic Transport Operations, AMA Journal 12, 1738, 1976. 5. R.C. Whitten. W.J. Borucki, V.R. Watson, T. Shimazaki, H.T. Woodward, C.A. Riegel, L.A. Capone, and T. Becker, The NASA-Ames Research Center One- and Two-Dimensional Stratospheric Models. II. The Two-Dimensional Model, NASA TP-1003, 1977. 6. R.C. Whitten, W.J. Borucki, LG. Poppoff, L. Glatt, G.F. Widhopf, L.A. Capone, and C.A. Riegel, Two-Dimensional Model Studies of the Effects of Supersonic Aircraft Operations on the Stratospheric Ozone Content, NASA RP-1064, 1980. 7. R.C. Whitten, W.J. Borucki, C. Park, L. Pfister, H.T. Woodward, R.P. Turco, L.A. Capone, C.A. Riegel, and T. Kropp, The Satellite Power System: An Assessment of the Environmental Impact on Middle Atmospheric Composition and Climate. U.S. Department of Energy final report DOE/ER/110035-01, 1980. 8. R.D. Hudson and E.I. Reed (eds.), The Stratosphere: Present and Future, NASA RP-1049, 1979. 9. M. Nicolet, Photodissociation of Nitric Oxide in the Mesosphere and Stratosphere: Simplified Numerical Relations for Atmospheric Model Calculations, Geophys. Res. Lett. 6, 866, 1979.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTU5NjU0Mg==