0191 -9067/82/030235-16$03.00/0 1982 SUNS AT Energy Council PREDICTION OF CORRIDOR EFFECT FROM THE LAUNCHING OF THE SATELLITE POWER SYSTEM W. J. BORUCKI, R. C. WHITTEN, and H. T. WOODWARD Ames Research Center, NASA Moffett Field, California 94035, USA L. A. CAPONE and C. A. RIEGEL San Jose State University San Jose, California 95192, USA Abstract — A simple diagnostic model for identifying the quantities that control the magnitude of the corridor effect — a conceivable result of Space Shuttle and heavy-lift launch vehicle (HLLV) flights in a narrow latitude band — is developed. The model is useful in delineating the roles of chemistry and transport and in understanding the predictions of numerical models. The quantities identified as critical to the development of a corridor effect for long-lived species are the pollutant injection rate, the background level of the species in the ambient atmosphere, and the transport quantities related to the dilution rate of the pollutant. When the chemical lifetime of the pollutant is comparable to or shorter than the characteristic time of transport, changes in the chemical production and loss rates must be included in the diagnostic model. Predictions from the diagnostic model are compared with those from Ames Research Center's two-dimensional model for the case of injection of H2O. H2, and NO by the proposed HLLV. Both models agree that corridor effects can be expected from such operation above 60 km in altitude. However, uncertainties in the quantities critical to the prediction of the magnitude of the effect demand that these results be interpreted cautiously. INTRODUCTION Future aerospace-vehicle systems, such as supersonic transport fleets, the Space Shuttle (SS), and the heavy-lift launch vehicle (HLLV) system will inject substantial amounts of pollutants into the stratosphere where mixing and removal mechanisms act more slowly than in the troposphere. Some of these systems operate in rather restricted latitude bands; for example, the Space Shuttle will be launched from only two sites, both near lat. 30° N. Conceptual studies are under way for the HLLV; it could be used to orbit very large solar power satellites (SPSs) that would convert solar energy to microwaves and beam the microwaves to Earth. The HLLV could be expected to produce some 3500 tons of water vapor and 1800 tons of carbon dioxide per launch; 400 launches per year are planned over a 10-year period. As in the case of the Space Shuttle, the HLLV would be launched from very few locations. Because these vehicles will be launched repeatedly over periods of many years, it is pertinent to ask whether their operation will lead to deleterious effects in the atmosphere and under what circumstances such effects would be concentrated in a restricted band of latitudes.
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