During a routine ER-2 aircraft high-altitude test flight on April 18, 1997, an unusual aerosol cloud was detected at 20 km altitude near the California coast at about 370 degrees N latitude. Not visually observed by the ER-2 pilot, the cloud was characterized bv high concentration of soot and sulfate aerosol in a region over 100 km in horizontal extent indicating that the source of the plume was a large hydrocarbon fueled vehicle, most likely a launch vehicle powered only by rocket motors burning liquid oxygen and kerosene. Two Russian Soyuz rockets could conceivably have produced the plume. The first was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan on April 6th; the second was launched from Plesetsk, Russia on April 9. Air parcel trajectory calculations and long-lived tracer gas concentrations in the cloud indicate that the Baikonur rocket launch is the most probable source of the plume. The parcel trajectory calculations do not unambiguously trace the transport of the Soyuz plume from Asia to North America, illustrating serious flaws in the point-to-point trajectory calculations. This chance encounter represents the only measurement of the stratospheric effects of emissions from a rocket powered exclusively with hydrocarbon fuel.


    Zugriff

    Zugriff über TIB

    Verfügbarkeit in meiner Bibliothek prüfen


    Exportieren, teilen und zitieren



    Titel :

    Chance Encounter with a Stratospheric Kerosene Rocket Plume from Russia over California


    Beteiligte:
    Newman, P. A. (Autor:in) / Wilson, J. C. (Autor:in) / Ross, M. N. (Autor:in) / Brock, C. (Autor:in) / Sheridan, P. (Autor:in) / Schoeberl, M. R. (Autor:in) / Lait, L. R. (Autor:in) / Bui, T. P. (Autor:in) / Loewenstein, M. (Autor:in)

    Erscheinungsdatum :

    1999-01-01


    Medientyp :

    Preprint


    Format :

    Keine Angabe


    Sprache :

    Englisch




    Chance Encounter with a Stratospheric Kerosene Rocket Plume From Russia Over California

    Newman, P. A. / Wilson, J. C. / Ross, M. N. et al. | NTRS | 2000


    Chance Encounter with a Stratospheric Kerosene Rocket Plume From Russia Over California

    P. A. Newman / J. C. Wilson / M. N. Ross et al. | NTIS | 2000


    Chance Encounter with a Stratospheric Kerosene Rocket Plume from Russia over California

    P. A. Newman / J. C. Wilson / M. N. Ross et al. | NTIS | 1999


    LIDAR Stratospheric Solid Rocket Motor Exhaust Plume Measurements

    Dao, P. D. / Gelbwachs, J. A. / Farley, R. et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 1997


    A Chance Encounter

    Online Contents | 1994