FARMLAND CONVERSION: NATIONAL LESSONS FOR IOWA*

Between 1967 and 1975, United States cropland declined 30.5 million acres, of which 8 million acres were prime farmland. The rising gross farm product continues to outweigh such losses owing to short-term adjustments such as irrigation, but longer-term measures to conserve farmland are widely urged. Even Iowa, where urban growth is modest, is incurring some loss of superior farmland. Experience in other states offers certain lessons to Iowa: discourage unnecessary municipal annexations; evaluate the impact of public investments on farmland; expand tax preferences for agriculture; and assist counties to improve their land planning and regulatory efforts.     

Imaging DOAS for volcanological applications

The simultaneous quantitative determination of two-dimensional bromine monoxide (BrO) and sulphur dioxide (SO₂) distributions in volcanic gas plumes is described. Measurements at the fumarolic field on the island Vulcano (autumn 2004) and in the plume of Mt. Etna volcano (spring 2005) were carried out with an Imaging DOAS instrument. The SO₂ fluxes of several fumaroles were estimated from two-dimensional distributions of SO₂. Additionally, the first two-dimensional distributions of BrO within a volcanic plume were successfully retrieved. Slant column densities of up to 2.6 × 10¹⁴ molecules per square centimetre were detected in the plume of Mt. Etna. The investigation of the BrO/SO₂ ratio, calculated from the two-dimensional distributions of SO₂ and BrO, shows an increase from the centre to the edge of the volcanic plume. These results have significance for the involvement of ozone during BrO formation processes in volcanic emissions.     

Chemistry of Halogen Oxides in the Troposphere: Comparison of Model Calculations with Recent Field Data

Reactive halogen species (RHS = X, XO, HOX, OXO; X = Cl, Br, I) are known to have an important influence on the chemistry in the polar boundary layer (BL), where they are responsible for ozone depletion events in spring. Recent field campaigns at Mace Head, Ireland, and the Dead Sea, Israel, identified for the first time iodine oxide (IO) at mixing ratios of up to 6.6 ppt and 90 ppt bromine oxide (BrO), respectively, by DOAS also at lower latitudes. These results intensified the discussion about the role of the RHS in the mid-latitude BL.Photochemical box model calculations show that the observed IO mixing ratios can destroy ~0.45 ppb ozone per hour. This is comparable to the rates of the known O₃-loss processes in the boundary layer. The model studies also reveal that IO, at these levels, has a strong influence on the BL photochemistry, increasing the OH/HO₂- and the NO₂/NO - ratios. In combination these changes lead to a reduction of the photochemical ozone formation, which - in addition - reduces ozone mixing ratios by up to 0.15 ppb/h.The studies for the Dead Sea case give no information on the heterogeneous process responsible for the bromine release, but they show that a total of 2 – 4 ppb of total bromine have to be released to explain the observed complete depletion of 60 ppb ozone in 2 – 3 hours.     

On the Balmer: Paschen ratio in prominences

Vidicon data for the intensities of Balmer and Paschen lines for n = 11 to 18 indicate a line ratio within 1σ of the theoretical value of 3.27, calculated with the assumptions of an optically thin atmosphere and angular momentum substates populated according to their statistical weights. The observed value is not consistent with the value of 8 reported in some early work, or with the model that higher angular momentum states have low populations.     

Intercomparison of instruments for tropospheric measurements using differential optical absorption spectroscopy

The results of an intercomparison campaign of eight different long path UV-visible DOAS instruments measuring NO₂, O₃ and SO₂ concentrations in a moderately polluted urban site are presented. For effective optical path lengths of 230 and 780 m the overall spread of these measurements (±1) are 5×10¹⁰, 6×10¹⁰ and 1×10¹⁰ molec·cm^-3 (2.0, 2.4, and 0.4 ppb) for these molecules respectively when all instruments used a common set of absorption cross sections. The remaining differences are not completely random and the systematic differences are attributed to the different retrieval methods used for each instrument.     

High resolution spectral features of a series of aromatic hydrocarbons and BrO: Potential interferences in atmospheric OH-measurements

Naphthalene (C₁₀H₈), several other hydrocarbons, mostly derivates of naphthalene, and bromine oxide (BrO) were analyzed for narrow band (0.01 nm) absorption lines in the wavelength range between 307.7 and 308.3 nm to study their potential impact on OH radical measurements by differential absorption spectroscopy.Only naphthalene showed narrow band absorption lines in this wavelength region. From nine naphthalene lines the differential absorption cross-section was determined.The strongest naphthalene line at 308.002 nm is close to the Q ₁(2) OH line, but about a factor of 200 weaker (=(65.2±15.3)×10^-20 cm²/molec). The corresponding detection limit for naphthalene is about 15 ppt. We re-evaluated some spectra of our OH measurement campaign in July 1987 with respect to naphthalene and obtained an upper limit of 30 ppt for its concentration.BrO was recorded in the larger wavelength interval between 307.7 and 308.7 nm. Structured absorptions were only observed at wavelengths above 308.2 nm and no significant structures were found in the vicinity of the Q ₁(2) and Q ₁(3) OH lines.     

Groundbased Doas UV/visible measurements at Kiruna (Sweden) during the sesame winters 1993/94 and 1994/95.

Zenith sky observations of O3, NO2, OClO and BrO are reported, which were performed at Kiruna (67.9°N, 21.1°E) within the SESAME winters 1993/1994 and 1994/95. For both winters large total amounts of OClO were observed inside the polar vortex at twilight, indicating the degree and the temporal variation of the halogen activation of the polar stratosphere. Occasionally OClO could also be observed outside the polar vortex, most likely due to export of halogen activated vortex air masses into the ambient stratosphere. BrO could also be detected in winter 1994/95, with the largest slant column amounts (5·1014/cm2) occuring in the polar vortex in mid-winter. Similar abundances of stratospheric BrO were observed at dusk and dawn, for both, air masses inside and outside the vortex. This observation is in reasonable agreement with previous studies on stratospheric BrO (observations and models) of Wahner et al. (1992), Arpag et al. (1994), Krug et al. (1996), and Lary et al. (1996a,b), but partly in disagreement with those of Solomon et al. (1989), Fish et al. (1995), and Sessler et al. (1996).