An evaluation of autocatalytic ozone production from vibrationally excited oxygen in the middle atmosphere

The possibility of significant autocatalytic ozone production in the middle atmosphere has been demonstrated by Toumi et al. A detailed framework including five processes previously not considered is presented here. When these processes are included, particularly wavelength-dependent vibrational distributions of O₂, calculated ozone enhancements are less than 10% in the upper stratosphere and lower mesosphere. The vibrational distributions and the rate of vibrational quenching are identified as key issues which need to be addressed by experiments.