Steady-State Distributions of O2 and OH in the High Atmosphere and Implications in the Ozone Chemistry

Abstract

Although steady-state distributions are commonly accepted to be of the Boltzmann-type, such an assumption can be rather unrealistic when modeling the high atmosphere. Corroborating evidence is reported for the vibrational and rotational distributions of O2 and OH from detailed trajectory calculations, which shows that the thermalization assumption is untenable at such environmental conditions. The implications in the Ox and HOx catalytic cycles are also assessed.