On the determination of characteristic times in a pure oxygen atmosphere

Abstract

In a pure oxygen atmosphere, daytime equilibrium concentrations of O, O2 and O3 were calculated for heights from 30 to 140 km and for three temperature profiles: low latitude, high latitude summer, and high latitude winter. The results agree with ozone measurements up to 70 km. Expressions for restoration of photochemical equilibrium were developed. These consist of two exponential terms with widely different characteristic times. The relative importance of these terms depends upon the character of the initial perturbation.