The impact upon the atmosphere above 80 km altitude of energetic electrons and protons during magnetic storms breaks up nitrogen and oxygen molecules and produces large quantities of nitric oxide in the high latitude upper atmosphere. Some of this is transported downwards through the middle atmosphere in the wintertime polar vortex, and affects the chemistry of ozone at high latitudes. The production of the nitric oxide involves chemical reactions that are not well understood, in fact recent laboratory measurements have shown disagreements between observations and models by more than a factor of ten. This award is to use satellite data to generate a comprehensive empirical model of the concentration of NO and its variation in time and space, pending new laboratory measurements that can be used to revise the theoretical model. At that time a further attempt can be made to compare observations (via the empirical model) and theory.
