Interest in stratospheric aerosol and its role in climate have increased over the last decade due to the observed increase in stratospheric aerosol since 2000 and the potential for changes in the sulfur cycle induced by climate change. This review provides an overview about the advances in stratospheric aerosol research since the last comprehensive assessment of stratospheric aerosol was published in 2006. A crucial development since 2006 is the substantial improvement in the agreement between in situ and space-based inferences of stratospheric aerosol properties during volcanically quiescent periods. Furthermore, new measurement systems and techniques, both in situ and space based, have been developed for measuring physical aerosol properties with greater accuracy and for characterizing aerosol composition. However, these changes induce challenges to constructing a long-term stratospheric aerosol climatology. Currently, changes in stratospheric aerosol levels less than 20% cannot be confidently quantified. The volcanic signals tend to mask any nonvolcanically driven change, making them difficult to understand. While the role of carbonyl sulfide as a substantial and relatively constant source of stratospheric sulfur has been confirmed by new observations and model simulations, large uncertainties remain with respect to the contribution from anthropogenic sulfur dioxide emissions. New evidence has been provided that stratospheric aerosol can also contain small amounts of nonsulfate matter such as black carbon and organics. Chemistry-climate models have substantially increased in quantity and sophistication. In many models the implementation of stratospheric aerosol processes is coupled to radiation and/or stratospheric chemistry modules to account for relevant feedback processes.

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Abstract. Heterogeneous nucleation of crystalline nitric acid hydrates in polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) enhances ozone depletion. However, the identity and mode of action of the particles responsible for nucleation remains unknown. It has been suggested that meteoric material may trigger nucleation of nitric acid trihydrate (NAT, or other nitric acid phases), but this has never been quantitatively demonstrated in the laboratory. Meteoric material is present in two forms in the stratosphere: smoke that results from the ablation and re-condensation of vapours, and fragments that result from the break-up of meteoroids entering the atmosphere. Here we show that analogues of both materials have a capacity to nucleate nitric acid hydrates. In combination with estimates from a global model of the amount of meteoric smoke and fragments in the polar stratosphere we show that meteoric material probably accounts for NAT observations in early season polar stratospheric clouds in the absence of water ice.

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A low-temperature flow tube and ultra-high vacuum apparatus were used to explore the uptake and heterogeneous chemistry of acetylene (C2H2) on cosmic dust analogues over the temperature range encountered T below 600 km. The uptake coefficient, , was measured at 181 K to be (1.6 ± 0.4) × 10 -4 , (1.9 ± 0.4) × 10 -4 and (1.5 ± 0.4) × 10 -4 for the uptake of C2H2 on Mg2SiO4, MgFeSiO4 and Fe2SiO4, respectively, indicating that  is independent of Mg or Fe active sites. The uptake of C2H2 was also measured on SiO2 and SiC as analogues for meteoric smoke particles T but was found to be below the detection limit ( < 6 × 10 -8 and < 4 × 10 -7 , respectively). The rate of cyclo-trimerization of C2H2 to C6H6 was found to be 2.6 × 10 -5 exp(-741/T) s -1 , with an uncertainty ranging from ± 27 % at 115 K to ± 49 % at 181 K. A chemical ablation model was used to show that the bulk of cosmic dust particles (radius 0.02 -10  T mass loss through sputtering), thereby providing a significant surface for heterogeneous 2 chemistry. A 1D model of dust sedimentation shows that the production of C6H6 via uptake of C2H2 on cosmic dust, followed by cyclo-trimerization and desorption, is probably competitive with gas-phase production of C6H6 between 80 and 120 km.