Response of stratospheric ozone during super storms

Asheesh Bhargawa - University of Lucknow

Session: Interplanetary CMEs and Solar Particle Events

​Abstract

We are very much known to the importance of ozone without which life on the Earth would not have evolved in the way it has. Strong solar storms carried energetic protons into the Earth's upper atmosphere, where they boosted production of nitrogen oxides which are known as ozone killers. In the present study, we have estimated the effects of solar energetic protons over the total ozone column since last 30 years. To that end, we have selected total seven solar storm events having Dst index < -300 nT and occurred during solar cycle 22^nd, 23^rd and 24^th. We have statistically analyzed the significance of the solar proton events on the quantitative variation of total ozone column during super storm events. Further, we have applied the superposed epoch analysis to verify the impact of storm events on solar protons and ultimately on total ozone content. During our analysis, we have established that the ozone column gets depleted significantly (15 - 20%) as proton density increased with the result of solar storm.