DOAS zenith sky observations .1. BrO measurements over Bremen (53 degrees N) 1993-1994

Observations of stratospheric BrO over Bremen (53 degrees N) are reported for winter and early spring periods of 1993 and 1993/94. The BrO was observed by ground-based near-UV absorption spectroscopy of sunlight scattered in the zenith. Differential slant column densities for solar zenith angles 90 degrees/80 degrees in the range of 9x10(13) (detection limit) to 4.5x10(14) molecules/cm(2) having a high day-to-day variability were found. For the majority of the measurements no significant difference was observed between the morning and evening behaviour of BrO. Exceptions are the morning measurements from the winter of 1992/93 where an accelerated production of BrO was observed. We believe the latter best to be explained by the early morning rapid photolysis of elevated amounts of photo-labile Br-reservoirs formed during the night. The largest differential slant column densities of BrO were measured in December 1993 when the temperatures at 30 hPa dropped below 205 K. This might be an indication of heterogeneous conversion of bromine compounds on sulfate and other aerosols.