STRATOSPHERIC HF MIXING-RATIO PROFILES IN THE NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN HEMISPHERES

Spectra obtained by balloon-borne Michelson interferometers over South Australia in 1977 and New Mexico in 1978 have been analyzed to obtain HF mixing ratios using a recently developed, sensitive analysis method for Fourier transform spectroscopy. The stratospheric HF mixing ratio appears to be significantly larger in the northern hemisphere than in the southern hemisphere for similar respective latitudes with the profiles having a similar vertical shape: the HF mixing ratio increases from 20 to 25 km, stays approximately constant between 25 and 35 km, and increases upward from 35 km. A brief discussion is given of possible causes for the HF profile shape.