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This figure shows MLS measurements of sulfur dioxide (SO₂) on selected days soon after the launch of UARS. The data are for a layer centered near 26 km altitude, and the color bar goes from SO₂ mixing ratios of 0 to 12 ppbv. The earliest map (21 September) is for data taken approximately 100 days after the 15 June 1991 Pinatubo eruption, and after the SO₂ had decayed below the detection limit of the TOMS and SBUV experiments. Further decay of SO₂ is seen during the period shown here. The decay of SO₂ produces sulfuric acid aerosols upon whose surfaces chemistry can occur which leads to a transformation of chlorine already in the stratosphere to forms that destroy ozone. See Read, et al. [1993] for more discussion of these data and analyses.

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