European Geosciences Union Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics A 2003 stratospheric aerosol extinction and PSC climatology from

Abstract. Stratospheric aerosols play an important role in a number of atmospheric issues such as midlatitude ozone depletion, atmospheric dynamics and the Earth radiative bud-get. Polar stratospheric clouds on the other hand are a crucial factor in the yearly Arctic and Antarctic ozone depletion. It is therefore important to quantify the stratospheric aerosol/PSC abundance. In orbit since March 2002, the GOMOS instru-ment onboard the European Envisat satellite has provided a vast aerosol extinction data set. In this paper we present aerosol/PSC zonal median values that were constructed from this data set, together with a discussion of the results.