Mark 2: An S-Band Electron Linac Equipped With an Ion Engine PROPOSAL FOR RADIATION PROCESSING OF HIGH-DENSITY SO2 AND OCS CONTAINED IN THE ERUPTION CLOUD USING HIGH-POWER, HIGHENERGY ELECTRONS FROM LINACS Recently Arnold and Buhrke have reported drastic increases of H2SO4 and HSO:i vapour concentrations in the stratospheric aerosol layer as a result of vapour measurements in the stratosphere before and after the big eruptions of the Mexican volcano El Chichon (1). Total weight of these materials in the volcanic aerosol layer is estimated to be about three million tons. Therefore, this aerosol layer has potential to influence the Earth's radiation balance. Recent worldwide abnormal climate is clearly due to the volcanic H2SO4-H2O aerosol layer accumulated in the warm region of the stratosphere. The radiation processing of chemical materials using a high power electron beam is one of the popular technologies on an industrial scale. This proposal, however, concerns a very large scale radiation processing of air pollution containing high- density SO2 and OCS just above the active volcanoes before the formation of H2SO4-H2O aerosol layer, using high-power, high-energy electron beams from linacs on space stations. Figure 1 shows a schematic illustration of this proposal. REFERENCE I. F. Arnold and Th. Buhrke, Nature 301, 293, 1983.
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