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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">EGUsphere</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>EGUsphere</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub"></issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/egusphere-2026-4117</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>The boundary of nighttime ozone chemical equilibrium as an indicator of local chemistry disturbances in the polar mesopause region</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Kulikov</surname>
<given-names>Mikhail Yu.</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8120-8588</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Belikovich</surname>
<given-names>Mikhail V.</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0514-740X</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Chubarov</surname>
<given-names>Aleksey G.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Dementyeva</surname>
<given-names>Svetlana O.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Feigin</surname>
<given-names>Alexander M.</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>A. V. Gaponov-Grekhov Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 46 Ulyanov Str., 603950 Nizhny Novgorod, Russia</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>15</day>
<month>07</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>34</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Mikhail Yu. Kulikov et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-4117/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-4117/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-4117/egusphere-2026-4117.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-4117/egusphere-2026-4117.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>The nighttime ozone chemical equilibrium (NOCE) is a key assumption widely employed for various applications in the mesopause region, such as retrieving hard-to-measure characteristics from observations. Previously, the criterion for determining the NOCE boundary was used to analyze its long-term evolution from SABER/TIMED data, primarily at low and middle latitudes. This work focuses on polar latitudes. We demonstrate that the NOCE criterion clearly indicates the main features of the transition zone separating deep and weak O and H diurnal photochemical oscillations. During the polar night, this zone degenerates into a step in their profiles, and the criterion identifies the altitude of this step. Next, we analyze the evolution of the NOCE boundary using SABER/TIMED data in conjunction with MERRA-2 data for the winter&amp;ndash;spring period of 2002&amp;ndash;2025. We demonstrate that its most pronounced variability is observed at northern latitudes during and after strong SSWs with an elevated stratopause. Prior to or immediately during such warmings, the daily mean boundary can rise to ~87 km. Immediately after, it rapidly descends to 72&amp;ndash;74 km and can remain at this altitude for an extended period. Model studies of the winter of 2009 show that the boundary closely follows the variability of the medians of the vertical distributions of O and the volume emission rates of OH*, O*, and O&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;*. Thus, we can assume that the NOCE boundary can be used to monitor significant disturbances in both the O&lt;sub&gt;x&lt;/sub&gt;&amp;ndash;HO&lt;sub&gt;x&lt;/sub&gt; components and the airglows generated by physicochemical processes involving them.</p>
</abstract>
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