Longitudinal variation in springtime ozone trends

Satellite measurements indicate that mid-latitude ozone depletion in the Northern Hemisphere spring during 1979-97 was worst over Europe and Russia. Here we show that these longitudinal differences in ozone trends are due to a combination of decadal variations in the circulation and transport of ozo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 2001-10, Vol.413 (6857), p.699-700
Main Authors: KNUDSEN, Bjørn M, ANDERSEN, Signe B
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Atmospheric composition. Chemical and photochemical reactions
Brackish
Earth, ocean, space
Europe
Exact sciences and technology
External geophysics
Freshwater
Marine
Northern Hemisphere
Physics of the high neutral atmosphere
Russia
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Summary:Satellite measurements indicate that mid-latitude ozone depletion in the Northern Hemisphere spring during 1979-97 was worst over Europe and Russia. Here we show that these longitudinal differences in ozone trends are due to a combination of decadal variations in the circulation and transport of ozone-depleted air from the polar vortex. Any increase in ozone depletion in the polar vortex as a result of future cooling of the stratosphere would therefore be particularly bad over Europe and Russia. Massive ozone depletion inside the Arctic vortex has occurred frequently during the past decade. As the total ozone mapping spectrometer satellite data we use here have gaps from December 1994 to July 1996 and in May 1994, the principal part of the vortex depletion during 1979-97 is included by using the 1993 and 1997 depletions. They were calculated by tracking the ozone-depleted air with reverse domain-filling trajectory calculations covering the altitude region of ozone depletion.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/35099677