Ozone variations in the Northern polar region

• Published in: Meteorology and atmospheric physics 1988-01, Vol.38 (3), p.117-130
• Main Author: Bojkov, Rumen D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0177-7971; 1436-5065
• DOI: 10.1007/BF01029776

All total ozone observations ever made in the Northern polar region, including some from the 1930's, have been corrected, and the basic climatology has been presented. The long-term ozone changes were considered in relation to the stratospheric temperatures. For each deviation from the monthly normal of the 100-hPa temperature by 1 degrees C, a corresponding 5-6-m atm-cm change was found in the monthly ozone deviation. A distinction between the ozone regimes over the Scandinavian, Canadian, and East Siberian sectors of the polar region was noted. The strong appearance of the QBO (Quasi-Biennial Oscillation) in the interannual ozone fluctuations was obvious. It is demonstrated that, for the past three decades, the total ozone experienced a few periods with positive and a few periods with negative deviations. In view of this, trends in ozone must obviously be based upon >10 yr of data. During 1964-1986, the weighted trend over the polar stations was (-0.9 plus or minus 0.4)% per decade. There have been, however, three periods (1958-1964, 1968-1976, and 1979-1986), coinciding with the declining phase of the 11-yr sun-spot cycle, during which the ozone at all polar stations declined by similar to 0.5%/yr (or less if the QBO component is filtered out). Some of the differences with Antarctic ozone are mentioned, and the dominant role of the stratospheric circulation for the ozone variations is discussed. In general, the Arctic ozone observations show no evidence of a major ozone decline similar to that over Antarctica.