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GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 31, L04116, doi:10.1029/2003GL018844, 2004

Arctic ozone loss and climate change

M. Rex

Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Potsdam, Germany


R. J. Salawitch

Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA


P. von der Gathen

Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Potsdam, Germany


N. R. P. Harris

European Ozone Research Coordinating Unit, Cambridge, UK


M. P. Chipperfield

School of the Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK


B. Naujokat

Meteorological Institute, Free Univ. of Berlin, Berlin, Germany


Abstract

We report the first empirical quantification of the relation between winter-spring loss of Arctic ozone and changes in stratospheric climate. Our observations show that ∼15 DU additional loss of column ozone can be expected per Kelvin cooling of the Arctic lower stratosphere, an impact nearly three times larger than current model simulations suggest. We show that stratospheric climate conditions became significantly more favorable for large Arctic ozone losses over the past four decades; i.e., the maximum potential for formation of polar stratospheric clouds increased steadily by a factor of three. Severe Arctic ozone loss during the past decade occurred as a result of the combined effect of this long-term climate change and the anthropogenic increase in stratospheric halogens.

Received 15 October 2003; accepted 21 January 2004; published 28 February 2004.

Index Terms: 0340 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Middle atmosphere—composition and chemistry; 0370 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Volcanic effects (8409); 1620 Global Change: Climate dynamics (3309); 1610 Global Change: Atmosphere (0315, 0325); 3349 Meteorology and Atmospheric Dynamics: Polar meteorology.

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Citation: Rex, M., R. J. Salawitch, P. von der Gathen, N. R. P. Harris, M. P. Chipperfield, and B. Naujokat (2004), Arctic ozone loss and climate change, Geophys. Res. Lett., 31, L04116, doi:10.1029/2003GL018844.