Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net 1680-7367 1680-7375 3 4 2003 10.5194/acpd-3-3411-2003 http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/3/3411/2003/ http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/3/3411/2003/acpd-3-3411-2003.html http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/3/3411/2003/acpd-3-3411-2003.pdf 3411 3449 2003-07-03 Global distribution of total ozone and lower stratospheric temperature variations W. Steinbrecht B. Hassler H. Claude P. Winkler R. S. Stolarski German Weather Service, Hohenpeissenberg, Germany NASA, Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA This study gives an overview of interannual variations of total ozone and 50hPa temperature. It is based on newer and longer records from the 1979 to 2001 Total Ozone Monitoring Spectrometer (TOMS) and Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet (SBUV) instruments, and on US National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) reanalyses. Multiple linear least squares regression is used to quantify various natural and anthropogenic influences. For most influences the total ozone and 50hPa temperature responses look very similar, reflecting a very close coupling. As a rule of thumb, a 10 Dobson Unit (DU) change in total ozone corresponds to a 1K change of 50hPa temperature. Large influences come from the linear trend term, up to &minus;30 DU or &minus;1.5 K/decade, from terms related to polar vortex strength, up to 50 DU or 5 K (typical, minimum to maximum), from tropospheric meteorology, up to 30 DU or 3 K, or from the Quasi-Biennial Oscillation (QBO), up to 25 DU or 2.5 K. The 11-year solar cycle, up to 25 DU or 2.5 K, El Niño/Southern Oscillation (<i>ENSO</i>), up to 10 DU or 1 K, are somewhat smaller influences. Stratospheric aerosol after the 1991 Pinatubo eruption lead to warming up to 3 K at low latitudes and to ozone depletion up to 40 DU at high latitudes. Response to QBO, polar vortex strength, and to a lesser degree to <i>ENSO</i>, exhibit an inverse correlation between low latitudes and higher latitudes. Responses to the solar cycle or 400 hPa temperature, however, have the same sign over most of the globe. Responses are usually zonally symmetric at low and mid-latitudes, but asymmetric at high latitudes. There, solar cycle, QBO or <i>ENSO</i> influence position and strength of the stratospheric anti-cyclones over the Aleutians and south of Australia.