Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net 1680-7367 1680-7375 6 3 2006 10.5194/acpd-6-4325-2006 http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/6/4325/2006/ http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/6/4325/2006/acpd-6-4325-2006.html http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/6/4325/2006/acpd-6-4325-2006.pdf 4325 4340 2006-05-30 Long-memory processes in global ozone and temperature variations C. Varotsos D. Kirk-Davidoff Department of Applied Physics University of Athens, Greece Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, University of Maryland, USA Global column ozone and tropospheric temperature observations made by ground-based (1964–2004) and satellite-borne (1978–2004) instrumentation are analyzed. Ozone and temperature fluctuations in small time-intervals are found to be positively correlated to those in larger time-intervals in a power-law fashion. For temperature, the exponent of this dependence is larger in the mid-latitudes than in the tropics at long time scales, while for ozone, the exponent is larger in tropics than in the mid-latitudes. The ability of the models to reproduce this scaling could be a good test for improved predictions of future variations in ozone layer and global warming.