Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics Discussions
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10.5194/acpd-7-9829-2007
http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/7/9829/2007/
http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/7/9829/2007/acpd-7-9829-2007.html
http://www.atmos-chem-phys-discuss.net/7/9829/2007/acpd-7-9829-2007.pdf
9829
9866
2007-07-06
Simple measures of ozone depletion in the polar stratosphere
R. Müller
ro.mueller@fz-juelich.de
J.-U. Grooß
C. Lemmen
D. Heinze
M. Dameris
G. Bodeker
ICG-1, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, 52425 Jülich, Germany
DLR, IPA, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
NIWA, Private Bag 50061, Omakau Central Otago, New Zealand
now at: Copernicus Instituut voor Duurzame Ontwikkeling en Innovatie, Universiteit Utrecht, 3584CS Utrecht, The Netherlands and Institut für Küstenforschung, GKSS-Forschungszentrum Geesthacht GmbH, 21502 Geesthacht, Germany
We investigate the extent to which commonly considered quantities, based on
total column ozone observations and simulations, are applicable as measures
of ozone loss in the polar vortices. Such quantities have been used
frequently in ozone assessments by the World Meteorological Organization
(WMO) and to assess the performance of chemistry-climate models. The most
commonly considered quantity is monthly mean column ozone poleward of a
latitude of 63° in spring. For the Arctic, these monthly means were
found to be insensitive to the exact choice of the latitude threshold,
unlike the Antarctic where greater sensitivity was found. Choosing a
threshold based on the location of the transport barrier at the vortex
boundary instead of geometric latitude led to a roughly similar year-to-year
variability of the monthly means, but in particular years deviations of
several tens of Dobson units occurred. Moreover, the minimum of daily total
ozone minima poleward of a particular latitude, another popular measure, is
debatable, insofar as it relies on one single measurement or model grid
point. For Arctic conditions, this minimum value occurred often in air
<i>outside</i> polar vortex, both in the observations and in a
chemistry-climate model. As a result, we recommend that the minimum of
daily minima no longer be used when comparing polar ozone loss in
observations and models. As a possible alternative, we suggest considering
the minimum of daily average total ozone poleward of a particular equivalent
latitude (or in the vortex) in spring. This definition both obviates
relying on one single data point and reduces the impact of year-to-year
variability in the Arctic vortex breakup on ozone loss measures. However,
compact relations of such simple measures with meteorological quantities
that describe the potential for polar heterogeneous chlorine activation and
thus ozone loss were not found. Therefore, we argue that where possible,
more sophisticated measures of chemical polar ozone loss that include
additional information to disentangle the impact of transport and chemistry
on ozone, should be employed.
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