The long history of ozone: Analyses of recent measurements

Abstract

The magnitude and understanding of the changes in stratospheric ozone since the 1970s are presented in this chapter. Ozone has declined over all regions outside the tropics. The emphasis in this chapter is the decline over the northern and southern mid-latitudes. For a number of years, a standard statistical approach to the analysis of ozone data has been presented in the UNEP/WMO assessments. The assumptions underlying this model are discussed and analyses of updated time series of ozone are presented. The influence of dynamical changes on the decadal evolution of ozone is becoming clearer, particularly in the more dynamically active northern hemisphere. Finally, the main factors which will determine future ozone amounts are briefly discussed. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009.