An 11-year solar cycle in tropospheric ozone from TOMS measurements

Abstract

Tropospheric column ozone derived from Nimbus 7 total ozone mapping spectrometer (TOMS) footprint measurements from 1979 to 1992 provide the first observational evidence of changes in tropospheric ozone in the marine atmosphere of the tropics which are out of phase with the stratospheric ozone changes on a time scale of a solar cycle. The estimated changes in tropospheric and stratospheric column ozone over a solar cycle are respectively -2.98 ± 1.31 and +8.63 ± 1.99 Dobson units (DU) or -12.6 ± 5.6 and +3.69 ± 0.86% from solar minimum to solar maximum. These values are statistically significant at the 2σ level. In comparison, linear trends in tropical tropospheric ozone are not statistically significant. These observations are qualitatively consistent with a modulation effect on tropospheric ozone photochemistry by UV-induced changes in stratospheric ozone. However, in the low NOx regime of the marine atmosphere, the observed changes are significantly larger than estimated from a photochemical model. Explanation for the solar signal may include subtle solar-induced changes in transport in the troposphere involving low boundary-layer ozone and ozone precursors.