The ozone hole indirect effect: Cloud-radiative anomalies accompanying the poleward shift of the eddy-driven jet in the Southern Hemisphere

Abstract

This study quantifies the response of the clouds and the radiative budget of the Southern Hemisphere (SH) to the poleward shift in the tropospheric circulation induced by the development of the Antarctic ozone hole. Single forcing climate model integrations, in which only stratospheric ozone depletion is specified, indicate that (1) high-level and midlevel clouds closely follow the poleward shift in the SH midlatitude jet and that (2) low-level clouds decrease across most of the Southern Ocean. Similar cloud anomalies are found in satellite observations during periods when the jet is anomalously poleward. The hemispheric annual mean radiation response to the cloud anomalies is calculated to be approximately +0.25 W m-2, arising largely from the reduction of the total cloud fraction at SH midlatitudes during austral summer. While these dynamically induced cloud and radiation anomalies are considerable and are supported by observational evidence, quantitative uncertainties remain from model biases in mean-state cloud-radiative processes. © 2013. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.