Modeling the climate impact of Southern Hemisphere ozone depletion: The importance of the ozone data set

Abstract

The ozone hole is an important driver of recent Southern Hemisphere (SH) climate change, and capturing these changes is a goal of climate modeling. Most climate models are driven by off-line ozone data sets. Previous studies have shown that there is a substantial range in estimates of SH ozone depletion, but the implications of this range have not been examined systematically. We use a climate model to evaluate the difference between using the ozone forcing (Stratospheric Processes and their Role in Climate (SPARC)) used by many Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report (Coupled Model Intercomparison Project) models and one at the upper end of the observed depletion estimates (Binary Database of Profiles (BDBP)). In the stratosphere, we find that austral spring/summer polar cap cooling, geopotential height decreases, and zonal wind increases in the BDBP simulations are all doubled compared to the SPARC simulations, while tropospheric responses are 20-100% larger. These results are important for studies attempting to diagnose the climate fingerprints of ozone depletion. Key Points CMIP5 ozone data set is at the lower end of observed depletion for ozone hole regionUsing upper estimate of depletion doubles stratospheric signal of ozone hole and increases tropospheric signal of the ozone hole by 20-100%