Transport, radiative, and dynamical effects of the Antarctic ozone hole: a GFDL "SKYHI' model experiment

Abstract

The overall temperature response to the reduced ozone is essentially radiative in character. However, substantial dynamical changes are induced by the ozone hole effect. The Antarctic middle stratosphere in late spring warms by about 6 K over Antarctica and the lower midlatitude stratosphere warms by approximately 1 K. These warming spots are produced mainly by an increased residual circulation intensity. Also, the Antarctic vortex becomes tighter and more confined as a result of the reduced ozone. These two dynamical effects combine to steepen the meridional slope of quasi-conservative trace constituent isolines. Thus, the entire transport, radiative, and dynamical climatology of the springtime stratosphere is affected to an important degree by the ozone hole phenomenon. Over the entire year, however, these dynamical effects are considerably smaller. -from Authors