An ozone increase in the Antarctic summer stratosphere: A dynamical response to the ozone hole

Abstract

Profiles of ozone concentration retrieved from the SBUV series of satellites show an increase between 1979 and 1997 in the summertime Antarctic middle stratosphere (∼25-10 hPa). Data over the South Pole from ozone sondes confirm the increase. A similar ozone increase is produced in a chemistry climate model that allows feedback between constituent changes and the stratospheric circulation through radiative heating. A simulation that excludes the radiative coupling between predicted ozone and the circulation does not capture this ozone increase. We show that the ozone increase in our model simulations is caused by a dynamical feedback in response to the changes in the stratospheric wind fields forced by the radiative perturbation associated with the Antarctic ozone hole. Copyright 2006 by the American Geophysical Union.