Ozone depletion in the 2006/2007 Arctic winter

Abstract

Ozone depletion in the 2006/2007 Arctic winter is studied by assimilating ozone from the Odin/SMR satellite instrument into a 2-D isentropic transport model. Cross-isentropic transport is implemented by letting the vortex descend at a rate estimated from the inert tracer N2O. Ozone depletion is estimated by comparing ozone fields, passively transported in the model from 1 January 2007, to model fields continuously updated by assimilation of incoming satellite data. Significant ozone destruction is inferred in February and March 2007. By 15 March, an average ozone destruction in the range 0.5 - 1.0 ppmv is estimated north of 65° equivalent latitude at 475 K potential temperature, whilst 0.3-0.8 ppmv and 0.4-0.8 ppmv ozone destruction is estimated at 525 K and 575 K. By comparing the 2007 ozone depletion to losses inferred in 2003 and 2005 we conclude that the 2007 Arctic ozone destruction is the most severe found in the Odin/SMR data set. Copyright 2007 by the American Geophysical Union.