Ozone depletion observed by the Airborne Submillimeter Radiometer (ASUR) during the Arctic winter 1999/2000

Abstract

In the winter 1999/2000 the Airborne Submillimeter Radiometer (ASUR) participated in the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment/Third European Stratospheric Experiment on Ozone project on board the NASA research aircraft DC‐8. During three deployments in early December 1999, late January, and early March 2000, the ASUR instrument took various measurements of ozone and key species related to stratospheric ozone chemistry. After the sunlight reached the vortex region in January 2000 peak values of about 1.8 ppb ClO were measured by ASUR. There was nearly no ozone destruction observed during the period between mid December 1999 and late January 2000. As expected from ASUR observation of high chlorine activation and continuously low temperatures until mid March, significant ozone depletion was observed between late January and mid March 2000. In order to determine ozone loss it is important to separate dynamical and chemical effects. Since N 2 O is a good tracer due to its chemical stability in the lower stratosphere for determining ozone changes due to descent of air, ozone loss can be estimated from simultaneous measurements of ozone and N 2 O by ASUR. Between mid December 1999 and mid March 2000 a chemical ozone loss of about 30% (eq 1.1 ppm) in the altitude range between 19.0 and 22.2 km and of about 40% (eq 1.15 ppm) between 16.0 and 18.1 km was observed. The air masses subsided 2.1–3.2 km in the lower stratosphere due to diabatic descent in the period from mid December 1999 to mid March 2000 as derived from ASUR N 2 O measurements. Vortex‐averaged ASUR measurements of ozone are systematical greater than results from the Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME) which has a similar vertical resolution than ASUR. This, however, has little impact on the determination of delta ozone and chemical loss estimates.