Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (Jan 2005)

UV radiation below an Arctic vortex with severe ozone depletion

  • B. M. Knudsen,
  • H. Jønch-Sørensen,
  • P. Eriksen,
  • B. J. Johnsen,
  • G. E. Bodeker

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 5, no. 11
pp. 2981 – 2987

Abstract

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The erythemally weighted (UV) irradiance below the severely depleted Arctic vortices in spring 1996 and 1997 were substantially elevated. On average the UV increased 36 and 33% relative to the 1979-1981 mean assuming clear skies from day 80-100 in 1996 and 1997, respectively. On clear sky days large regions of the Arctic experienced maximum UV increases exceeding 70 and 50% on single days in 1996 and 1997, respectively. A minor fraction of these increases are not anthropogenic and have a dynamical origin as seen by comparison to 1982, when hardly any ozone depletion is expected.