Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (Jan 2005)

Vortex-averaged Arctic ozone depletion in the winter 2002/2003

  • T. Christensen,
  • B. M. Knudsen,
  • M. Streibel,
  • S. B. Andersen,
  • A. Benesova,
  • G. Braathen,
  • H. Claude,
  • J. Davies,
  • H. De Backer,
  • H. Dier,
  • V. Dorokhov,
  • M. Gerding,
  • M. Gil,
  • B. Henchoz,
  • H. Kelder,
  • R. Kivi,
  • E. Kyrö,
  • Z. Litynska,
  • D. Moore,
  • G. Peters,
  • P. Skrivankova,
  • R. Stübi,
  • T. Turunen,
  • G. Vaughan,
  • P. Viatte,
  • A. F. Vik,
  • P. von der Gathen,
  • I. Zaitcev

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 5, no. 1
pp. 131 – 138

Abstract

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A total ozone depletion of 68±7 Dobson units between 380 and 525K from 10 December 2002 to 10 March 2003 is derived from ozone sonde data by the vortex-average method, taking into account both diabatic descent of the air masses and transport of air into the vortex. When the vortex is divided into three equal-area regions, the results are 85±9DU for the collar region (closest to the edge), 52±5DU for the vortex centre and 68±7DU for the middle region in between centre and collar. Our results compare well with other studies: We find good agreement with ozone loss deduced from SAOZ data, with results inferred from POAM III observations and with results from tracer-tracer correlations using HF as the long-lived tracer. We find a higher ozone loss than that deduced by tracer-tracer correlations using CH4. We have made a careful comparison with Match results: The results were recalculated using a common time period, vortex edge definition and height interval. The two methods generally compare very well, except at the 475K level which exhibits an unexplained discrepancy.