Zugspitze ozone 1970–2020: the role of stratosphere–troposphere transport

Abstract

The pronounced increase in ozone observed at the Alpine station Zugspitze (2962 ma.s.l.) since the 1970s has been ascribed to an increase in stratospheric air descending to the Alps. In this paper, we present a reanalysis of the data from for both ozone (1978 to 2011) and carbon monoxide (1990–2011), which has been extended until 2020 by the data from the Global Atmosphere Watch site at the Umweltforschungsstation Schneefernerhaus (UFS; 2671 ma.s.l. – above sea level), which is located just below the Zugspitze summit. For ozone between 1970 and 1977, a constant annual average of 36.25 ppb (parts per billion) was assumed to have been obtained by extrapolation. The analysis is based on data filtering, utilizing the isotope 7Be (measured between 1970 and 2006) and relative humidity (1970 to 2011; UFS from 2002 to 2020). We estimate both the influence of stratospheric intrusions directly descending to the northern rim of the Alps from the full data filtering and the aged (“indirect”) intrusions from applying a relationship between ozone and the 7Be data. The evaluated total stratospheric contribution to the annual average ozone rises roughly from 12 ppb in 1970 to 24 ppb in 2003. It turns out that the increase in the stratospheric influence is particularly strong in winter. A lowering in positive trend is seen afterwards, with a delay of roughly 1 decade after the beginning of the decrease in the solar irradiation. The air masses hitting the Zugspitze summit became drier until 2003, and we see the growing stratospheric contribution as being an important factor for this drying. Both an increase in the lower-stratospheric ozone and the growing thickness of the intruding layers departing downward from just above the tropopause must be taken into consideration. Carbon monoxide in the intrusions did not change much during the full measurement period from 1990 to 2020, with a slight increase until 2005. This is remarkable since, for air outside intrusions, a decrease by approximately 44 % was found, indicating a substantial improvement in the tropospheric air quality.