Ozone anomalies in the stratosphere of the Arctic and northern Eurasia: Comparison of 2011 and 2020 events using TEMIS and Aura MLS data
O.E. Bazhenov
V.E. Zuev Institute of Atmospheric Optics of Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science, Tomsk, Russia
Keywords: total ozone content, ozone concentration, ozone anomaly, Aura MLS data, TEMIS observations
Abstract
In winters-springs 2010/2011 and 2019/2020, there were the strongest anomalies of ozone layer in the Arctic stratosphere in the total satellite era. They were due to extraordinarily strong and long-lived stratospheric polar vortices, entailing unprecedented chemical ozone destruction. The analysis of the TEMIS data indicates that the total ozone content (TOC) deviations from the multiyear (2003-2019 except 2011) average were from 37 to 44% in 2011 and from 45 to 55% in 2020 at Arctic observation stations; and from 27 to 36% in 2011 and from 27 to 32% in 2020 in the subarctic latitudes. Based on the Aura MLS data, the minimal temperatures were 8-12% below normal over the Arctic in 2011 and 8-13% below normal in 2020. The ozone concentration dropped to 23% of the multiyear average at an altitude of 20 km on March 22, 2011, and to 6% at an altitude of 19 km on April 15, 2020, for Alert. A detailed correlation analysis showed that the deviations in the concentrations of water vapor and ozone, water vapor and temperature, and ozone and temperature correlate stronger in 2020 than in 2011. The correlations decrease toward the vortex periphery owing to the exchange of air masses between the Arctic and middle latitudes, becoming weakly significant outside the Arctic circle.
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