W.: Decadal evolution of the Antarctic ozone hole

• Main Authors: Yibo Jiang, Yuk L. Yung, Richard W. Zurek
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1996
• Subjects: Antarctic; Austral; The Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.623.7990; http://yly-mac.gps.caltech.edu/ReprintsYLY/z_Bibliography_soozen/N092Jiang_1996DeccadalEvo.pdf

Abstract. Ozone column amounts obtained by the total ozone mapping spectrometer (TOMS) in the southern polar region are analyzed during late austral winter and spring (days 240-300) for 1980-1991 using area-mapping techniques and area-weighted vortex averages. The vortex here is defined using the-50 PVU (1 PVU- 1.0 x 10-6 K kg-1 m 2 s'l) contour on the 500 K isentropic surface. The principal results are: (1) there is a distinct change after 1985 in the vortex-averaged column ozone depletion rate during September and October, the period of maximum ozone loss, and (2) the vortex-averaged column ozone in late August (day 240) has dropped by 70 Dobson units (DU) in a decade due to the loss in the dark and the dilution effect. The mean ozone depletion rate in the vortex between day 240 and the day of minimum 1 vortex-averaged ozone is about 1 DU d- at the beginning of the decade, increasing to 1 about 1.8 DU d- by 1985, and then apparently saturating thereafter. The vortex-average column ozone during September and October has declined at the rate of 11.3 DU yr- • (3.8%) from 1980 to 1987 (90 DU over 8 years) and at a smaller rate of 2