Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics North Atlantic Oscillation and tropospheric ozone variability in Europe: model analysis and measurements intercomparison

• Main Authors: F. S. R. Pausata, L. Pozzoli, E. Vignati, F. J. Dentener
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: North Atlantic; North Atlantic oscillation
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.646.178; http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/12/6357/2012/acp-12-6357-2012.pdf

Abstract. Ozone pollution represents a serious health and environmental problem. While ozone pollution is mostly pro-duced by photochemistry in summer, elevated ozone concen-trations can also be influenced by long range transport driven by the atmospheric circulation and stratospheric ozone intru-sions. We analyze the role of large scale atmospheric circula-tion variability in the North Atlantic basin in determining sur-face ozone concentrations over Europe. Here, we show, us-ing ground station measurements and a coupled atmosphere-chemistry model simulation for the period 1980–2005, that the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) does affect surface ozone concentrations – on a monthly timescale, over 10 ppbv in southwestern, central and northern Europe – during all seasons except fall. The commonly used NAO index is able to capture the link existing between atmospheric dynamics