Antarctic Climate Response to Stratospheric Ozone Depletion in a Fine Resolution Ocean Climate Model

• Main Authors: Bitz, C. M., Polvani, Lorenzo M.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: Atmosphere; Meteorology; Climatic changes; Antarctic; Antarc*; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.7916/D81V5R39

We investigate the impact of stratospheric ozone depletion on Antarctic climate, paying particular attention to the question of whether eddy parameterizations in the ocean fundamentally alter the results. This is accomplished by contrasting two versions of the Community Climate System Model (version 3.5), one at 0.1° ocean and sea ice resolution and the other at 1° with parameterized ocean eddies. At both resolutions, pairs of integrations are performed: one with high (1960) and one with low (2000) ozone levels. We find that the effect of ozone depletion is to warm the surface and the ocean to a depth of 1000 m and to significantly reduce the sea ice extent. While the ocean warming is somewhat weaker when the eddies are resolved, the total loss of sea ice area is roughly the same in the fine and coarse resolution cases.