Observing the Impact of Calbuco Volcanic Aerosols on South Polar Ozone Depletion in 2015 ...

• Main Authors: Stone, KA, Solomon, S, Kinnison, DE, Pitts, MC, Poole, LR, Mills, MJ, Schmidt, A, Neely, RR, Ivy, D, Schwartz, MJ, Vernier, JP, Johnson, BJ, Tully, MB, Klekociuk, AR, König-Langlo, G, Hagiya, S
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: American Geophysical Union (AGU) 2017
• Subjects: Calbuco; Ozone hole; Stratosphere; Volcano; Sulfur; Observations; Antarctic; Austral; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17863/cam.20486; https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/273451

AbstractThe Southern Hemisphere Antarctic stratosphere experienced two noteworthy events in 2015: a significant injection of sulfur from the Calbuco volcanic eruption in Chile in April and a record‐large Antarctic ozone hole in October and November. Here we quantify Calbuco's influence on stratospheric ozone depletion in austral spring 2015 using observations and an Earth system model. We analyze ozonesondes, as well as data from the Microwave Limb Sounder. We employ the Community Earth System Model, version 1, with the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM) in a specified dynamics setup, which includes calculations of volcanic effects. The Cloud‐Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization data indicate enhanced volcanic liquid sulfate 532 nm backscatter values as far poleward as 68°S during October and November (in broad agreement with WACCM). Comparison of the location of the enhanced aerosols to ozone data supports the view that aerosols played a major role in increasing the ozone hole size, ...