Strong modification of stratospheric ozone forcing by cloud and sea-ice adjustments

• Published in: Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
• Main Authors: Y. Xia, Y. Hu, Y. Huang
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2016
• Subjects: Physics; QC1-999; Chemistry; QD1-999; Sea ice
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-7559-2016; https://doaj.org/article/c32425876c1242a59588e9bfcd36fdd6

We investigate the climatic impact of stratospheric ozone recovery (SOR), with a focus on the surface temperature change in atmosphere–slab ocean coupled climate simulations. We find that although SOR would cause significant surface warming (global mean: 0.2 K) in a climate free of clouds and sea ice, it causes surface cooling (−0.06 K) in the real climate. The results here are especially interesting in that the stratosphere-adjusted radiative forcing is positive in both cases. Radiation diagnosis shows that the surface cooling is mainly due to a strong radiative effect resulting from significant reduction of global high clouds and, to a lesser extent, from an increase in high-latitude sea ice. Our simulation experiments suggest that clouds and sea ice are sensitive to stratospheric ozone perturbation, which constitutes a significant radiative adjustment that influences the sign and magnitude of the global surface temperature change.