Depletion in Antarctic Ozone and Associated Climatic Change

• Main Author: Lal, M.
• Other Authors: INDIAN INST OF TECH NEW DELHI
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1992
• Subjects: Geography; Geology; Geochemistry and Mineralogy; Atmospheric Physics; *ANTARCTIC REGIONS; *CLIMATE; *DEPLETION; *OZONE; AGREEMENTS; ATMOSPHERES; ATMOSPHERICS; CARBON; CARBON DIOXIDE; COMPUTATIONS; DIOXIDES; GREENHOUSE EFFECT; GREENHOUSES; HIGH LATITUDES; LATITUDE; LOSSES; MEAN; METHANE; MODELS; NETS; NITROUS OXIDE; OBSERVATION; OXIDES; PERTURBATIONS; REGIONS; STEADY STATE; STRATOSPHERE; STRUCTURES; SURFACES; TEMPERATURE; TIME; TRACE GASES; SYMPOSIA; POLAR REGIONS; Component Reports; Warming; Chlorofluorocarbons; Radiative flux; Antarctic; Austral; Fairbanks; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica; Alaska
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADP007359; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADP007359

Perhaps the most significant discovery in the atmospheric sciences in the last decade has been the observation of large decreases in ozone. These losses in ozone occur during austral spring, and from 1979 the severity of the depletion increased non-monotonically until September of 1987 when the lowest column ozone amounts ever recorded were observed in Antarctica. While the surprising ozone hole in the remote icy continent of Antarctica emphasizes the potential importance and complexity of processes in the high latitude stratosphere, it also motivated this study on the nature of greenhouse effect on polar climate due to perturbations in column ozone amount in association with observed increases in other trace gases in the Antarctic atmosphere. We have examined the potential climatic effects of changes in the concentration of greenhouse gases on thermal structure of the Antarctic atmosphere using both steady-state and time-dependent climate models. When we incorporate the greenhouse effect of increases in methane, nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide and chlorofluorocarbons in association with decrease in ozone at the levels of maximum concentration in our radiative flux computations for the Antarctic region, the net result is a surface warming which is in fair agreement with that inferred from mean Antarctic temperature series. This article is from 'Proceedings of the International Conference on the Role of Polar Regions in Global Change Held in Fairbanks, Alaska on 11-15 June 1990. Volume 2', AD-A253 028, p703-706. See also Volume 1, AD-A253 027.