Springtime evolution of stratospheric ozone and circulation patterns over Svalbard archipelago in 2019 and 2020

• Main Authors: Tichopád, David, Láska, Kamil, Čížková, Klára, Petkov, Boyan H.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Masaryk Univerzity 2024
• Subjects: stratospheric ozone; stratospheric circulation; polar vortex; Svalbard archipelago; Arctic; Ny-Ålesund; Svalbard; Svalbard Archipelago; Ny Ålesund
• Online Access: https://journals.muni.cz/CPR/article/view/38146

The polar vortex was exceptionally intense and persistent in late winter and spring 2020. The unusually cold lower stratosphere subsequently enabled ozone depletion over the Arctic. The behaviour of ozone layer and stratospheric parameters at the Ny-Ålesund station in the late winter and spring 2019 and 2020 were compared to each other by using reanalysed data, ground- and satellite-based observations and radiosonde measurement. The analyses based on the above-mentioned approaches confirmed a close relationship between ozone depletion and stratospheric circulation in 2020, when a strong polar vortex was observed, while in the case of the much weaker 2019 polar vortex such a relationship was insignificant. The deepest ozone decrease was found to occur at the end of March and in the first half of April 2020 at the 100–40 hPa pressure levels.