The morphology and meteorology of Southern Hemisphere spring total ozone mini-holes

• Main Authors: Newman, Paul A., Schoeberl, Mark R., Lait, Leslie R.
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: unknown
• Published: 1988
• Subjects: ENVIRONMENT POLLUTION; East Antarctica; Antarc*; Antarctica; Ice Sheet
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2060/19890005145

The purpose of this paper is to describe the properties of mini-hole events. Both Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) data and National Meteorological Center (NMC) meteorological analyses will be used to determine the horizontal, vertical and temporal characteristics of the mini-holes. Mini-holes are rapidly developing (1 to 5 days), small horizontal scale (1000 to 3000 km) features which appear in the polar total ozone field during September and October of each year. Typically, a total of 1 to 6 mini-holes appear each year in either the Palmer penninsula region or over the East Antarctica ice sheet. The mini-holes do not develop over these two regions, but they intensify most dramatically there (possibly associated with the local orography). The mini-holes are associated with cold pools of air in the lower stratosphere, anti-cyclonic (geopotential height highs) disturbances to their west, high potential vorticity slightly to the east, and strong northward flow. These meteorological features are baroclinic, having a distinct westward tilt with increasing altitude.