Quantifying stratospheric ozone loss over Antarctica in the last two decades using corrected satellite profiles

• Published in: Polar Science
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Ozone depletion; Antarctic ozone; MLS; Ozonesonde; Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica; Polar Science
• Online Access: https://nipr.repo.nii.ac.jp/?action=repository_uri&item_id=16969; http://id.nii.ac.jp/1291/00016838/

Loss of stratospheric ozone has occurred over the last half a century due to catalytic destruction by halogen-containing anthropogenic compounds. Saturated ozone loss events, when the ozone concentrations decreased to less than or equal to 1 mPa (>95% ozone loss), were studied across nine stations in Antarctica using the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) instrument onboard the satellite Aura. The satellite observations were corrected using in situ ozonesonde observations to quantify the saturated ozone loss between 2004 and 2020. The analysis shows that at some stations the original MLS observations underestimated the number of loss events by 5–10%, however, at other stations they were overestimated by the same margin. A couple of stations showed a very good match between the original and corrected MLS data. Irrespective of the bias, the number of loss events decreased gradually from 2004 to 2013 suggesting a recovering trend. After 2013, no significant trend is visible, with large variation seen for especially between 2015 and 2019. The interannual variation was strongly coupled to the temperature, highlighting the key role that polar stratospheric clouds play in causing saturated ozone loss.