Case study of ozone anomalies over northern Russia in the 2015/2016 winter: measurements and numerical modelling

Episodes of extremely low ozone columns were observed over the territory of Russia in the Arctic winter of 2015/2016 and the beginning of spring 2016. We compare total ozone columns (TOCs) from different remote sensing techniques (satellite and ground-based observations) with results of numerical mo...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annales Geophysicae
Main Authors: Timofeyev, Yury M., Smyshlyaev, Sergei P., Virolainen, Yana A., Garkusha, Alexander S., Polyakov, Alexander V., Motsakov, Maxim A., Kirner, Ole
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Copernicus Publications 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-36-1495-2018
https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00004180
https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00004137/angeo-36-1495-2018.pdf
https://angeo.copernicus.org/articles/36/1495/2018/angeo-36-1495-2018.pdf
Description
Summary:Episodes of extremely low ozone columns were observed over the territory of Russia in the Arctic winter of 2015/2016 and the beginning of spring 2016. We compare total ozone columns (TOCs) from different remote sensing techniques (satellite and ground-based observations) with results of numerical modelling over the territory of the Urals and Siberia for this period. We demonstrate that the provided monitoring systems (including the new Russian Infrared Fourier Spectrometer IKFS-2) and modern three-dimensional atmospheric models can capture the observed TOC anomalies. However, the results of observations and modelling show differences of up to 20 %–30 % in TOC measurements. Analysis of the role of chemical and dynamical processes demonstrates that the observed short-term TOC variability is not a result of local photochemical loss initiated by heterogeneous halogen activation on particles of polar stratospheric clouds that formed under low temperatures in the mid-winter.