An Unprecedented Arctic Ozone Depletion Event During Spring 2020 and its Impacts Across Europe

• Published in: Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
• Main Authors: Petkov, Boyan, H., Vitale, Vito, Di Carlo, Piero, Drofa, Oxana, Mastrangelo, Daniele, Smedley, Andrew, R. D., Diémoz, Henri, Siani, Anna Maria, Fountoulakis, Ilias, Webb, Ann, R., Bais, Alkiviadis, Kift, Richard, Rimmer, John, Casale, Giuseppe Rocco, Hansen, Georg, Svendby, Tove, Pazmino, Andrea, Werner, Rolf, Atanassov, Atanas, Láska, Kamil, de Backer, Hugo, Mangold, Alexander, Köhler, Ulf, Velazco, Voltaire, Stübi, René, Solomatnikova, Anna, Pavlova, Kseniya, Sobolewski, Piotr, Johnsen, Bjørn, Goutail, Florence, Mišaga, Oliver, Aruffo, Eleonora, Metelka, Ladislav, Tóth, Zoltán, Fekete, Dénes, Aculinin, Alexandr, Lupi, Angelo, Mazzola, Mauro, Zardi, Federico
• Other Authors: Università degli studi "G. d'Annunzio" Chieti-Pescara Chieti-Pescara (Ud'A), Istituto di Scienze Polari / Institute of Polar Sciences Bologna (ISP), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche Bologna (CNR), Istituto di Scienze dell'Atmosfera e del Clima Bologna (ISAC), National Research Council of Italy, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences Manchester (EES), University of Manchester Manchester, Agenzia Regionale per la Protezione dell'Ambiente Valle D'Aosta (ARPA VDA), Dipartimento di Fisica Roma La Sapienza, Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza" = Sapienza University Rome (UNIROMA), Institute for Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space Applications and Remote Sensing Penteli (IAASARS), National Observatory of Athens (NOA), Department of Applied and Environmental Physics Thessaloniki, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU), STRATO - LATMOS, Laboratoire Atmosphères, Milieux, Observations Spatiales (LATMOS), Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Sorbonne Université (SU)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Space Research and Technology Institute Sofia, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS), Masaryk University Brno (MUNI), Institut Royal Météorologique de Belgique Bruxelles - Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium (IRM), Meteorologisches Observatorium Hohenpeißenberg (MOHp), Deutscher Wetterdienst Offenbach (DWD), Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology MeteoSwiss, A. I. Voeikov Main Geophysical Observatory (MGO), Institute of Geophysics Warsaw, Polska Akademia Nauk = Polish Academy of Sciences = Académie polonaise des sciences (PAN), Norwegian Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, Slovak Hydrometeorological Institute (SHMU), Czech Hydrometeorological Institute (CHMI), H-ION Research, Development and Innovation Ltd., Hungarian Meteorological Service (OMSZ), Institute of Applied Physics Moldavie
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2023
• Subjects: [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean; Atmosphere; Arctic; Ny-Ålesund; Ny Ålesund
• Online Access: https://insu.hal.science/insu-03951059; https://insu.hal.science/insu-03951059/document; https://insu.hal.science/insu-03951059/file/JGR%20Atmospheres%20-%202023%20-%20Petkov%20-%20An%20Unprecedented%20Arctic%20Ozone%20Depletion%20Event%20During%20Spring%202020%20and%20Its%20Impacts%20Across.pdf; https://doi.org/10.1029/2022JD037581

International audience The response of the ozone column across Europe to the extreme 2020 Arctic ozone depletion was examined by analysing ground-based observations at 38 European stations. The ozone decrease at the northernmost site, Ny-Ålesund (79°N) was about 43% with respect to a climatology of more than 30 years. The magnitude of the decrease declined by about 0.7 % deg-1 moving to south to reach nearly 15% at 40°N. In addition, it was found that the variations of the ozone column at each of the selected stations in March-May were similar to those observed at Ny-Ålesund but with a delay increasing to about 20 days at mid-latitudes with a gradient of approximately 0.5 days deg-1. The distributions of reconstructed ozone column anomalies over a sector covering a large European area show decreasing ozone that started from the north at the beginning of April 2020 and spread south. Such behaviour was shown to be similar to that observed after the Arctic ozone depletion in 2011. Stratospheric dynamical patterns in March to May 2011 and during 2020 suggested that the migration of ozone-poor air masses from polar areas to the south after the vortex breakup caused the observed ozone responses. A brief survey of the ozone mass mixing ratios at three stratospheric levels showed the exceptional strength of the 2020 episode. Despite the stronger and longer-lasting Arctic ozone loss in 2020, the analysis in this work indicates a similar ozone response at latitudes below 50°N to both 2011 and 2020 phenomena.