Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Prolonged stratospheric ozone loss in the 1995–96 Arctic winter

Abstract

It is well established that extensive depletion of ozone, initiated by heterogenous reactions on polar stratospheric clouds (PSCs) can occur in both the Arctic and Antarctic lower stratosphere1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9. Moreover, it has been shown that ozone loss rates in the Arctic region in recent years reached values comparable to those over the Antarctic8,9. But until now the accumulated ozone losses over the Arctic have been the smaller, mainly because the period of Arctic ozone loss has not—unlike over the Antarctic—persisted well into springtime8,9,10. Here we report the occurrence—during the unusually cold 1995–96 Arctic winter—of the highest recorded chemical ozone loss over the Arctic region. Two new kinds of behaviour were observed. First, ozone loss at some altitudes was observed long after the last exposure to PSCs. This continued loss appears to be due to a removal of the nitrogen species that slow down chemical ozone depletion. Second, in another altitude range ozone loss rates decreased while PSCs were still present, apparently because of an early transformation of the ozone-destroying chlorine species into less active chlorinenitrate. The balance between these two counteracting mechanisms is probably a fine one, determined by small differences in wintertime stratospheric temperatures. If the apparent cooling trend in the Arctic stratosphere11 is real, more dramatic ozone losses may occur in the future.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Ozone loss rate and PSC probability in the Arctic atmosphere during January–March 1996.
Figure 2: Results from a box model run on an idealized trajectory at 20 km height, oscillating between 60° and 80° N with a period of 6 days.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Hofmann, D. J. & Deshler, T. Evidence from balloon measurements for chemical depletion of stratospheric ozone in the Arctic winter of 1989–90. Nature 349, 300–305 (1991).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Manney, G. L. et al. Chemical depletion of ozone in the Arctic lower stratosphere during winter 1992–93. Nature 370, 429–434 (1994).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Manney, G. L., Zurek, R. W., Froidevaux, L. & Waters, J. W. Evidence for Arctic ozone depletion in late February and early March 1994. Geophys. Res. Lett. 22, 2941–2944 (1995).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. von der Gathen, P. et al. Observational evidence for chemical ozone depletion over the Arctic in winter 1991–92. Nature 375, 131–134 (1995).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Müller, R. et al. Chlorine activation and ozone depletion in the Arctic vortex: Observations by the Halogen Occultation Experiment on the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite. J. Geophys. Res. 101, 12531–12554 (1996).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. Hansen, G. et al. Evidence of substantial ozone depletion in winter 1995–1996 over northern Norway. Geophys. Res. Lett. 24, 799–802 (1997).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Müller, R. et al. Severe chemical ozone loss in the Arctic during the winter of 1995–96. Nature 389, 709–712 (1997).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Rex, M. et al. In-situ measurements of stratospheric ozone depletion rates in the Arctic winter 1991/92: a Lagrangian approach. J. Geophys. Res.(submitted).

  9. Rex, M. et al. Chemical ozone loss in the Arctic winter 1994/95 as determined by the Match technique. J. Atmos. Chem.(submitted).

  10. Santee, M. L. et al. Interhemispheric differences in polar stratospheric HNO3, H2O, ClO, and O3. Science 267, 849–852 (1995).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Gelman, M. E. et al. Stratospheric temperature trends derived from SPARC Datasets.in Proc. 1st SPARC General Assembly(Cooperative Research Center for Southern Hemisphere Meteorology, Clayton, Australia, (1996)).

  12. Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion: 1994(ed. Ennis, C. A.) (Rep. 37, WMO, Geneva&c (1995)).

  13. European Research in the Stratophere—The Contribution of EASOE and SESAME to our Current Understanding of the Ozone Layer(EC Rep. EUR16986, Office for Official Publ. of the European Communities, Luxembourg, (1997)).

  14. Jones, R. L., McKenna, D. S., Poole, L. R. & Solomon, S. On the influence of polar stratospheric cloud formation on chemical composition during the 1988/89 Arctic winter. Geophys. Res. Lett. 17, 545–548 (1990).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  15. Webster, C. R. et al. Chlorine chemistry on polar stratospheric cloud particles in the Arctic winter. Science 261, 1130–1133 (1993).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Naujokat, B. & Pawson, S. The cold stratospheric winters 1994/95 and 1995/96. Geophys. Res. Lett. 23, 3703–3706 (1997).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  17. Manney, G. L. et al. Polar vortex conditions during the 1995–96 Arctic winter: meteorology and MLS ozone. Geophys. Res. Lett. 23, 3203–3206 (1996).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  18. Stebel, K. et al. Polar stratospheric clouds above Spitsbergen.in Proc. XVIII Quadrenn. Ozone Symp.(in the press).

  19. Hansen, G. & Hoppe, U.-P. Lidar observations of polar stratospheric clouds and stratospheric temperature in winter 1995/96 over northern Norway. Geophys. Res. Lett. 24, 131–134 (1997).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  20. Santee, M. L. et al. Polar vortex conditions during the 1995–1996 Arctic winter: MLS ClO and HNO3. Geophys. Res. Lett. 23, 3207–3210 (1996).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Vömel, H. et al. Dehydration and sedimentaiton of ice particles in the Arctic stratospheric vortex. Geophys. Res. Lett. 24, 795–798 (1997).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  22. Fahey, D. W. et al. Observations of denitrification and dehydration in the winter polar stratospheres. Nature 344, 321–324 (1990).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Hübler, G. et al. Redistribution of reactive odd nitrogen in the lower Arctic stratosphere. Geophys. Res. Lett. 17, 453–456 (1990).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  24. Arnold, F., Gollinger, K. & Spreng, S. in Polar Stratospheric Ozone(eds Pyle, J. A. et al.) 175–178 (Rep. 56, Commissions of the European Communities, DG-XII, Brussels, (1996)).

    Google Scholar 

  25. Oelhaf, H. et al. in Polar Stratospheric Ozone(eds Pyle, J. A. et al.) 187–193 (Rep. 56, Commissions of the European Communities, DG-XII, Brussels, (1996)).

    Google Scholar 

  26. Salawitch, R. J. et al. Chemical loss of ozone in the Arctic polar vortex in the winter of 1991–1992. Science 261, 1146–1149 (1993).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  27. Müller, R. et al. Chlorine chemistry and the potential for ozone depletion in the arctic stratosphere in the winter 1991/92. Geophys. Res. Lett. 21, 1427–1430 (1994).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  28. Urban, J. et al. Observations of stratospheric ClO, HCl, O3, N2O, and HO2at high latitudes during the winters of 1995 and 1996 with the Airborne-Submillimeter-SIS-Radiometer.in Proc. XVII Quadrenn. Ozone Symp.(in the press).

  29. De More, W. B. et al. Chemical kinetics and photochemical data for use in stratospheric modeling.(Evaluation No. 11, Publ. 94-26, Jet Propulsion Lab., Pasadena, (1994)).

  30. Notholt, J. et al. Seasonal variations of atmospheric trace gases in the high Arctic at 79° N. J. Geophys. Res. 102, 12855–12861 (1997).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank the following for cooperation and for providing ozonesonde data: H. De Backer, Royal Meteorol. Inst.; D. Balis and I. Ziomas, Univ. Thessaloniki; H. Claude, Meteorol. Obs. Hohenpeißenberg; S. Godin and M. Guirlet, CNRS, Univ. Paris; B. Kois, Inst. of Meteorol. and Water Management; G. Murphy, Irish Meteorol. Service; S. J. Reid, Univ. Wales; F. H. Sigurdsson, Icelandic Meteorol. Office; C. Varotsos, Univ. Athens; V. Yushkov, Central Aerol. Obs.; National Space Development Agency of Japan and all others involved in Match. We also thank G. L. Manney and M. L. Santee for providing the MLS data, and the ECMWF and the German Weather Service for providing meteorological data. The chemistry model used was based on a model from G. Brasseur (NCAR, USA). This work was supported by the Environment and Climate Program of DG-XII of the EC, the UK DETR and the German BMBF.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Rex, M., Harris, N., von der Gathen, P. et al. Prolonged stratospheric ozone loss in the 1995–96 Arctic winter. Nature 389, 835–838 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/39849

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/39849

This article is cited by

Comments

By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing