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Unprecedented Arctic ozone loss in 2011

Abstract

Chemical ozone destruction occurs over both polar regions in local winter–spring. In the Antarctic, essentially complete removal of lower-stratospheric ozone currently results in an ozone hole every year, whereas in the Arctic, ozone loss is highly variable and has until now been much more limited. Here we demonstrate that chemical ozone destruction over the Arctic in early 2011 was—for the first time in the observational record—comparable to that in the Antarctic ozone hole. Unusually long-lasting cold conditions in the Arctic lower stratosphere led to persistent enhancement in ozone-destroying forms of chlorine and to unprecedented ozone loss, which exceeded 80 per cent over 18–20 kilometres altitude. Our results show that Arctic ozone holes are possible even with temperatures much milder than those in the Antarctic. We cannot at present predict when such severe Arctic ozone depletion may be matched or exceeded.

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Figure 1: Meteorology of the Arctic lower stratosphere.
Figure 2: Chemical composition in the lower stratosphere.
Figure 3: Vertical composition information.
Figure 4: Chemical ozone loss estimates.
Figure 5: Total column ozone.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the MLS (especially A. Lambert, D. Miller, W. Read, M. Schwartz, P. Stek, J. Waters), OMI (especially P. K. Bhartia, G. Jaross, G. Labow), CALIPSO and Match science teams, as well as A. Douglass, J. Joiner and the Aura project, for their support. We also thank W. Daffer and R. Fuller for programming assistance at JPL; the many observers whose work went into obtaining the ozone-sonde measurements; the ozone scientists who participated in the discussion of the 2011 Arctic ozone loss and appropriate definition of an Arctic ozone hole (including, but not limited to, N. Harris, G. Bodeker, G. Braathen, M. Kurylo, R. Salawitch); and especially P. Newman and K. Minschwaner for discussions and comments. Meteorological analyses were provided by NASA’s Global Modeling and Assimilation Office (GMAO) and by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. We thank S. Pawson of GMAO for advice on usage of the MERRA reanalysis. Ozone-sonde measurements at Alert, Eureka, Resolute Bay, Churchill and Goose Bay were funded by Environment Canada. Additional ozone sondes were flown at Eureka as part of the Canadian Arctic Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment (ACE) Validation Campaign and were funded by the Canadian Space Agency. Academy of Finland provided partial funding for performing and processing ozone-sonde measurements in Jokioinen and Sodankylä. Ozone soundings and work at AWI were partially funded by the EC DG Research through the RECONCILE project. Work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, and at Science Systems and Applications Inc., was done under contract with NASA.

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Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

G.L.M. and M.L.S. led analysis of MLS data; M.R. led analysis of ozone-sonde data; G.L.M. led the meteorological data analysis. M.R., G.L.M., N.J.L. and I.W. did chemical ozone loss calculations. R.L. and M.R. performed and analysed chemical box model calculations. M.C.P. and L.R.P. provided CALIPSO/CALIOP data analyses; E.R.N. and P.V. provided TOMS and OMI data analyses. L.F., M.L.S., G.L.M. and N.J.L. provided expertise on MLS data usage; D.P.H., P.V. and P.F.L. provided expertise on OMI data usage. J.D., V.D., H.G., B.J., R.K., E.K., N.L., A.M., C.T.M., H.N., M.C.P., D.W.T., P.v.d.G., K.A.W. and N.S.Z. were responsible for performing and processing ozone-sonde measurements. All authors contributed comments on the manuscript. G.L.M., M.L.S. and M.R. jointly compiled and synthesized the results. G.L.M. and M.L.S. wrote the paper.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Gloria L. Manney or Michelle L. Santee.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Additional information

CALIOP data are publicly available at http://eosweb.larc.nasa.gov/PRODOCS/calipso/table_calipso.html, MLS data at http://disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/Aura/data-holdings/MLS, OMI data at http://disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/Aura/data-holdings/OMI/omto3_v003.shtml, and GEOS-5 MERRA analyses through http://disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/mdisc/data-holdings/merra/. The balloon-borne Antarctic ozone-sonde data recorded in 1985 and the following years are publicly available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.547983.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

The file contains a Supplementary Discussion, Supplementary Figures 1-7 with legends and additional references. (PDF 2872 kb)

Supplementary Data 1A

The data shows Arctic Ozone Data (ZIP 5905 kb)

Supplementary Data 1B

The data shows Arctic Ozone Station Information (XLS 10 kb)

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Manney, G., Santee, M., Rex, M. et al. Unprecedented Arctic ozone loss in 2011. Nature 478, 469–475 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10556

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