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A hiatus in the stratosphere?

Nature Climate Change volume 5, pages 497–498 (2015)Cite this article

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To the Editor —

The answer to this mystery lies in recent changes in lower-stratospheric ozone concentrations. Since the 1970s global total column ozone has been decreasing as a result of human emissions of ozone-depleting substances (ODS), primarily chlorofluorocarbons3. Ozone absorbs solar and infrared radiation. A decrease in ozone concentrations therefore drives stratospheric cooling2,3.

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Figure 1: Stratospheric and surface temperature evolution and influences since 1979.

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Acknowledgements

This Correspondence was inspired by discussions with third-year Mathematics undergraduates at the University of Exeter: C. Serjeant, R. Illingworth, G. Beresford, D. Mehta, M. Stanton and A. Clements. We acknowledge the modelling groups for making their simulations available for this analysis, the Chemistry-Climate Model Validation (CCMVal) Activity for WCRP's (World Climate Research Programme) SPARC (Stratospheric Processes and their Role in Climate) project for organizing and coordinating the model data analysis activity, and the British Atmospheric Data Centre (BADC) for collecting and archiving the CCMVal model output. We thank T. Shepherd for helpful comments on the manuscript. This research was supported by the NERC PROBEC project NE/K016016/1.

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  1. College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, EX4 4QF, UK

    A. J. Ferraro, M. Collins & F. H. Lambert

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  1. A. J. Ferraro
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  2. M. Collins
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  3. F. H. Lambert
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Correspondence to A. J. Ferraro.

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Ferraro, A., Collins, M. & Lambert, F. A hiatus in the stratosphere?. Nature Clim Change 5, 497–498 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2624

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