Quantifying Arctic lower stratospheric ozone sources in winter and spring.
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ABSTRACT: The dynamical and chemical characteristics of unusually low Arctic ozone events in 2005 and 2011 have been well-studied. However, the quantitative identification of Arctic ozone sources is lacking. Here, we use tagged ozone tracers in a numerical simulation to quantify the contributions to Arctic lower stratospheric ozone (ARCLS_O3) at diverse latitudes in winter and spring from 2005-2011. We demonstrate that the northern mid-latitudinal stratosphere steadily contributes approximately half of ARCLS_O3. The absolute contributions during February have evident variations, which are smaller in cold years (151.3?±?7.0 Dobson units (DU) in 2005 and 139.0?±?7.4 DU in 2011) and greater in warm years (182.6?±?7.3 DU in 2006 and 164.6?±?7.4 DU in 2009). The tropical stratosphere is also an important source. During February, its absolute contributions are 66.5?±?11.5 DU (2005), 73.1?±?4.7 DU (2011), 146.0?±?9.0 DU (2006), and 153.7?±?7.0 DU (2009). Before and after stratospheric warming, variations in the tropical components of ARCLS_O3 (51.8 DU in 2006 and 77.0 DU in 2009) are significantly larger than those in the mid-latitudinal components (17.6 DU in 2006 and 18.1 DU in 2009). These results imply that although the mid-latitudinal components of ARCLS_O3 are larger, the tropical components control stratospheric temperature-induced ARCLS_O3 anomalies in winter and spring.
SUBMITTER: Pan C
PROVIDER: S-EPMC5997751 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jun
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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