An assessment of the ozone loss during the 1999–2000 SOLVE/THESEO 2000 Arctic campaign

Abstract

Ozone observations from ozonesondes, the lidars aboard the DC‐8, in situ ozone measurements from the ER‐2, and satellite ozone measurements from Polar Ozone and Aerosol Measurement III (POAM) were used to assess ozone loss during the Sage III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment (SOLVE) and Third European Stratospheric Experiment on Ozone (THESEO) 1999–2000 Arctic campaign. Two methods of analysis were used. In the first method a simple regression analysis of the data time series is performed on the ozonesonde and POAM measurements within the vortex. In the second method the ozone measurements from all available ozone data were injected into a free‐running diabatic trajectory model and were carried forward in time from 1 December to 15 March. Vortex ozone loss was then estimated by comparing the ozone values of those parcels initiated early in the campaign with those parcels injected later in the campaign. Despite the variety of observational techniques used during SOLVE, the measurements provide a fairly consistent picture. Over the whole vortex the largest ozone loss occurs between 550 and 400 K potential temperatures (∼23–16 km) with over 1.5 ppmv (∼55%) lost by 15 March, the end of the SOLVE mission period. An ozone loss rate of 0.04–0.05 ppmv/day was computed for 15 March. The total column loss was between 44 and 57 DU or 11–15%. Ozonesondes launched after 15 March suggest that an additional 0.5 ppmv or more ozone was lost between 15 March and 1 April.

A review of the Match technique as applied to AASE-2/EASOE and SOLVE/THESEO 2000

“…Trajectories of up to 14 days can be included in Match analyses with no apparent negative impact on the ozone loss rate calculations. This result is consistent with the methodology of Schoeberl et al (2002), which uses a continuous data injection/trajectory approach with trajectories of up to 90 days duration and found a loss rate of 1.63±0.3 ppbv between 20 January and 12 March 1992. (Note that here and throughout this summary, quoted statistical uncertainties are at the one standard deviation level.…”

“…Published ozone loss rates calculated using Match for cold Arctic Januaries are generally about 30% larger than can be explained by our current understanding of polar stratospheric chemistry, with one to two individual data points in January 1992 that exceed model values by more than a factor of two (Becker et al, 1998). Schoeberl et al (2002) introduce a variant on the Match technique that uses many sources of data (sonde, satellite and aircraft) to initialize air parcel trajectories. By comparing new observations with the ozone values associated with the older, advected air parcels, chemical ozone loss again can be inferred.…”

Ozone loss derived from balloon-borne tracer measurements in the 1999/2000 Arctic winter

“…However simple comparisons with the other studies in the 1999/2000 winter Klein et al, 2002;Müller et al, 2003 and discussion therein;Richard et al, 2001;Salawitch et al, 2002;Schoeberl et al, 2002;summary in Table 8 of Newman et al, 2002) show good agreement. We find that the peak loss occurred in the 440-470 K region, which is the same as Müller et al (2003), at the low end of the range.…”

Chlorine activation and chemical ozone loss deduced from HALOE and balloon measurements in the Arctic during the winter of 1999–2000

“… Hoppel et al [2002] find the maximum O 3 loss at ≈470 or 480 K depending on the passive O 3 employed (that is effectively depending on the heating rate calculation used). Schoeberl et al [2002] report ≈465 and 475 K as the altitude of maximum O 3 loss depending on whether POAM or sonde measurements are used as the O 3 data set. The altitude of maximum O 3 loss on 15 March 2000 obtained with the Match technique is 460 K [ Rex et al , 2002; Hoppel et al , 2002].…”