Analyzing ozone variations and uncertainties at high latitudes during sudden stratospheric warming events using MERRA-2

Shams, Shima Bahramvash; Walden, Von P.; Hannigan, James W.; Randel, William J.; Petropavlovskikh, Irina; Butler, Amy H.; Cámara, Álvaro de la

doi:10.5194/acp-22-5435-2022

Cited by 20 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 104 publications

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“…March 2009 had a particurlay strong anomaly (61.2 DU), while March 2012–2013 had a low one (11.7 DU). The two largest anomalies observed (March 2009 and March 2018) can be due to the elongated shape of the polar vortex before the SSW (Bahramvash Shams et al., 2022). The year of 2020–2021, had a negative anomaly in March (−2.4 DU).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ozone concentrations can be greatly affected by SSWs, as these events have a strong influence on stratospheric transport of trace gases. During SSWs, warm air is brought to the pole by the wave forcing, enhancing ozone transport and mixing, and positive ozone anomalies are usually observed during these events (Bahramvash Shams et al., 2022). Furthermore, SSWs also affect the Brewer‐Dobson circulation, with enhanced upwelling at the poles and downwelling in the tropics at the time of the event (De la Cámara, Abalos, & Hitchcock, 2018; Tao et al., 2017).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…SSWs also have an impact on observed ozone concentrations. First, when the SSW occurs, ozone concentrations increase as transport and mixing are enhanced during these evens (Bahramvash Shams et al., 2022; De la Cámara, Abalos, Hitchcock, Calvo, & Garcia, 2018). Furthermore, SSWs have a strong impact on ozone depletion during spring.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sudden Stratospheric Warmings in the Northern Hemisphere Observed With IASI

Bouillon,

Safieddine,

Clerbaux

2023

JGR Atmospheres

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Sudden Stratospheric Warming events (SSW) are extreme phenomena during which stratospheric temperature can increase by tens of degrees in a few days. They are due to the propagation and breaking of the planetary waves, leading to a perturbation of the polar vortex. SSWs also influence polar ozone concentrations and midlatitude weather. The Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometers (IASI) monitor atmospheric composition and temperature globally since 2007, and they are ideal to observe the changes of temperature and ozone during SSWs. Since the launch of the first IASI, there have been several SSWs in the Northern Hemisphere, including eight major events that are investigated in this study. We find that during major SSWs, the temperature anomaly propagates from 10 hPa to the lower stratosphere and the maximum anomaly at 200 hPa is correlated to the maximum anomaly at 10 hPa. During these events, negative anomalies of temperature in Europe and Russia and positive anomalies in Canada and Greenland are often observed at 750 hPa. The cold air outbreaks that usually follow major SSWs are responsible for anomalies of ‐15 K. Finally, we look at the evolution of the total ozone column following major events. Major SSWs lead to higher springtime ozone concentrations and the ozone anomaly in March is correlated to the duration of the positive temperature anomaly at 10 hPa. These results show the potential of the IASI mission and its successors, IASI‐New Generation, for the study of SSWs and their effects on weather and atmospheric composition.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sudden Stratospheric Warmings in the Northern Hemisphere Observed With IASI

Bouillon,

Safieddine,

Clerbaux

2023

JGR Atmospheres

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“…During northern hemispheric winters, major dynamical variability is due to variations of the strength of the stratospheric polar vortex. The associated, significant anomalies of ozone in the lower stratosphere, where ozone is regulated primarily through transport processes, have been studied extensively (e. g., de la Cámara et al, 2018a, b;Lawrence et al, 2020;Oehrlein et al, 2020;Hong and Reichler, 2021;Bahramvash Shams et al, 2022). They have been found to greatly affect transport of stratospheric ozone into the troposphere, which is modulated by the amount of ozone that is available in the lowermost stratosphere (Holton et al, 1995;Gettelman et al, 2011;Neu et al, 2014;Albers et al, 2018;Wang and Fu, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interannual polar vortex-ozone co-variability

Harzer¹,

Garny

Ploeger

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Abstract. Stratospheric ozone is important for both stratospheric and surface climate. In the lower stratosphere during winter its variability is governed primarily by transport dynamics induced by wave-mean flow interactions. Here, we focus on interannual co-variations between the zonal mean ozone distribution and the strength of the polar vortex during northern hemispheric winter. Specifically, we study co-variability between the seasonal means of the ozone field from modern reanalyses and polar cap-averaged temperature at 100 hPa, which represents a robust and well-defined index for polar vortex strength. We consider variability in both pressure and isentropic coordinates. In the former case, we find that anomalously weak polar vortex years are associated with increased polar ozone amounts, showing two pronounced local maxima: one in the lower to mid-stratosphere and one just above the polar tropopause. In contrast, in isentropic coordinates, only the mid- to lower stratosphere shows increased ozone, while a small negative ozone anomaly appears in the lowermost stratosphere. These differences are related to contributions due to anomalous adiabatic vertical motion, which are implicit in potential temperature coordinates. In general, our analyses of the ozone budget in the extratropical middle stratosphere show that interannual polar ozone variability can be explained by a combination of anomalous diabatic downwelling and quasi-isentropic eddy mixing that are associated with consecutive, counteracting anomalous ozone tendencies on daily time scales. We find that approx. 71 % of the total variability of polar column ozone in the stratosphere is associated with year-by-year variations in polar vortex strength based on ERA5 reanalyses for the winter seasons 1980–2022. MLS observations for 2005–2020 show that around 86 % can be explained by polar vortex co-variability.

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“…As previous studies have shown (Rieder et al, 2019;Haase and Matthes, 2019;Friedel et al, 2022), springtime stratospheric temperature and circulation, which influence the timing of the FSW, are also closely tied to anomalies in stratospheric ozone. While some springs are marked by a warm polar vortex with high ozone concentrations, such as 2021 (Lu et al, 2021;Bahramvash Shams et al, 2022a), other years show an extremely cold polar vortex with drastic springtime ozone depletion, e.g. in 2020 (Lawrence et al, 2020;Rao and Garfinkel, 2021b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Arctic ozone on the stratospheric spring onset and its surface response

Friedel¹,

Chiodo²,

Stenke

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Abstract. Ozone in the Arctic stratosphere is subject to large interannual variability, driven by both chemical ozone depletion and dynamical variability. Anomalies in Arctic stratospheric ozone become particularly important in spring, when returning sunlight allows them to alter stratospheric temperatures via shortwave heating, thus modifying atmospheric dynamics. At the same time, the stratospheric circulation undergoes a transition in spring with the Stratospheric Final Warming (FSW), which marks the end of winter. A causal link between stratospheric ozone anomalies and FSWs is plausible and might increase the predictability of stratospheric and tropospheric responses on sub-seasonal to seasonal timescales. However, it remains to be fully understood how ozone influences the timing and evolution of the springtime vortex breakdown. Here, we contrast results from chemistry climate models with and without interactive ozone chemistry to quantify the impact of ozone anomalies on the timing of the FSW and its effects on surface climate. We find that ozone feedbacks increase the variability in the timing of the FSW, especially in the lower stratosphere. In ozone-deficient springs, a persistent strong polar vortex and a delayed FSW in the lower stratosphere are partly due to lacking heating by ozone in that region. High ozone anomalies, on the other hand, result in additional shortwave heating in the lower stratosphere, where the FSW therefore occurs earlier. We further show that FSWs in high ozone springs are predominantly followed by a negative phase of the Arctic Oscillation (AO) with positive sea level pressure anomalies over the Arctic and cold anomalies over Eurasia and Europe. These conditions are to a significant extent (at least 50 %) driven by ozone. In contrast, FSWs in low ozone springs are not associated with a discernible surface climate response. These results highlight the importance of ozone-circulation coupling in the climate system and the potential value of interactive ozone chemistry for sub-seasonal to seasonal predictability.

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Analyzing ozone variations and uncertainties at high latitudes during sudden stratospheric warming events using MERRA-2

Cited by 20 publications

References 104 publications

Sudden Stratospheric Warmings in the Northern Hemisphere Observed With IASI

Sudden Stratospheric Warmings in the Northern Hemisphere Observed With IASI

Interannual polar vortex-ozone co-variability

Effects of Arctic ozone on the stratospheric spring onset and its surface response

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