Magnetic local time dependency of radiation belt electron precipitation: impact on polar ozone

Abstract

Abstract. The radiation belts are regions in the near-Earth space where solar wind electrons are captured by the Earth's magnetic field. A portion of these electrons is continuously lost into the atmosphere where they cause ionisation and chemical changes. Driven by solar activity, electron forcing leads to ozone variability in the polar regions. Understanding possible dynamical connections to regional climate is an on-going research activity which supports the assessment of greenhouse gas driven climate change by better definition of the solar-driven variability. In the context of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6), energetic electron and proton precipitation is included in the solar forcing recommendation for the first time. For radiation belt electrons, CMIP6 forcing is from a daily, zonal mean proxy model. This zonal mean model ignores the well-known dependency of precipitation on magnetic local time (MLT), i.e. its diurnal variability. Here we use the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model with lower ionospheric chemistry extension (WACCM-D) to study the effect of MLT dependency of electron forcing on the polar ozone response. We analyse simulations applying MLT-dependent and MLT-independent forcings, and contrast ozone responses in monthly mean data as well as in monthly means of individual local time sectors. We consider two cases: 1) year 2003 and 2) extreme, long-duration forcing. Our results indicate that the ozone responses to MLT-dependent and MLT-independent forcings are very similar, and the differences found are small compared to those related to overall uncertainties in electron forcing. We conclude that electron forcing that ignores the MLT dependency will still provide an accurate ozone response in long-term climate simulations.