Fast Ozone Loss Around the Polar Vortex During 2002/2003 Arctic Winter Deep Minihole Event

Abstract

A three-dimensional (3D) off-line chemical transport model (CTM) has been used to study an Arctic ozone minihole event in early December 2002, when the meteorological conditon were severely colder than in recent years. The minimum temperatures were below 188 K on 6 December 2002 and remained below 195 K for the entire month. Such temperatures are low enough for the formation of PSCs (polar stratospheric clouds) which were observed by a visible/near infrared solar occultation instrument by the Polar Ozone and Aerosol Measurement (POAM) III experiment. The SLIMCAT model compares well with the depth and evolution of the ozone distribution as observed by the second European Remote Sensing Satellite (ERS-2) Global Ozone Monitoring Experiment (GOME). The combined effect of a very strong and large intrusion of sub-tropical air, and uplifting of air masses of low ozone concentrations from the troposphere plays important role in the fomation of the ozone minihole. The modelled chemical ozone loss rate was relatively fast in the lower stratosphere in the region of frequent PSCs and higher levels of ClO and BrO. The observed PSCs in the vicinity of the minihole supports the model-predicted location of PSCs and chlorine activation. However, ozone miniholes have been attributed almost entirely to dynamical effects due to its short duration.