Abstract
Abstract. To probe the spatial extent of tropospheric ozone depletion events during Antarctic spring, a network of 10 autonomous ozone monitors was established around the Dronning Maud Land sector of Antarctica for a full calendar year. Together with manned stations in the area, the network covered a ~1200 km stretch of coast, as well as a transect ~300 km inland and to ~2000 m above sea level (a.s.l.). Here we present results from the spring period (August to October 2008). While some ozone depletion events were evident at only a single site, implying localised ozone destruction, others were evident across the network. The fact that, on occasions, ozone depletion events were observed at all coastal sites simultaneously, suggests the depleted air mass had a scale of at least 1200 km. As the ozone-poor air was advected from the Weddell Sea sea ice zone, the data imply that large areas over the Weddell Sea sea ice zone are significantly depleted in ozone on occasions during Antarctic spring.
Highlights
Vogt et al, 1996; FrieOß ceteaal.n, 2S00c4;ieRnanckein et al, 2002; Kaleschke et al, 2004; Simpson et al, 2007a; Yang et al, 2008; Jones et al, 2009; Yang et al, 2010).Ozone is a critical component of tropospheric chemistry
Around the time of the major October ozone depletion event, significant enhancements in the tropospheric BrO vertical column density (VCD) are clearly visible over the Weddell Sea sea ice zone and around the coast of Dronning Maud Land (Fig. 6)
The results presented in this paper demonstrate, for the first time, the spatial extent of ozone depletion during Antarctic spring
Summary
Vogt et al, 1996; FrieOß ceteaal.n, 2S00c4;ieRnanckein et al, 2002; Kaleschke et al, 2004; Simpson et al, 2007a; Yang et al, 2008; Jones et al, 2009; Yang et al, 2010). Jones et al.: The spatial scale of ozone depletion events track and another that was at least 600 km long (Ridley et al, 2003, 2007) These air masses were observed away from the sea ice zone, and were interpreted as having been transported from over the Arctic Ocean. While a contribution to these “hotspots” of enhanced vertical column is likely to arise in the stratosphere, a significant component has been shown to exist in the troposphere (Wagner and Platt, 1998; Theys et al, 2009, 2011; Salawitch et al, 2010) Such BrO enhancements are evident over the Antarctic sea ice zone during the spring, suggesting that a extensive depletion of tropospheric ozone most likely occurs in the south.
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