Berlin 2012 – scientific programme

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UP: Fachverband Umweltphysik

UP 12: Climate - Modelling, joint session with jDPG

UP 12.1: Invited Talk

Thursday, March 29, 2012, 10:00–10:30, HFT-FT 131

The first Arctic ozone hole in spring 2011 - observations, current understanding and relation to climate change — •Markus Rex, Ingo Wohltmann, Peter von der Gathen, and Ralph Lehmann — Alfred-Wegener-Institut für Polar- und Meeresforschung

The Arctic winter 2010/2011 was characterized by an unusually stable and cold polar vortex in the lower stratosphere. Conditions for the formation of polar stratospheric clouds were widespread and the fraction of the polar vortex exposed to such conditions was the largest in the observational record, which started in the mid-1960s. The combination of extremely cold conditions throughout the winter with a long lived and stable vortex in spring led to record chemical destruction of ozone in the Arctic. Based on the measurements of the Match ozonesonde network and the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) instrument on Aura we will discuss the degree and the time evolution of this record loss and compare the Arctic ozone loss in 2011 with the range of ozone losses that occurred in early and recent Antarctic ozone holes. Model calculations of our fully lagrangian Chemical Transport Model ATLAS are used to assess our current theoretical understanding of the processes that lead to Arctic ozone loss and to highlight the role of denitrification for the record loss in 2010/2011. Analyses of the long term evolution of meteorological conditions in the lower polar stratosphere and approaches to diagnose climate change related changes in these from Climate Model output suggest a link between climate change and the occurrence of increasing degrees of Arctic ozone loss.