Chemical ozone destruction occurs over both polar regions in local winter–spring. In the Antarctic, essentially complete removal of lower-stratospheric ozone currently results in an ozone hole every year, whereas in the Arctic, ozone loss is highly variable and has until now been much more limited. Here we demonstrate that chemical ozone destruction over the Arctic in early 2011 was—for the first time in the observational record—comparable to that in the Antarctic ozone hole. Unusually long-lasting cold conditions in the Arctic lower stratosphere led to persistent enhancement in ozone-destroying forms of chlorine and to unprecedented ozone loss, which exceeded 80 per cent over 18–20 kilometres altitude. Our results show that Arctic ozone holes are possible even with temperatures much milder than those in the Antarctic. We cannot at present predict when such severe Arctic ozone depletion may be matched or exceeded. Since its emergence in the 1980s, the Antarctic ozone hole, the near-complete loss of lower-stratospheric ozone, has occurred every year. The possibility that a similar effect might occur in the Northern Hemisphere has been debated, but despite considerable variation in ozone levels in the Arctic, they had not reached the extremes seen in the south. Until this year. Observations made in the late winter and early spring of 2011 reveal ozone loss far outside the range previously observed over the Northern Hemisphere, comparable to some Antarctic ozone holes. The formation of the hole was driven by an unusually long cold snap and a high level of ozone-destroying chlorine. Although this effect is dramatic, it is difficult to predict whether similar Arctic ozone holes will develop in future.

Unprecedented Arctic ozone loss in 2011

[1] This analysis provides an up-to-date assessment of long-term (1990–2010) rural ozone trends using all available data in the western (12 sites) and eastern (41 sites) USA. Rather than focus solely on average ozone values or air quality standard violations, we consider the full range of ozone values, reporting trends for the 5th, 50th and 95th percentiles. Domestic ozone precursor emissions decreased strongly during 1990–2010. Accordingly 83%, 66% and 20% of summertime eastern U.S. sites experienced statistically significant ozone decreases in the 95th, 50th and 5th percentiles, respectively. During spring 43% of the eastern sites have statistically significant ozone decreases for the 95th percentile with no sites showing a significant increase. At the 50th percentile there is little overall change in the eastern U.S. In contrast, only 17% (2 sites) and 8% (1 site) of summertime western U.S. sites have statistically significant ozone decreases in the 95th and 50th percentiles, respectively. During spring no western site has a significant decrease, while 50% have a significant median increase. This dichotomy in U.S. ozone trends is discussed in terms of changing anthropogenic and biomass burning emissions. Consideration is given to the concept that increasing baseline ozone flowing into the western U.S. is counteracting ozone reductions due to domestic emission reductions. An update to the springtime free tropospheric ozone trend above western North America shows that ozone has increased significantly from 1995 to 2011 at the rate of 0.41 ± 0.27 ppbv yr−1. Finally, the ozone changes are examined in relation to regional temperature trends.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/2012JD018261

Long-term ozone trends at rural ozone monitoring sites across the United States, 1990-2010

. Data assimilation is used in atmospheric chemistry models to improve air quality forecasts, construct re-analyses of three-dimensional chemical (including aerosol) concentrations and perform inverse modeling of input variables or model parameters (e.g., emissions). Coupled chemistry meteorology models (CCMM) are atmospheric chemistry models that simulate meteorological processes and chemical transformations jointly. They offer the possibility to assimilate both meteorological and chemical data; however, because CCMM are fairly recent, data assimilation in CCMM has been limited to date. We review here the current status of data assimilation in atmospheric chemistry models with a particular focus on future prospects for data assimilation in CCMM. We first review the methods available for data assimilation in atmospheric models, including variational methods, ensemble Kalman filters, and hybrid methods. Next, we review past applications that have included chemical data assimilation in chemical transport models (CTM) and in CCMM. Observational data sets available for chemical data assimilation are described, including surface data, surface-based remote sensing, airborne data, and satellite data. Several case studies of chemical data assimilation in CCMM are presented to highlight the benefits obtained by assimilating chemical data in CCMM. A case study of data assimilation to constrain emissions is also presented. There are few examples to date of joint meteorological and chemical data assimilation in CCMM and potential difficulties associated with data assimilation in CCMM are discussed. As the number of variables being assimilated increases, it is essential to characterize correctly the errors; in particular, the specification of error cross-correlations may be problematic. In some cases, offline diagnostics are necessary to ensure that data assimilation can truly improve model performance. However, the main challenge is likely to be the paucity of chemical data available for assimilation in CCMM.

https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/15/5325/2015/acp-15-5325-2015.pdf

Data assimilation in atmospheric chemistry models: current status and future prospects for coupled chemistry meteorology models

https://publikationen.bibliothek.kit.edu/230089703/3816225

Recent tropospheric ozone changes – A pattern dominated by slow or no growth

A global climatology of tropospheric and stratospheric column ozone is derived by combining six years of Aura Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) and Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) ozone measurements for the period October 2004 through December 2010. The OMI/MLS tropospheric ozone climatology exhibits large temporal and spatial variability which includes ozone accumulation zones in the tropical south Atlantic year-round and in the subtropical Mediterranean! Asia region in summer months. High levels of tropospheric ozone in the northern hemisphere also persist in mid-latitudes over the eastern North American and Asian continents extending eastward over the Pacific Ocean. For stratospheric ozone climatology from MLS, largest ozone abundance lies in the northern hemisphere in the latitude range 70degN-80degN in February-April and in the southern hemisphere around 40degS-50degS during months August-October. The largest stratospheric ozone abundances in the northern hemisphere lie over North America and eastern Asia extending eastward across the Pacific Ocean and in the southern hemisphere south of Australia extending eastward across the dateline. With the advent of many newly developing 3D chemistry and transport models it is advantageous to have such a dataset for evaluating the performance of the models in relation to dynamical and photochemical processes controlling the ozone distributions in the troposphere and stratosphere.

/pdf/a-global-climatology-of-tropospheric-and-stratospheric-ozone-49804td8nb.pdf

A global climatology of tropospheric and stratospheric ozone derived from Aura OMI and MLS measurements

[1] Since 1996, quality assurance experiments of electrochemical concentration cell (ECC) ozonesondes of two different model types (SPC-6A and ENSCI-Z) have been conducted in the environmental simulation facility at the Research Centre Juelich within the framework of the Juelich Ozone Sonde Intercomparison Experiment (JOSIE). The experiments have shown that the performance characteristics of the two ECC-sonde types can be significantly different, even when operated under the same conditions. Particularly above 20 km the ENSCI-Z sonde tends to measure 5–10% more ozone than the SPC-6A sonde. Below 20 km the differences are 5% or less, but appear to show some differences with year of manufacture. There is a significant difference in the ozone readings when sondes of the same type are operated with different cathode sensing solutions. Testing the most commonly used sensing solutions showed that for each ECC-manufacturer type the use of 1.0% KI and full buffer gives 5% larger ozone values compared with the use of 0.5% KI and half buffer, and as much as 10% larger values compared with 2.0% KI and no buffer. For ozone sounding stations performing long term measurements this means that changing the sensing solution type or ECC-sonde type can easily introduce a change of ±5% or more in their records, affecting determination of ozone trends. Standardization of operating procedures for ECC-sondes yields a precision better than ±(3–5)% and an accuracy of about ±(5–10)% up to 30 km altitude.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1029/2006JD007308

Assessment of the performance of ECC‐ozonesondes under quasi‐flight conditions in the environmental simulation chamber: Insights from the Juelich Ozone Sonde Intercomparison Experiment (JOSIE)

T. Northam

Papers

Assessment of the performance of ECC‐ozonesondes under quasi‐flight conditions in the environmental simulation chamber: Insights from the Juelich Ozone Sonde Intercomparison Experiment (JOSIE)