Author(s)

Vazhathottathil Madhu

Department of Atmospheric Sciences, School of Marine Sciences, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Cochin, India.

In winter the polar stratosphere is extremely cold. During the Sudden Stratospheric Warming events, the polar stratospheric temperature rises concurrently zonal-mean zonal flow weakens over a short period of time. As the zonal flow weakens, the stratospheric circulation becomes highly asymmetrical and the stratospheric polar vortex is displaced off the pole. The polar stratospheric temperature rises by 50°C and the stratospheric circumpolar flow reverses direction in a span of just few days. Sudden Stratospheric Warming (SSW) leads to significant changes in the rate of several chemical reactions which occur in the polar stratosphere. During such events, the dynamical fields in the polar stratosphere completely altered and columnar ozone changed. This study concentrated on the variability of winter polar vortex, meridional temperature gradient and associated changes in the Total Column Ozone (TCO) over the polar and middle latitude regions. It is found that changes in the amount of column ozone are positively correlated with polar lower stratospheric temperature with colder (warmer) temperature correlating with less (high) amount column ozone. But in the middle latitude region we observed negative correlations between ozone concentration and stratospheric temperature. In almost all cases there is sudden increase of ozone concentration over the pole and after few days the value is reduced when the warming effect is weak. During SSW events there observed an increase of 30 DU in TCO from the average value over the pole and if the SSW is strong TCO is found to rise by 50 DU. But in the middle latitude approximately 10 DU increase is noted. From the above results it may be concluded that variability of column ozone depends on dynamic and stratospheric chemistry over the poles and in middle latitude the variability can be attributed to the dynamical aspects. Anomaly of column ozone is higher during sudden stratospheric warming events over both polar and middle latitude region. The meridional temperature gradient reverses first and after two days polar vortex changes its direction or weakens followed by an increase of column ozone over the polar region. An increase of 30° Kelvin in the average temperature value noted over the polar region during sudden stratospheric warming events.

Stratospheric Sudden Warming, Total Column Ozone, Polar Vortex

Madhu, V. (2016) Effects of Sudden Stratospheric Warming Events on the Distribution of Total Column Ozone over Polar and Middle Latitude Regions. Open Journal of Marine Science, 6, 302-316. doi: 10.4236/ojms.2016.62025.