Response of trace gases to the disrupted 2015–2016 quasi-biennial oscillation

Tweedy, Olga V.; Kramarova, Natalya A.; Strahan, Susan E.; Newman, Paul A.; Coy, Lawrence; Randel, William J.; Park, Mijeong; Waugh, Darryn W.; Frith, Stacey M.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-6813-2017

Articles | Volume 17, issue 11

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-6813-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-6813-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 17, issue 11

Research article

|

12 Jun 2017

Research article |

| 12 Jun 2017

Response of trace gases to the disrupted 2015–2016 quasi-biennial oscillation

Olga V. Tweedy, Natalya A. Kramarova, Susan E. Strahan, Paul A. Newman, Lawrence Coy, William J. Randel, Mijeong Park, Darryn W. Waugh, and Stacey M. Frith

Data sets

SBUV Merged Ozone Data Set (MOD) NASA https://acd-ext.gsfc.nasa.gov/Data_services/merged/

NASA Earth Science Data NASA https://acd-ext.gsfc.nasa.gov/Data_services/merged/

Daily global radiosonde data NOAA Climate Prediction Center http://haloe.gats-inc.com

The Halogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE) Version 19 Data NASA Langley Research Center http://www.cosmic.ucar.edu

Short summary

In this study we examined the impact of unprecedented disruption in the wind pattern (the quasi-biennial oscillation, or QBO) in the tropical stratosphere (16–48 km above the ground) on chemicals very important to the stratospheric climate such as ozone (O₃). During the 2016 boreal summer, total O₃ is lower in the extratropics than during previous QBO cycles due to lifting forced from the disruption. This decrease in O₃ led to the increase in surface UV index by 8.5 % compared to the 36 yr mean.