Beyond self-healing: stabilizing and destabilizing photochemical adjustment of the ozone layer

Match, Aaron; Gerber, Edwin P.; Fueglistaler, Stephan

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10305-2024

Articles | Volume 24, issue 18

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10305-2024

© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10305-2024

© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 24, issue 18

Research article

|

18 Sep 2024

Research article |

| 18 Sep 2024

Beyond self-healing: stabilizing and destabilizing photochemical adjustment of the ozone layer

Aaron Match, Edwin P. Gerber, and Stephan Fueglistaler

Data sets

MRI MRI-ESM2.0 model output prepared for CMIP6 CMIP Seiji Yukimoto et al. https://doi.org/10.22033/ESGF/CMIP6.621

Model code and software

Chapman Cycle Photochemical Equilibrium Solver Aaron Match https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10515738

Short summary

Earth's ozone layer absorbs incoming UV light, protecting life. Removing ozone aloft allows UV light to penetrate deeper, where it is known to produce new ozone, leading to "self-healing" that partially stabilizes total ozone. However, a photochemistry model shows that, above 40 km in the tropics, deeper-penetrating UV destroys ozone, destabilizing the total ozone. Photochemical theory reveals that this destabilizing regime occurs where overhead ozone is below a key threshold.