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.
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.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
18 Sep 2024
Research article |
| 18 Sep 2024
| 18 Sep 2024
Beyond self-healing: stabilizing and destabilizing photochemical adjustment of the ozone layer
Center for Atmosphere Ocean Science, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University, New York, NY, USA
Edwin P. Gerber
Center for Atmosphere Ocean Science, Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University, New York, NY, USA
Stephan Fueglistaler
Program in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, and Department of Geosciences, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
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The ozone concentration in the tropical stratosphere peaks at 26 km, protecting life from harmful ultraviolet light without poisoning it. Climate models reproduce this peak, but textbook explanations yield errors of 10 km. Simplifying the well-understood sources and sinks of ozone, we develop a theory explaining that tropical ozone peaks where its dominant sink transitions from damping of atomic oxygen aloft (mainly via catalytic chemistry) to damping of ozone below (mainly via transport).
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The quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) is the main source of wind fluctuations in the tropical stratosphere, which can couple to surface climate. However, models do a poor job of simulating the QBO in the lower stratosphere, for reasons that remain unclear. One possibility is that models do not completely represent how ozone influences the QBO-associated wind variations. Here we propose a multi-model framework for assessing how ozone influences the QBO in recent past and future climates.
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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.
Earth's ozone layer absorbs incoming UV light, protecting life. Removing ozone aloft allows UV...
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