Observations of deformation and mixing of the total ozone field in the Antaractic Polar Vortex

Journal Article · Wed Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 1993 · Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0469(1993)050<2915:OODAMO>2.0.CO;2· OSTI ID:5544578

Bowman, K P ^[1]; Mangus, N J ^[2]

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1. Texas A M Univ., College Stations, TX (United States)
2. Univ of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (United States)

Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) images of the springtime Southern Hemisphere commonly show concentric layers in the total ozone field outside the Antarctic polar vortex. The layering appears to result from horizontal folding and stretching of regions on the equatorward flank of the polar vortex near the midlatitude ozone maximum. This folding and stretching interleaves low and high ozone air from the subtropics and midlatitudes, respectively. Occasional large amplitude wave events can extract very low ozone air from the interior of the polar vortex (the Antarctic ozone hole), but the folding and stretching results in relatively rapid horizontal mixing of the atmosphere on the equatorward flank of the jet. This type of lagrangian behavior may be common in the atmosphere, but is only visible when local tracer gradients are large and observations with high spatial resolution are available. Also, experimentation has shown that gray-scale images of TOMS data show the details of the spatial distribution of ozone much more clearly than contour maps of false-color images. 22 refs., 3 figs., 2 tabs.

• OSTI ID: 5544578
• Journal Information: Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences; (United States), Journal Name: Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences; (United States) Vol. 50:17; ISSN 0022-4928; ISSN JAHSAK
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540110
540120* -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Chemicals Monitoring &amp; Transport-- (1990-)
ANTARCTIC REGIONS
ANTARCTICA
ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION
CRYOSPHERE
DISTRIBUTION
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
EARTH PLANET
FLUID FLOW
IMAGES
LAYERS
METEOROLOGY
MIXING
NIMBUS SATELLITES
OZONE LAYER
PLANETS
POLAR REGIONS
REMOTE SENSING
RESOLUTION
SATELLITES
SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE
SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION
SPATIAL RESOLUTION
VORTEX FLOW