Depletion in Antarctic ozone and associated climatic change

Technical Report · Sun Mar 01 04:00:00 EST 1992

OSTI ID:7264159

Lal, M

Perhaps the most significant discovery in the atmospheric sciences in the last decade has been the observation of large decreases in ozone. These losses in ozone occur during austral spring, and from 1979 the severity of the depletion increased non-monotonically until September of 1987 when the lowest column ozone amounts ever recorded were observed in Antarctica. While the surprising ozone hole in the remote icy continent of Antarctica emphasizes the potential importance and complexity of processes in the high latitude stratosphere, it also motivated this study on the nature of greenhouse effect on polar climate due to perturbations in column ozone amount in association with observed increases in other trace gases in the Antarctic atmosphere. The authors have examined the potential climatic effects of changes in the concentration of greenhouse gases on thermal structure of the Antarctic atmosphere using both steady-state and time-dependent climate models. When they incorporate the greenhouse effect of increases in methane, nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide and chlorofluorocarbons in association with decrease in ozone at the levels of maximum concentration in the radiative flux computations for the Antarctic region, the net result is a surface warming which is in fair agreement with that inferred from mean Antarctic temperature series.

• Research Organization: Indian Inst. of Tech., New Delhi (India)
• OSTI ID: 7264159
• Report Number(s): AD-P-007359/3/XAB
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
540120* -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (1990-)
AIR POLLUTION
ALKANES
AMBIENT TEMPERATURE
ANTARCTIC REGIONS
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CARBON DIOXIDE
CARBON OXIDES
CHALCOGENIDES
CHLOROFLUOROCARBONS
CLIMATIC CHANGE
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
ECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
GREENHOUSE EFFECT
GREENHOUSE GASES
HYDROCARBONS
LAYERS
METHANE
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
NITROGEN OXIDES
ORGANIC CHLORINE COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC FLUORINE COMPOUNDS
ORGANIC HALOGEN COMPOUNDS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
OZONE LAYER
POLAR REGIONS
POLLUTION
STRATOSPHERE