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Record Arctic Ozone Loss in Spring 2020 is Likely Caused by North Pacific Warm Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies

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Abstract

Record ozone loss was observed in the Arctic stratosphere in spring 2020. This study aims to determine what caused the extreme Arctic ozone loss. Observations and simulation results are examined in order to show that the extreme Arctic ozone loss was likely caused by record-high sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the North Pacific. It is found that the record Arctic ozone loss was associated with the extremely cold and persistent stratospheric polar vortex over February–April, and the extremely cold vortex was a result of anomalously weak planetary wave activity. Further analysis reveals that the weak wave activity can be traced to anomalously warm SSTs in the North Pacific. Both observations and simulations show that warm SST anomalies in the North Pacific could have caused the weakening of wavenumber-1 wave activity, colder Arctic vortex, and lower Arctic ozone. These results suggest that for the present-day level of ozone-depleting substances, severe Arctic ozone loss could form again, as long as certain dynamic conditions are satisfied.

摘要

观测发现 2020 年春季北极平流层出现了有记录以来最强的臭氧损耗事件. 本文主要研究导致此次极端臭氧损耗的出现的动力因素. 通过观测资料分析和气候模式的模拟试验, 我们发现 2020 年春季北极臭氧损耗可能是由有记录以来最暖的北太平洋海表面温度异常导致的. 2020 年冬季异常偏冷的北极平流层极涡以及这一强极涡能够持续到 3 月份是春季极端臭氧损耗产生的必要因素. 平流层极涡强度和持续时间一般是由异常行星尺度波动的强弱所决定, 冬春季持续偏弱的行星尺度波动将导致极涡偏强并且持续到春季. 我们研究发现, 2020 年 1 到 3 月份北太平洋异常偏暖的海表面温度可以通过影响阿留申低压进而导致行星波一波的减弱, 从而使得北极平流层极涡加强并且维持到春季, 进而为春季平流层臭氧极端损耗的出现提供了必要的条件. 这些结果表明, 在当前的臭氧损耗物质排放水平, 随着北太平洋海温持续增暖等气候变化导致的合适的动力环境的情况下, 北极平流层极端臭氧损耗仍然可能出现.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Jian YUE for helpful comments. This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) under Grant No. 41888101. Y. XIA is supported by the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research Program (STEP), Grant No. 2019QZKK0604, Key Laboratory of Middle Atmosphere and Global Environment Observation (LAGEO-2020-09), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities. The authors declare that datasets for this research are available in the following online repository. The satellite observations of the total column ozone can be found at https://ozonewatch.gsfc.nasa.gov/. The MERRA2 reanalysis data-set is available at https://gmao.gsfc.nasa.gov/reanalysis/MERRA-2/data_access/. The NOAA ERSST5 can be accessed at https://psl.noaa.gov/data/gridded/data.noaa.ersst.v5.html. The NOAA High-resolution Blended Analysis of Daily SST, version 2 can be accessed at https://psl.noaa.gov/data/gridded/data.noaa.oisst.v2.highres.html.

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Correspondence to Yongyun Hu.

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Article Highlights

• Record Arctic ozone loss was observed in spring 2020.

• The Arctic ozone loss in spring 2020 was associated with a large reduction of wavenumber-1 wave activity.

• The reduction of planetary wave activity in spring 2020 was likely caused by anomalously warm SSTs in the North Pacific.

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Xia, Y., Hu, Y., Zhang, J. et al. Record Arctic Ozone Loss in Spring 2020 is Likely Caused by North Pacific Warm Sea Surface Temperature Anomalies. Adv. Atmos. Sci. 38, 1723–1736 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00376-021-0359-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00376-021-0359-9

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