A Possible Influence of Sea Surface Temperature Variation on the Recent Development of Ozone Hole

Abstract

A possible cause of recent decrease of planetary wave activity and Antarctic ozone depletion in spring is proposed. Tropospheric stationary wave structure in the southern hemisphere shows substantial variation during 1979 to 1988. Before the 1980’s, especially in 1979, a well-developed tropospheric ridge was situated in the South Pacific and stationary wave propagated into the stratosphere, while after 1985 the tropospheric ridge became weaker and split into two ridges, and no vertical propagation was clearly seen. In 1988, however, the vertically propagating wave number 1 structure was recovered. This change of planetary wave structure in the South Pacific seems to be related to sea surface temperature anomaly in low latitude South Pacific. A possible role of the sea surface temperature variation in the recent development of ozone hole is also discussed.