Open AccessRadiative forcing due to stratospheric ozone changes 1979–1997, using updated trend estimates
Author(s) -
Forster Piers M.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: atmospheres
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/1999jd900770
Subject(s) - radiative forcing , forcing (mathematics) , environmental science , ozone , atmospheric sciences , total ozone mapping spectrometer , ozone layer , stratosphere , radiative transfer , greenhouse gas , climatology , aerosol , meteorology , physics , geology , oceanography , quantum mechanics
Recent estimates of stratospheric ozone changes since 1979, both from satellites and ground‐based instruments, show a smaller rate of ozone loss than previous measurements indicated. This paper calculates the radiative forcing resulting from these ozone changes. The trends are derived from a combination of Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE), Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS), and ground‐based data. By combining these data in a variety of ways, several problems of determining an accurate forcing from available data are highlighted. Using only statistically significant changes, a “best guess” radiative forcing of −0.10±0.02 W m −2 is estimated for the 1979–1997 period which is about 50% less negative than previous estimates of this forcing, but provides an offset of about 10% to the well‐mixed greenhouse gas forcing over the same period.