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The North Atlantic Oscillation and the occurrences of ozone miniholes
Author(s) -
Orsolini Yvan J.,
Limpasuvan Varavut
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2000gl012757
Subject(s) - north atlantic oscillation , climatology , total ozone mapping spectrometer , latitude , ozone , quasi biennial oscillation , environmental science , period (music) , satellite , geology , atmospheric sciences , troposphere , stratosphere , ozone layer , geography , meteorology , geodesy , physics , astronomy , acoustics
The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) induces a clear signature on synoptic‐scale ozone fluctuations over the Euro‐Atlantic sector, as revealed by a band‐pass filtering analysis of the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) satellite observations over a 20‐year period. Low‐ozone episodes, or miniholes, appear more frequent over the Euro‐Atlantic sector in the high NAO phase, when the prevailing, upper tropospheric westerly jet is displaced pole‐ward and acquires a stronger northward tilt relative to climatology. Thus, the tendency of the NAO to remain in its high phase in late eighties and nineties accounts for recent observations of more frequent minihole conditions and episodes of low‐latitude, ozone‐poor intrusions into high‐latitude region of this sector.