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Reexamination of the relation between depth of the Antarctic Ozone Hole, and equatorial QBO and SST, 1962–1992
Author(s) -
Angell J. K.
Publication year - 1993
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 - 10.1029/93gl01762
Subject(s) - ozone , radiosonde , quasi biennial oscillation , climatology , environmental science , atmospheric sciences , stratosphere , total ozone mapping spectrometer , ozone depletion , ozone layer , geology , meteorology , physics
The relation between depth of the Antarctic ozone hole, and equatorial QBO and SST, is reexamined for the interval 1962–1992, using Dobson total‐ozone data at the South Pole, Singapore 50 mb zonal wind, and average SST in the El Nino region 12S–2N, 180–90W. During this interval the correlation between October–November values of South Pole total ozone, and south polar 100 mb temperature from radiosondes, is 0.93. In 23 of 27 cases, South Pole springtime (October–November) total ozone decreased from one year to the next when the Singapore 50 mb zonal wind averaged from the east during the intervening 3 seasons and increased when this wind averaged from the west. Owing to the high serial correlation of the wind and total‐ozone data, this distribution is only significant at the 5% level according to the Chi‐square test, but basically supports the conclusions of Garcia and Solomon (1987) and Lait et al. (1989) regarding the relation between equatorial QBO and depth of the ozone hole. The tendency for a deeper ozone hole when equatorial SST warms (El Nino) yields a relation between depth of the Antarctic ozone hole, and equatorial QBO and SST, significant at the 1% level only by the subjective drawing of a smooth line which separates springtime total‐ozone increases and decreases from one year to the next in 24 of 25 cases with 2 cases on the line of separation. The Singapore 50 mb wind has been from the west during the first half of 1993, suggesting a less deep ozone hole in 1993 than in 1992, especially if the current prolonged El Nino finally abates in mid 1993.