Estimation of the WinterSpring Rates of Ozone Depletion
within the Stratospheric Arctic Cyclone in Siberia in 19952000
from Balloon Measurements

N. D. Tsvetkova*, H. Nakane**, A. N. Luk’yanov*, V. A. Yushkov*,
V. M. Dorokhov*, I. G. Zaitsev*, and V. I. Sitnikova*

* Central Aerological Observatory, Moscow region,  Russia

E-mail: nat@cao.mipt.ru;  vladimir@cao.mipt.ru;

** National Institute for Environmental Studies,  Tsukuba,  Japan

E-mail: nakane@nies.go.jp

Izvestiya RAN, Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics; v.38, ¹ 2, p.184-192, 2002.

Abstract

On the basis of ozone sounding performed for a six-year period at the Yakutsk and Salekhard Siberian meteorological stations, the ozone variability occurring under different meteorological conditions at the 475 K isentropic level (at a height of 18–20 km) was analyzed. The winter–spring rates of diabatic descending and chemical decomposition of ozone within the polar cyclone were determined for a period of several years. The dependence of the rate of ozone chemical decomposition on the temperature regime in the lower stratosphere and on the processes of formation of polar stratospheric clouds was revealed. According to the Yakutsk and Salekhard observations, the winter–spring-mean rate of ozone chemical decomposition within the polar cyclone was maximum in 1996 and 2000. In the winter of 2000, the total ozone depletion within the polar cyclone at the 475 K level of potential temperature was equal to 2.1 ± 0.5 ppm, which corresponded to 60% of the cyclone-mean ozone mixing ratio measured in early January 2000.