Southern Hemisphere, stratospheric

The ozone (03) layer aver the southern hemisphere stratosphere in August 2007. The bar at the bottom indicates the color-coding used to indicate the thickness of the layer. The thickness is measured in Dobsons (= 0.01 mm thick). The normal ozone layer for the stratosphere is 360 Dobsons (color coded as green). The ozone "hole" shown in pink is 200-220 Dobsons. The "hole" will increase when another reading is taken in September. 

Siskind, D.E., G.E. Nedoluha, C.E. Randall, M. Fromm, and J.M. Russell III, An assessment of Southern Hemisphere stratospheric NOx enhancements due to transport from the upper atmosphere. Geophys Res Lett 27, 329, 2000. 

Mario Molina and Sherwood Rowland used Crutzen s work and other data in 1974 to build a model of the stratosphere that explained how chlorofluorocarbons could threaten the ozone layer. In 1985, ozone levels over Antarctica were indeed found to be decreasing and had dropped to the lowest ever observed by the year 2000, the hole had reached Chile. These losses are now known to be global in extent and it has been postulated that they may be contributing to global warming in the Southern Hemisphere. 

In short, exchange of air between the Northern and Southern Hemispheres is slow, as is that between the troposphere and stratosphere, both being on the time scale of about a year (Warneck, 1988). The mechanisms of stratosphere-troposphere exchange are complex but a detailed understanding of these is critical to the assessment of the atmospheric fates of many species, particularly those emitted in the lowermost stratosphere. For reviews of these processes, see Holton et al. (1995), Salby and Garcia (1990), and Mahlman (1997) and for some relevant studies, Langford et al. (1996) and Folkins and Appenzeller (1996). 

Mechanisms and rates of transport of nuclear test debris in the upper and lower atmosphere are considered. For the lower thermosphere vertical eddy diffusion coefficients of 3-6 X 106 cm.2 sec. 1 are estimated from twilight lithium enhancement observations. Radiochemical evidence for samples from 23 to 37 km. altitude at 31° N indicate pole-ward mean motion in this layer. Large increases in stratospheric debris in the southern hemisphere in 1963 and 1964 are attributed to debris from Soviet tests, transported via the mesosphere and the Antarctic stratosphere. Most of the carbon-14 remains behind in the Arctic stratosphere. 210Bi/ 210Pb ratios indicate aerosol residence times of only a few days at tropospheric levels and only several weeks in the lower stratosphere. Implications for the inventory and distribution of radioactive fallout are discussed. 

Satellite images of the Southern Hemisphere, showing concentrations of chlorine monoxide adjacent to concentrations of stratospheric ozone in September 1996. 

Tuck A.F. et al.(1997) Airborne Southern Hemisphere Ozone Experiment/ Measurements for Assessing the Effects of Stratospheric Aircraft (ASHOE/ MAESA) A road map, J. Geophys. Res., 102. 

Most of the test sites for atmospheric nuclear testing were located in the northern hemisphere. The tests of France in the Pacific and of the United Kingdom in Australia were, with few exceptions, the only ones conducted in the southern hemisphere. Several tests of the United States were at or very near the equator, and from that location the injection of debris occurred to both hemispheres. The hemispheric partitioning of fission yields is shown in Table 10.5 140 Mt was injected into the atmosphere of the northern hemisphere, mostly into the stratosphere, and 18 Mt was injected into the atmosphere of the southern hemisphere. 

FIGURE 20.29 This false color image shows total stratospheric ozone amounts over the southern hemisphere for September 24, 2006, as recorded by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) mounted on the Aura spacecraft. The dramatic depletion of the ozone layer over Antarctica is revealed with the help of the false color scale at the bottom of the figure. Ozone amounts are commonly expressed in Dobson units 300 Dobson units is a typical global average over the course of a year. The size of the Antarctic ozone hole was near a record high and the levels of ozone near a record low on this date. 

Based on measurements of the total column ozone content of the atmosphere from the ground as well as from satellites, a consistent picture of the current loss of stratospheric ozone can be derived. The most recent results are discussed in ref. [3]. Relative to the values in the 1970 s, the ozone loss at the end of the 1990 s is estimated to be about 50% in the Antarctic spring, where the ozone hole appears every year, and about 15% in the Arctic spring. In the mid-latitudes of the Southern hemisphere the loss is about 5% all the year round, while in the Northern hemisphere it is about 6% in winter/spring and about 3% in sum-mer/fall. No significant trend in ozone has been found in the Equatorial regions. In the second half of the 1990 s relatively little change in ozone has been observed in the mid-latitudes of both hemispheres. 

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