Total Ozone Trends in East Asia from Long-Term Satellite and Ground Observations

Abstract

The ozone concentration in the atmosphere has been recovering with the reduction in atmospheric ozone-depleting substances (ODS). However, ODS remain in the atmosphere for long periods, slowing recovery. Furthermore, greenhouse gas-induced climate change complicates ozone recovery. East Asia is a significant contributor to global climate change due to the increase in industrialization and the presence of complex climate conditions. We investigated ozone variations in East Asia using total column ozone data based on satellite and ground observations and compared the results and trends derived from a multi-linear regression (MLR) model. We found that the MLR model has relatively poor explanatory power for recent extraterrestrial and dynamical proxies, but the uncertainty can be reduced using monthly data and atmospheric proxies. The ozone trend in East Asia had the greatest increase in the vicinity of the Korean Peninsula and Manchuria from 1997 to 2017 (~1% per decade). Similarly, the trend derived from Brewer spectrophotometer data was 1.02 ± 1.45% per decade in Pohang and 1.27 ± 0.85% per decade in Seoul. When the analysis period was extended to 2020, the impact of atmospheric variability was greater, suggesting that recent climate change can increasingly contribute to total ozone variability.