Evolution of stratospheric ozone and water vapour time series studied with satellite measurements

Abstract

Abstract. The long term evolution of stratospheric ozone and water vapour has been investigated by extending satellite time series to April 2008. For ozone, we examine monthly average ozone values from various satellite data sets for nine latitude and altitude bins covering 60° S to 60° N and 20–45 km and covering the time period 1979–2008. Data are from the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment (SAGE I+II), the HALogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE), the Solar BackscatterUltraViolet-2 (SBUV/2) instrument, the Sub-Millimetre Radiometer (SMR), the Optical Spectrograph InfraRed Imager System (OSIRIS), and the SCanning Imaging Absorption spectroMeter for Atmospheric CHartograpY (SCIAMACHY). Monthly ozone anomalies are calculated by utilising a linear regression model, which also models the solar, quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO), and seasonal cycle contributions. Individual instrument ozone anomalies are combined producing a weighted all instrument average. Assuming a turning point of 1997 and that the all instrument average is represented by good instrumental long term stability, the largest statistically significant ozone declines from 1979–1997 are seen at the mid-latitudes between 35 and 45 km, namely −7.7%/decade in the Northern Hemisphere and −7.8%/decade in the Southern Hemisphere. For the period 1997 to 2008 we find that the southern mid-latitudes between 35 and 45 km show the largest ozone recovery (+3.4%/decade) compared to other global regions, although the estimated trend model error is of a similar magnitude (+2.1%/decade, at the 95% confidence level). An all instrument average is also constructed from water vapour anomalies during 1984–2008, using the SAGE II, HALOE, SMR, and the Microwave Limb Sounder (aura/MLS) measurements. We report that the decrease in water vapour values after 2001 slows down around 2004 in the lower tropical stratosphere (20–25 km), and has even shown signs of increasing values in upper stratospheric mid-latitudes. We show that a similar correlation is also seen with the temperature measured at 100 hPa during this same period.