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Global Climate Change Digest
A Guide to Information on Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depletion
Published July 1988 through June 1999

FROM VOLUME 9, NUMBER 9, SEPTEMBER 1996

PROFESSIONAL PUBLICATIONS...
OZONE DEPLETION: OZONE DISTRIBUTION & TRENDS

Item #d96sep22

"Record Low Ozone at Mauna Loa Observatory During Winter 1994-1995: A Consequence of Chemical and Dynamical Synergism?" D.J. Hofmann (CMDL, NOAA, 325 Broadway, Boulder CO 80303), S.J. Oltmans et al., Geophys. Res. Lett., 23(12), 1533-1536, June 1, 1996.

During two days in late December 1994, total ozone over Mauna Loa dropped below 200 Dobson Units for the first time since these measurements began over 30 years ago. Except for rare occasions in southern Argentina, total ozone values this low have not been recorded over populated areas. Although chemical ozone depletion could have contributed, the minimum appears to be related to ozone transport from the tropics and the timing of the phase transition of the Quasi-Biennual Oscillation in stratospheric winds. This analysis provides an accurate method of forecasting low-ozone, high-UV winters in Hawaii.

Item #d96sep23

"Decadal Evolution of the Antarctic Ozone Hole," Y. Jiang (Div. Geol. & Planetary Sci., California Inst. Technol., Pasadena CA 91125), Y.L. Yung, R.W. Zurek, J. Geophys. Res., 101(D4), 8985-8999, Apr. 20, 1996.

Ozone column amounts are analyzed during late austral winter and spring for 1980-1991 using area-mapping techniques and area-weighted vortex averages. A significant decline is evident in the earlier part of the decade, apparently due to the rise anthropogenic chlorine. A slower decline at the end of the decade indicates saturation of ozone depletion in the vortex interior, where chlorine amounts were already high enough to deplete most of the ozone.