Quantifying ozone loss and recovery

Validation of satellite retrieved ozone profiles using in situ ozonesonde data across nine stations in Antarctica show significant biases in the profiles estimated by the Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) instrument onboard the Aura satellite. The study showed biases of as much as ±10% with some stations showing that ozone loss is overestimated by MLS. Irrespective of the bias, the number of saturated ozone loss events (where ozone concentrations mixing ratios drop below 0.1 part per million) decreased gradually from 2004 to 2013, suggesting a recovering trend. After 2013, no significant trend is observed although signatures of episodic events such as volcanoes are visible. The interannual variation was strongly coupled to the temperature, highlighting the critical role that polar stratospheric clouds play in causing saturated ozone loss.

Reference: Hulswar, S., Mohite, P., & Mahajan, A.S. (2022). Quantifying stratospheric ozone loss over Antarctica in the last two decades using corrected satellite profiles. Polar Science. https://doi.org/10.10 16/j.polar.2022.100860

Hulswar, S., Mohite, P., Soni V.K. & Mahajan, A.S. (2021). Differences between in-situ ozonesonde observations and satellite retrieved ozone vertical profiles across Antarctica. Polar Science, 30, 100688. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polar.2021.100688.

Hulswar, S., Soni V.K., Sapate, J.P., et al. (2020). Validation of satellite retrieved ozone profiles using in-situ ozonesonde observations over the Indian Antarctic station, Bharati. Polar Science, 25, 100547. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polar.2020.10 0547