ACP Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics ACP 1680-7324 Copernicus GmbH Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/acp-5-131-2005 Vortex-averaged Arctic ozone depletion in the winter 2002/2003 Christensen T. 1 Knudsen B. M. 1 Streibel M. 2 Andersen S. B. 1 Benesova A. 3 Braathen G. 4 Claude H. 5 Davies J. 6 De Backer H. 7 Dier H. 8 Dorokhov V. 9 Gerding M. 10 Gil M. 11 Henchoz B. 12 Kelder H. 13 Kivi R. 14 Kyrö E. 14 Litynska Z. 15 Moore D. 16 Peters G. 8 Skrivankova P. 3 Stübi R. 12 Turunen T. 14 Vaughan G. 17 Viatte P. 12 Vik A. F. 4 von der Gathen P. 2 Zaitcev I. 9 Danish Meteorological Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research,Potsdam, Germany Czech Hydrometeorological Institute, Prague, Czech Republic Norwegian Institute for Air Research, Kjeller, Norway Deutscher Wetterdienst, Hohenpeißenberg, Germany Environment Canada, Downsview, Ontario, Canadany Royal Meteorological Institute, Brussels, Belgium Deutscher Wetterdienst, Lindenberg, Germany Central Aerological Observatory, Dolgoprudny, Moscow Region, Russia Leibniz-Institue of Atmospheric Physics, Kühlungsborn, Germany Instituto Nacional de Téchnica Aerospacial, Madrid, Spain MeteoSwiss, Payerne, Switzerland Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, De Bilt, Netherlands Finnish Meteorological Institute, Sodankylä, Finland IMWM, Centre of Aerology, Legionowo, Poland UK Met Office, Exeter, UK University of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK 21 01 2005 5 1 131 138 This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This article is available from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/5/131/2005/acp-5-131-2005.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/5/131/2005/acp-5-131-2005.pdf

A total ozone depletion of 68&plusmn;7 Dobson units between 380 and 525K from 10 December 2002 to 10 March 2003 is derived from ozone sonde data by the vortex-average method, taking into account both diabatic descent of the air masses and transport of air into the vortex. When the vortex is divided into three equal-area regions, the results are 85&plusmn;9DU for the collar region (closest to the edge), 52&plusmn;5DU for the vortex centre and 68&plusmn;7DU for the middle region in between centre and collar. <P style="line-height: 20px;"> Our results compare well with other studies: We find good agreement with ozone loss deduced from SAOZ data, with results inferred from POAM&nbsp;III observations and with results from tracer-tracer correlations using HF as the long-lived tracer. We find a higher ozone loss than that deduced by tracer-tracer correlations using CH<sub>4</sub>. <P style="line-height: 20px;"> We have made a careful comparison with Match results: The results were recalculated using a common time period, vortex edge definition and height interval. The two methods generally compare very well, except at the 475K level which exhibits an unexplained discrepancy.