Linking uncertainty in simulated Arctic ozone loss to uncertainties in modelled tropical stratospheric water vapour

Thölix, Laura; Karpechko, Alexey; Backman, Leif; Kivi, Rigel

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-15047-2018

Articles | Volume 18, issue 20

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-15047-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-15047-2018

© Author(s) 2018. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 18, issue 20

Research article

|

19 Oct 2018

Research article |

| 19 Oct 2018

Linking uncertainty in simulated Arctic ozone loss to uncertainties in modelled tropical stratospheric water vapour

Laura Thölix, Alexey Karpechko, Leif Backman, and Rigel Kivi

Data sets

ERA-Interim dataset D. P. Dee et al. http://www.ecmwf.int/en/research/climate-reanalysis/era-interim

Aura/MLS data A. Lambert et al. http://mirador.gsfc.nasa.gov

Short summary

We analyse the impact of water vapour (WV) on Arctic ozone loss and find the strongest impact during intermediately cold stratospheric winters when chlorine activation increases with increasing PSCs and WV. In colder winters the impact is limited because chlorine activation becomes complete at relatively low WV values, so further addition of WV does not affect ozone loss. Our results imply that improved simulations of WV are needed for more reliable projections of ozone layer recovery.