Arctic chlorine monoxide observations during spring 1993 over Thule, Greenland, and implications for ozone depletion

The measurements show a weak lower stratospheric layer of chlorine monoxide inside the vortex in late February, which was, however, significantly greater in mixing ratio than that seen in observations we made in the spring of 1992. ClO was also observed in much smaller quantities in early to mid-March 1993 when Thule was outside the vortex. The relative weakeness of daily ozone depletion, combined with the early disappearance of ClO in the Arctic, suggests that hemispheric dilution by ozone-poor air from within the Arctic vortex is unlikely to be sufficient to explain the historically extreme loss of midlatitude Northern Hemisphere ozone which began in 1992 and persisted throughout 1993. -from Authors

Duke Scholars

Author Drew Todd Shindell Earth and Climate Sciences