Stratospheric ozone depletion at northern midlatitudes after major volcanic eruptions

Jaeger, H.; Wege, K.

doi:10.1007/bf00053863

Cited by 53 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…At lower temperatures reactions involving HC1 become involved further activating the inorganic chlorine reservoirs [Hanson and Lovejoy, 1995]. Preceding these were earlier reports of ozone loss following the eruption of El Chich6n in April 1982 [Jager and Wege, 1990]. Following the Pinatubo volcanic eruption in June 1991, there have been numerous reports of mid latitude ozone losses [e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Correlations between ozone loss and volcanic aerosol at altitudes below 14 km over McMurdo Station, Antarctica

Deshler¹,

Johnson²,

Hofmann³

et al. 1996

Geophysical Research Letters

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Ozone and aerosol profiles over McMurdo Station, Antarctica (78°S), have been measured August–October for the years 1986–1995. This spans the development and decay of the recent perturbation to stratospheric aerosol caused by Pinatubo. Volcanic aerosol surface areas, in the 11–14 km region, peaked near 100 µm² cm−3 in 1991, decaying to 20–30 µm² cm−3 in 1992, 15–25 µm² cm−3 in 1993, and to background levels of 4–8 µm² cm−3 in 1994. Based on these measurements the volcanic aerosol signal persisted over Antarctica for three austral springs, implying an exponential decay rate of about 14 months. The aerosol below 14 km was correlated with previously unobserved ozone loss at these altitudes. Ozone loss rates of 5–15 ppb dy−1 (0.3–0.5 DU dy−1) were observed in the 10–12 and 12–14 km layers. Beginning in 1994, when the aerosol approached its pre‐Pinatubo level, ozone loss diminished in the 12–14 km layer, and was not observed in the 10–12 km layer.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Correlations between ozone loss and volcanic aerosol at altitudes below 14 km over McMurdo Station, Antarctica

Deshler¹,

Johnson²,

Hofmann³

et al. 1996

Geophysical Research Letters

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“…The stratospheric aerosol layer enhanced by volcanism not only has a significant impact on the Earth's radiative budget (McCormick et al, 1995;Robock, 2000) but it also has an impact on chemical processes in the lower stratosphere (Rodriguez et al, 1991;Solomon et al, 1993), in particular on ozone depletion (Jäger and Wege, 1990;Tilmes et al, 2008;Solomon et al, 2016). Conventionally, large volcanic eruptions with a volcanic explosivity index (VEI) larger than 4 are thought to play a key role in the stratospheric sulfate aerosol budget.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Equatorward dispersion of a high-latitude volcanic plume and its relation to the Asian summer monsoon: a case study of the Sarychev eruption in 2009

Grießbach²,

Hoffmann³

2017

Atmos. Chem. Phys.

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Abstract. Tropical volcanic eruptions have been widely studied for their significant contribution to stratospheric aerosol loading and global climate impacts, but the impact of high-latitude volcanic eruptions on the stratospheric aerosol layer is not clear and the pathway of transporting aerosol from high latitudes to the tropical stratosphere is not well understood. In this work, we focus on the high-latitude volcano Sarychev (48.1 • N, 153.2 • E), which erupted in June 2009, and the influence of the Asian summer monsoon (ASM) on the equatorward dispersion of the volcanic plume. First, the sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ) emission time series and plume height of the Sarychev eruption are estimated with SO 2 observations of the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) and a backward trajectory approach using the Lagrangian particle dispersion model Massive-Parallel Trajectory Calculations (MPTRAC). Then, the transport and dispersion of the plume are simulated using the derived SO 2 emission time series. The transport simulations are compared with SO 2 observations from AIRS and validated with aerosol observations from the Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding (MIPAS). The MPTRAC simulations show that about 4 % of the sulfur emissions were transported to the tropical stratosphere within 50 days after the beginning of the eruption, and the plume dispersed towards the tropical tropopause layer (TTL) through isentropic transport above the subtropical jet. The MPTRAC simulations and MIPAS aerosol data both show that between the potential temperature levels of 360 and 400 K, the equatorward transport was primarily driven by anticyclonic Rossby wave breaking enhanced by the ASM in boreal summer. The volcanic plume was entrained along the anticyclone flows and reached the TTL as it was transported southwestwards into the deep tropics downstream of the anticyclone. Further, the ASM anticyclone influenced the pathway of aerosols by isolating an "aerosol hole" inside of the ASM, which was surrounded by aerosol-rich air outside. This transport barrier was best indicated using the potential vorticity gradient approach. Long-term MIPAS aerosol detections show that after entering the TTL, aerosol from the Sarychev eruption remained in the tropical stratosphere for about 10 months and ascended slowly. The ascent speed agreed well with the ascent speed of the water vapor tape recorder. Furthermore, a hypothetical MPTRAC simulation for a wintertime eruption was carried out. It is shown that under winter atmospheric circulations, the equatorward transport of the plume would be suppressed by the strong subtropical jet and weak wave breaking events. In this hypothetical scenario, a high-latitude volcanic eruption would not be able to contribute to the tropical stratospheric aerosol layer.

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“…The stratospheric aerosol layer continues attracting research activities because of its impact on radiation (e.g., Charlson et al, 1991;Hansen et al, 1997;Robock, 2000;Solomon et al, 2011) and air chemistry, in particular ozone depletion (e.g., Pittock, 1965;Grams and Fiocco, 1967;Jäger and Wege, 1990;Solomon et al, 1996;Solomon, 1999). Research is needed to elucidate further the different sources, in particular those for which a positive trend is expected.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

35 yr of stratospheric aerosol measurements at Garmisch-Partenkirchen: from Fuego to Eyjafjallajökull, and beyond

et al. 2013

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Lidar measurements at Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Germany) have almost continually delivered backscatter coefficients of stratospheric aerosol since 1976. The time series is dominated by signals from the particles injected into or formed in the stratosphere due to major volcanic eruptions, in particular those of El Chichon (Mexico, 1982) and Mt Pinatubo (Philippines, 1991). Here, we focus more on the long-lasting background period since the late 1990s and 2006, in view of processes maintaining a residual lower-stratospheric aerosol layer in absence of major eruptions, as well as the period of moderate volcanic impact afterwards. During the long background period the stratospheric backscatter coefficients reached a level even below that observed in the late 1970s. This suggests that the predicted potential influence of the strongly growing air traffic on the stratospheric aerosol loading is very low. Some correlation may be found with single strong forest-fire events, but the average influence of biomass burning seems to be quite limited. No positive trend in background aerosol can be resolved over a period as long as that observed by lidar at Mauna Loa. We conclude that the increase of our integrated backscatter coefficients starting in 2008 is mostly due to volcanic eruptions with explosivity index 4, penetrating strongly into the stratosphere. Most of them occurred in the mid-latitudes. A key observation for judging the role of eruptions just reaching the tropopause region was that of the plume from the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull above Garmisch-Partenkirchen (April 2010) due to the proximity of that source. The top altitude of the ash above the volcano was reported just as 9.3 km, but the lidar measurements revealed enhanced stratospheric aerosol up to 14.3 km. Our analysis suggests for two or three of the four measurement days the presence of a stratospheric contribution from Iceland related to quasi-horizontal transport, differing from the strong descent of the layers entering Central Europe at low altitudes. The backscatter coefficients within the first 2 km above the tropopause exceed the stratospheric background by a factor of four to five. In addition, Asian and Saharan dust layers were identified in the free troposphere, Asian dust most likely even in the stratosphere

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Stratospheric ozone depletion at northern midlatitudes after major volcanic eruptions

Cited by 53 publications

References 24 publications

Correlations between ozone loss and volcanic aerosol at altitudes below 14 km over McMurdo Station, Antarctica

Correlations between ozone loss and volcanic aerosol at altitudes below 14 km over McMurdo Station, Antarctica

Equatorward dispersion of a high-latitude volcanic plume and its relation to the Asian summer monsoon: a case study of the Sarychev eruption in 2009

35 yr of stratospheric aerosol measurements at Garmisch-Partenkirchen: from Fuego to Eyjafjallajökull, and beyond

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