scholarly journals Will climate change increase ozone depletion from low-energy-electron precipitation?

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (19) ◽  
pp. 9647-9656 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. G. Baumgaertner ◽  
P. Jöckel ◽  
M. Dameris ◽  
P. J. Crutzen

Abstract. We investigate the effects of a strengthened stratospheric/mesospheric residual circulation on the transport of nitric oxide (NO) produced by energetic particle precipitation. During periods of high geomagnetic activity, energetic electron precipitation (EEP) is responsible for winter time ozone loss in the polar middle atmosphere between 1 and 6 hPa. However, as climate change is expected to increase the strength of the Brewer-Dobson circulation including extratropical downwelling, the enhancements of EEP NOx concentrations are expected to be transported to lower altitudes in extratropical regions, becoming more significant in the ozone budget. Changes in the mesospheric residual circulation are also considered. We use simulations with the chemistry climate model system EMAC to compare present day effects of EEP NOx with expected effects in a climate change scenario for the year 2100. In years of strong geomagnetic activity, similar to that observed in 2003, an additional polar ozone loss of up to 0.4 μmol/mol at 5 hPa is found in the Southern Hemisphere. However, this would be approximately compensated by an ozone enhancement originating from a stronger poleward transport of ozone from lower latitudes caused by a strengthened Brewer-Dobson circulation, as well as by slower photochemical ozone loss reactions in a stratosphere cooled by risen greenhouse gas concentrations. In the Northern Hemisphere the EEP NOx effect appears to lose importance due to the different nature of the climate-change induced circulation changes.

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 9895-9916
Author(s):  
A. J. G. Baumgaertner ◽  
P. Jöckel ◽  
M. Dameris ◽  
P. J. Crutzen

Abstract. We investigate the effects of a strengthened Brewer-Dobson circulation on the transport of nitric oxide (NO) produced by energetic particle precipitation. During periods of high geomagnetic activity, low-energy-electron precipitation is responsible for winter time ozone loss in the polar middle atmosphere between 1 and 6 hPa. However, as climate change is expected to increase the strength of the Brewer-Dobson circulation, the enhancements of NOx concentrations are expected to be transported to lower altitudes in extra-tropical regions, becoming even more significant in the ozone budget. We use simulations with the chemistry climate model system ECHAM5/MESSy to compare present day effects of low-energy-electron precipitation with expected effects in a climate change scenario for the year 2100. In years of strong geomagnetic activity, similar to that observed in 2003, an additional polar ozone loss of up to 0.5 μmol/mol at 5 hPa is found. However, this would be approximately compensated by an ozone enhancement originating from a stronger poleward transport of ozone from lower latitudes caused by a strengthened Brewer-Dobson circulation, as well as by slower photochemical ozone loss reactions in a stratosphere cooled by risen greenhouse gas concentrations.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (14) ◽  
pp. 9485-9494 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pavle Arsenovic ◽  
Alessandro Damiani ◽  
Eugene Rozanov ◽  
Bernd Funke ◽  
Andrea Stenke ◽  
...  

Abstract. Energetic particle precipitation (EPP) affects the chemistry of the polar middle atmosphere by producing reactive nitrogen (NOy) and hydrogen (HOx) species, which then catalytically destroy ozone. Recently, there have been major advances in constraining these particle impacts through a parametrization of NOy based on high-quality observations. Here we investigate the effects of low (auroral) and middle (radiation belt) energy range electrons, separately and in combination, on reactive nitrogen and hydrogen species as well as on ozone during Southern Hemisphere winters from 2002 to 2010 using the SOCOL3-MPIOM chemistry-climate model. Our results show that, in the absence of solar proton events, low-energy electrons produce the majority of NOy in the polar mesosphere and stratosphere. In the polar vortex, NOy subsides and affects ozone at lower altitudes, down to 10 hPa. Comparing a year with high electron precipitation with a quiescent period, we found large ozone depletion in the mesosphere; as the anomaly propagates downward, 15 % less ozone is found in the stratosphere during winter, which is confirmed by satellite observations. Only with both low- and middle-energy electrons does our model reproduce the observed stratospheric ozone anomaly.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pavle Arsenovic ◽  
Alessandro Damiani ◽  
Eugene Rozanov ◽  
Bernd Funke ◽  
Andrea Stenke ◽  
...  

Abstract. Energetic particle precipitation (EPP) affects the chemistry of the polar middle atmosphere by producing reactive nitrogen (NOy) and hydrogen (HOx) species, which then catalytically destroy ozone. Recently, there have been major advances in constraining these particle impacts through a parametrization based on high quality observations. Here we investigate the effects of low (auroral) and middle (radiation belt) energy range electrons, separately and in combination, on reactive nitrogen and hydrogen species as well as on ozone during Southern Hemisphere winters from 2002 to 2010 using the chemistry-climate model SOCOL3-MPIOM. Our results show that, in absence of solar proton events, low energy electrons produce the majority of NOy in the polar mesosphere and stratosphere. In the polar vortex, NOy subsides and affects ozone at lower altitudes, down to 10 hPa. Comparing a year with high electron precipitation with a quiescent period, we found large ozone depletion in the mesosphere; as the anomaly propagates downward, 15 % less ozone is found in the stratosphere during winter, which is confirmed by satellite observations. Only with both low and middle energy electrons, our model reproduces the observed stratospheric ozone anomaly.


2009 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 1516-1540 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles McLandress ◽  
Theodore G. Shepherd

Abstract Recent studies using comprehensive middle atmosphere models predict a strengthening of the Brewer–Dobson circulation in response to climate change. To gain confidence in the realism of this result it is important to quantify and understand the contributions from the different components of stratospheric wave drag that cause this increase. Such an analysis is performed here using three 150-yr transient simulations from the Canadian Middle Atmosphere Model (CMAM), a Chemistry–Climate Model that simulates climate change and ozone depletion and recovery. Resolved wave drag and parameterized orographic gravity wave drag account for 60% and 40%, respectively, of the long-term trend in annual mean net upward mass flux at 70 hPa, with planetary waves accounting for 60% of the resolved wave drag trend. Synoptic wave drag has the strongest impact in northern winter, where it accounts for nearly as much of the upward mass flux trend as planetary wave drag. Owing to differences in the latitudinal structure of the wave drag changes, the relative contribution of resolved and parameterized wave drag to the tropical upward mass flux trend over any particular latitude range is highly sensitive to the range of latitudes considered. An examination of the spatial structure of the climate change response reveals no straightforward connection between the low-latitude and high-latitude changes: while the model results show an increase in Arctic downwelling in winter, they also show a decrease in Antarctic downwelling in spring. Both changes are attributed to changes in the flux of stationary planetary wave activity into the stratosphere.


2019 ◽  
Vol 76 (7) ◽  
pp. 2389-2403
Author(s):  
Ismael Núñez-Riboni ◽  
Marc H Taylor ◽  
Alexander Kempf ◽  
Miriam Püts ◽  
Moritz Mathis

Abstract Previous studies have identified changes in habitat temperature as a major factor leading to the geographical displacement of North Sea cod in the last decades. However, the degree to which thermal suitability is presently changing in different regions of the North Sea is still unclear, or if temperature alone (or together with fishery) is responsible for this displacement. In this study, the spatial distribution of different life stages of cod was modelled from 1967 to 2015. The model is fit point-to-point, spatially resolved at scales of 20 km. The results show that suitability has decreased south of 56°N (>12% in the Southern Bight) and increased north of it (with maximum of roughly 10% in southern Skagerrak). Future changes to suitability were estimated throughout the century using temperature projections from a regional climate model under the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change scenario RCP8.5. The results show that southern Skagerrak, the central and northern North Sea and the edge of the Norwegian trench will remain thermally suitable for North Sea cod throughout the century. This detailed geographical representation of thermally suitable key zones for North Sea cod under climate change is revealed for the first time through the improved resolution of this analysis.


2010 ◽  
Vol 40 (7) ◽  
pp. 1539-1557 ◽  
Author(s):  
Riccardo Farneti ◽  
Thomas L. Delworth ◽  
Anthony J. Rosati ◽  
Stephen M. Griffies ◽  
Fanrong Zeng

Abstract Simulations from a fine-resolution global coupled model, the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory Climate Model, version 2.4 (CM2.4), are presented, and the results are compared with a coarse version of the same coupled model, CM2.1, under idealized climate change scenarios. A particular focus is given to the dynamical response of the Southern Ocean and the role played by the eddies—parameterized or permitted—in setting the residual circulation and meridional density structure. Compared to the case in which eddies are parameterized and consistent with recent observational and idealized modeling studies, the eddy-permitting integrations of CM2.4 show that eddy activity is greatly energized with increasing mechanical and buoyancy forcings, buffering the ocean to atmospheric changes, and the magnitude of the residual oceanic circulation response is thus greatly reduced. Although compensation is far from being perfect, changes in poleward eddy fluxes partially compensate for the enhanced equatorward Ekman transport, leading to weak modifications in local isopycnal slopes, transport by the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, and overturning circulation. Since the presence of active ocean eddy dynamics buffers the oceanic response to atmospheric changes, the associated atmospheric response to those reduced ocean changes is also weakened. Further, it is hypothesized that present numerical approaches for the parameterization of eddy-induced transports could be too restrictive and prevent coarse-resolution models from faithfully representing the eddy response to variability and change in the forcing fields.


2013 ◽  
Vol 70 (12) ◽  
pp. 3977-3994 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Albers ◽  
Terrence R. Nathan

Abstract A mechanistic chemistry–dynamical model is used to evaluate the relative importance of radiative, photochemical, and dynamical feedbacks in communicating changes in lower-stratospheric ozone to the circulation of the stratosphere and lower mesosphere. Consistent with observations and past modeling studies of Northern Hemisphere late winter and early spring, high-latitude radiative cooling due to lower-stratospheric ozone depletion causes an increase in the modeled meridional temperature gradient, an increase in the strength of the polar vortex, and a decrease in vertical wave propagation in the lower stratosphere. Moreover, it is shown that, as planetary waves pass through the ozone loss region, dynamical feedbacks precondition the wave, causing a large increase in wave amplitude. The wave amplification causes an increase in planetary wave drag, an increase in residual circulation downwelling, and a weaker polar vortex in the upper stratosphere and lower mesosphere. The dynamical feedbacks responsible for the wave amplification are diagnosed using an ozone-modified refractive index; the results explain recent chemistry–coupled climate model simulations that suggest a link between ozone depletion and increased polar downwelling. The effects of future ozone recovery are also examined and the results provide guidance for researchers attempting to diagnose and predict how stratospheric climate will respond specifically to ozone loss and recovery versus other climate forcings including increasing greenhouse gas abundances and changing sea surface temperatures.


2015 ◽  
Vol 28 (14) ◽  
pp. 5523-5548 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhenxia Long ◽  
Will Perrie

Abstract The authors explore possible temperature modifications of the Atlantic Water Layer (AWL) induced by climate change, performing simulations for 1970 to 2099 with a coupled ice–ocean Arctic model (CIOM). Surface fields to drive the CIOM were provided by the Canadian Regional Climate Model (CRCM), driven by outputs from the Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis (CCCma) Coupled Global Climate Model, version 3 (CGCM3) following the A1B climate change scenario. In the present climate, represented as 1990–2009, the CIOM can reliably reproduce the AWL compared to Polar Science Center Hydrographic Climatology (PHC) data. For the future climate, assuming the A1B climate change scenario, there is a significant increase in water volume transport into the central Arctic Ocean through Fram Strait due to the weakened atmospheric high pressure system over the western Arctic and an intensified atmospheric low pressure system over the Nordic seas. The AWL temperature tends to decrease from 0.36°C in the 2010s to 0.26°C in the 2060s. In the vertical, the warm Atlantic water core slightly expands before the 2030s, significantly shrinks after the 2050s, and essentially disappears by 2070–99, in the southern Beaufort Sea. The temperature decrease after 2030 is mainly due to the reduced heat fluxes in the Kara and Barents Seas. In the northeastern Barents and Kara Seas, the loss of sea ice increases the heat loss from the Atlantic water and reduces the water temperature near the bottom, contributing to decreased heat fluxes into the central Arctic Ocean, as well as decreased AWL temperature at central Arctic Ocean intermediate layers. In addition, the vertically integrated heat loss also plays an important role in the AWL cooling process.


2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 1011-1024 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. J. Squire ◽  
A. T. Archibald ◽  
N. L. Abraham ◽  
D. J. Beerling ◽  
C. N. Hewitt ◽  
...  

Abstract. Over the 21st century, changes in CO2 levels, climate and land use are expected to alter the global distribution of vegetation, leading to changes in trace gas emissions from plants, including, importantly, the emissions of isoprene. This, combined with changes in anthropogenic emissions, has the potential to impact tropospheric ozone levels, which above a certain level are harmful to animals and vegetation. In this study we use a biogenic emissions model following the empirical parameterisation of the MEGAN model, with vegetation distributions calculated by the Sheffield Dynamic Global Vegetation Model (SDGVM) to explore a range of potential future (2095) changes in isoprene emissions caused by changes in climate (including natural land use changes), land use, and the inhibition of isoprene emissions by CO2. From the present-day (2000) value of 467 Tg C yr−1, we find that the combined impact of these factors could cause a net decrease in isoprene emissions of 259 Tg C yr−1 (55%) with individual contributions of +78 Tg C yr−1 (climate change), −190 Tg C yr−1 (land use) and −147 Tg C yr−1 (CO2 inhibition). Using these isoprene emissions and changes in anthropogenic emissions, a series of integrations is conducted with the UM-UKCA chemistry-climate model with the aim of examining changes in ozone over the 21st century. Globally, all combined future changes cause a decrease in the tropospheric ozone burden of 27 Tg (7%) from 379 Tg in the present-day. At the surface, decreases in ozone of 6–10 ppb are calculated over the oceans and developed northern hemispheric regions, due to reduced NOx transport by PAN and reductions in NOx emissions in these areas respectively. Increases of 4–6 ppb are calculated in the continental tropics due to cropland expansion in these regions, increased CO2 inhibition of isoprene emissions, and higher temperatures due to climate change. These effects outweigh the decreases in tropical ozone caused by increased tropical isoprene emissions with climate change. Our land use change scenario consists of cropland expansion, which is most pronounced in the tropics. The tropics are also where land use change causes the greatest increases in ozone. As such there is potential for increased crop exposure to harmful levels of ozone. However, we find that these ozone increases are still not large enough to raise ozone to such damaging levels.


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