Refining long-term data of stratospheric ozone with observations and modeling

The ozone hole over Antarctica appeared larger than average in October 2021. Credit: Climate.gov

The stratospheric ozone layer plays an essential role in protecting the Earth's surface from harmful solar ultraviolet radiation. Recent research on upper stratospheric ozone has started to show significant signs of recovery, while in the lower stratosphere, most research shows ozone is still decreasing. There is some debate in the atmosphere science community about these trends and the quality of existing dataset, which needs to be strong in order to assess long-term stability of the ozone layer. A new study, funded in part by the Climate Program Office’s Atmospheric Chemistry, Carbon Cycle and Climate (AC4) Program, uses atmospheric observations of ozone profiles taken since 1965 to derive long-term trend estimates.

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