Record‐High Ozone in the Austral Mid‐Latitude Tropopause Region Driven by Dynamical and Chemical Effects of the 2019 Sudden Stratospheric Warming
Name
Geophysical Research Letters - 2025 - Zhang - Record‐High Ozone in the Austral Mid‐Latitude Tropopause Region Driven by.pdf
Description
Published version
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1.53 MB
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Adobe PDF
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Author(s)
Zhang, Selena
Solomon, Susan
Zhang, Jun
Kinnison, Douglas
Date Issued
May 10, 2025
Journal
Geophysical Research Letters
Publisher
Wiley
Citation
Zhang, S., Solomon, S., Zhang, J., & Kinnison, D. (2025). Record-high ozone in the austral mid-latitude tropopause region driven by dynamical and chemical effects of the 2019 sudden stratospheric warming. Geophysical Research Letters, 52, e2025GL115588.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
In January 2020, tropopause‐level ozone in the austral mid‐latitudes was the highest everobserved in the available Microwave Limb Sounder data record since 2004. Two extreme events preceded thisanomaly: the Australian Black Summer fires and the 2019 sudden stratospheric warming (SSW), raising thequestion of how these disruptions influenced Southern Hemisphere ozone. Here, we investigate the dynamicaland chemical contributions to the ozone anomaly using a chemistry‐climate model and satellite observations.We find that downward transport of polar ozone‐enriched air due to the SSW later spread equatorward. Suchtransport together with photochemical ozone production from emissions of wildfires (fueled by dry and hotconditions previously attributed to the SSW) increased tropopause‐level ozone by up to 30 ppb, with transport asthe dominant factor (around 80%). While chemical ozone production from wildfires is well‐recognized, ourresults highlight that SSWs can greatly influence mid‐latitude ozone through dynamical effects.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
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Creative Commons Attribution
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1029/2025GL115588
