Polar Stratospheric Clouds and the Ozone Hole

DEC 01, 1991

Clouds of frozen nitric acid particles that form in the polar winter stratosphere are a crucial element in the massive springtime ozone depletion over Antarctica.

DOI: 10.1063/1.881277

Patrick Hamill

Owen Brian Toon

During the winter clouds appear in the Arctic and the Antarctic stratospheres. These clouds have been observed for over a century, and during most of that time they were considered an interesting and beautiful but relatively unimportant phenomenon. Recently, however, atmospheric scientists have found a critical relationship between the massive springtime ozone depletion over Antarctica and the formation of polar stratospheric clouds. (See figure 1.) In this article we outline the general properties of the three main types of stratospheric aerosols, and we show how changes in the levels of stratospheric nitrogen and chlorine species required for ozone depletion are dependent upon the formation of polar stratospheric clouds.

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More about the authors

Patrick Hamill, San Jose State University, San Jose, California.

Owen Brian Toon, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California.