Recent trends of the total column ozone: implications for the Mediterranean region

Abstract

The daily ozone column amounts during the 14-year period (1979–1992), which are inferred from measurements made with both the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) mounted on board the Nimbus-7 satellite have been used to study longitudinal trends at mid-latitudes. The main findings are: (1) There is a large longitudinal variation of the monthly trend in total ozone over the northern mid-latitudes ranging from 1.5 to 8.5 per cent per year with a large standard error, (2) The trend in the total ozone content over the Mediterranean area varies in a similar way with the zonal average total ozone trend over mid-latitudes. Also, the trend of the total ozone over Athens, Greece, is representative of the whole Mediterranean region and so it is representative of the zonal average total ozone trend over the northern mid-latitudes, and (3) The interannual variability of the amplitude of the annual wave in the total ozone amount over the Mediterranean region compares extremely well with the interannual variability of the total ozone amount over this location.