Abstract
To better attribute the total ozone column (TOC) anomalies observed from the ozone measurements in Ukraine, the climatologies of annual ozone cycle along the latitudinal band 40–60° N with the 30° step in longitude have been analysed. Gridded satellite ozone data based on the merged ozone dataset over the period 1979–2011 are used. The results show that, similar to the known longitudinal dependences of both the total ozone itself and its decadal trends, the annual TOC cycle in the northern midlatitudes is also longitudinally dependent. The higher (lower) regional TOC level is associated with the leading (lagging) development of the annual cycle relative to the zonal mean climatology. Particularly, a 2- to 3-month lead of annual cycle in eastern Asia (120–150° E) in comparison with that in eastern Atlantic (0–30° W) exists. Revealed coupling between regionality and seasonality of the TOC in the northern midlatitudes may be involved in the regional climate variability and deserves further studies with higher temporal and spatial resolution.
Acknowledgements
Total ozone data was provided by merged ozone dataset at the NASA GSFC website http://acd-ext.gsfc.nasa.gov/Data_services/merged/. The authors thank the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions. The work was partly fulfilled in the framework of the Polar FORCeS project no. 4012 of the Australian Antarctic Science Program.
Funding
This work has been funded by Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, project 11BF051-01, and was carried out within the framework of the World Meteorological Organization Global Atmosphere Watch Programme.