Detection of ozone recovery in the Arctic from ground-based measurements

Abstract. Contrary to the Antarctic, where ozone recovery has been observed for about a decade, the detection of positive ozone trends in the Arctic remains challenging due to higher natural variability of ozone in that region.

Using a merging of long-term ozone data from Fourier transform infrared spectrometers, ozonesondes, and Dobson and Brewer spectrophotometers, we present regional long-term trends (2000−2024) for total, stratospheric and tropospheric ozone. First, ground-based measurements are cross-compared to two satellite data sets (MEGRIDOP and IASI-CDR). This enables the detection of drifted ground-based data sets we further exclude from our study. We then use a representativeness study based on CAMS re-analysis data to define regions for which representative trends with reduced uncertainties are obtained by combining data sets from different instruments and stations. Annual and seasonal trends are calculated using a multiple linear regression technique involving a set of proxies that represent physical processes influencing the natural ozone variability. Annual trends indicate increasing total ozone over the Arctic, and are statistically significant over Canada and Reykjavik (+2.1 %/decade) and North-West Europe (Harestua and Lerwick, +0.7 %/decade). Ozone recovery is also observed over Canada in the mid-stratosphere (+2.0 %/decade) and over the North Pole region (Canada and Ny-Ålesund) in the upper stratosphere (+2.1 to +3.8 %/decade). By analysing the sensitivity of the ozone trends to the proxies, we observe a slow down of the expected ozone recovery, especially in the lower stratosphere, due to stratospheric cooling (-0.6 %/decade) and to the increase of volume of polar stratospheric clouds (-0.8 %/decade).