Arctic halogens reduce ozone in the northern mid-latitudes

While the dominant role of halogens in Arctic ozone loss during spring has been widely studied in the last decades, the impact of sea-ice halogens on surface ozone abundance over the northern hemisphere (NH) mid-latitudes remains unquantified. Here, we use a state-of-the-art global chemistry-climate model including polar halogens (Cl, Br, and I), which reproduces Arctic ozone seasonality, to show that Arctic sea-ice halogens reduce surface ozone in the NH mid-latitudes (47°N to 60°N) by ~11% during spring. This background ozone reduction follows the southward export of ozone-poor and halogen-rich air masses from the Arctic through polar front intrusions toward lower latitudes, reducing the springtime tropospheric ozone column within the NH mid-latitudes by ~4%. Our results also show that the present-day influence of Arctic halogens on surface ozone destruction is comparatively smaller than in preindustrial times driven by changes in the chemical interplay between anthropogenic pollution and natural halogens. We conclude that the impact of Arctic sea-ice halogens on NH mid-latitude ozone abundance should be incorporated into global models to improve the representation of ozone seasonality.

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Publication Details

Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Published
2024-09-16
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2401975121
Citations
6
Primary Topic
Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
2.26

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article

Arctic halogens reduce ozone in the northern mid-latitudes

Jean‐François Lamarque, Rafael P. Fernández, Carlos Alberto Cuevas, Alfonso Saiz‐Lopez et al.
6 citations
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols
2.26
article

Arctic halogens reduce ozone in the northern mid-latitudes

Jean‐François Lamarque, Rafael P. Fernández, Carlos Alberto Cuevas, Alfonso Saiz‐Lopez, Simone Tilmes, Lucas Berná, Henrik Skov, Douglas Edward Kinnison, Orlando G. Tomazzeli, Anoop S. Mahajan, Qinyi Li, Siyuan Wang
article en
6 citations

Abstract

While the dominant role of halogens in Arctic ozone loss during spring has been widely studied in the last decades, the impact of sea-ice halogens on surface ozone abundance over the northern hemisphere (NH) mid-latitudes remains unquantified. Here, we use a state-of-the-art global chemistry-climate model including polar halogens (Cl, Br, and I), which reproduces Arctic ozone seasonality, to show that Arctic sea-ice halogens reduce surface ozone in the NH mid-latitudes (47°N to 60°N) by ~11% during spring. This background ozone reduction follows the southward export of ozone-poor and halogen-rich air masses from the Arctic through polar front intrusions toward lower latitudes, reducing the springtime tropospheric ozone column within the NH mid-latitudes by ~4%. Our results also show that the present-day influence of Arctic halogens on surface ozone destruction is comparatively smaller than in preindustrial times driven by changes in the chemical interplay between anthropogenic pollution and natural halogens. We conclude that the impact of Arctic sea-ice halogens on NH mid-latitude ozone abundance should be incorporated into global models to improve the representation of ozone seasonality.

Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesVol. 121(39)
NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research (US), National Technological University (AR), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (US), Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology (IN), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (ES), Shandong University (CN), Universidad Nacional de Cuyo (AR), Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (US), University of Colorado Boulder (US), Aarhus University (DK), Instituto Interdisciplinario de Ciencias Básicas (AR), Ministry of Earth Sciences (IN), NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory (US)
National Science Foundation
Life below water
Openalex Percentile: Top 13%
Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols
2.26
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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