High Ozone Isotope Anomaly at Mt. Everest Linked to Stratospheric Ozone Intrusion
Abstract Atmospheric O 3 possesses a rare isotopic signal, that is, Δ 17 O(O 3 ), varying with pressure and temperature, providing a potential tracer to explore stratosphere‐to‐troposphere transport (STT) of O 3 that plays a vital role in atmospheric chemistry and climate. However, it has been proposed that the higher stratospheric Δ 17 O(O 3 ) can't be preserved en‐route to the troposphere given the rapidly re‐established isotopic equilibrium by photochemistry. Here, we reported Δ 17 O(O 3 ) data mainly from the Tibetan Plateau, and found the relatively high Δ 17 O(O 3 ) at Mt. Everest can't be explained by in situ photochemistry. Instead, the distinct diurnal cycle with elevated nighttime value at Mt. Everest is associated with the katabatic wind bringing stratosphere‐sourced O 3 with high Δ 17 O. This demonstrates that the high Δ 17 O(O 3 ) can be preserved at troposphere at some circumstances. Given the fast transfer of Δ 17 O(O 3 ) to atmospheric nitrate, it might be potential to probe past STT of O 3 using nearby ice core records of nitrate.
Authors
- C Ye
- Y. C. Xu
- Zhuang Jiang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5692-8308)
- Pengfei Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3456-4475)
- Joël Savarino (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6708-9623)
- Chong Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8008-3568)
- Lei Geng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5010-2596)
- WeiLi Lin
- Shichang Kang
- Zhongyi Zhang
Institutions
- Institut polytechnique de Grenoble (FR)
- University of Science and Technology of China (CN)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- Peking University (CN)
- State Ethnic Affairs Commission (CN)
- Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement (FR)
- Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources (CN)
- Institut des Géosciences de l'Environnement (FR)
- Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment (CN)
- Geological Exploration Technology Institute of Jiangsu Province (CN)
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
- Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (FR)
- Université Grenoble Alpes (FR)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Geophysical Research Letters
- Published
- 2026-02-22
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1029/2025gl121239
- Primary Topic
- Atmospheric Ozone and Climate
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- European Commission
- National Natural Science Foundation of China