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Ozone Hole Recovery Could Reshape Southern Hemisphere Climate Change
 A
full recovery of the stratospheric ozone hole
could strongly modify climate change in the Southern Hemisphere
and possibly amplify warming of the Antarctic continent, report
scientists from NOAA’s Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL)
in Boulder, CO, the Cooperative Institute for Research in
Environmental Sciences, and NASA.
The authors used a NASA
supercomputer model that included interactions between the
climate and stratospheric ozone chemistry to examine how changes
in the ozone hole influence climate and weather near Earth's
surface. As ozone levels recover, the lower
stratosphere over the polar region will absorb more ultraviolet
radiation from the sun. As a result, intense westerly winds
that block air masses from crossing into the continent’s interior
would weaken, and Antarctica would no longer be isolated from
the warming patterns affecting the rest of the world. The
influence of a full stratospheric ozone recovery on seasonal
Southern Hemisphere climate will largely depend on how fast
carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases increase.
While average surface temperatures
have been rising globally, the interior surface of Antarctica
has exhibited a unique cooling trend during the Southern Hemisphere
summer and fall, resulting from stratospheric ozone
depletion during spring. The Montreal Protocol restricted
production of ozone-depleting substances, starting in 1987,
and scientists predict the ozone hole will recover completely
by 2070.
Such changes in large-scale circulation patterns may ultimately have consequences for Australian and South American climate during late spring and summer. Australia could experience warmer and drier conditions, while areas in Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay, could get wetter.
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