Arctic ozone loss in Siberia in 2011 and 2012

Abstract. The atmospheric ozone plays an important role in understanding of the processes occurring in the atmosphere and changes in the climate. Total ozone observations in Siberia were performed by Brewer MKIV No. 049 spectrophotometer in Tomsk, Western Siberia and SAOZ UV-Vis spectrometers deployed along the Arctic Circle in Salekhard aerological station since 1998 and Zhigansk aerological station in Eastern Siberia since 1991. We also use 2Z-ECC ozonesondes for ozone profile observations in winter–spring period at the Salekhard aerological station at the in Western Siberia and ECC-6A sondes at the drifting North Pole station NP-38 in the Central Arctic area. During the winter–spring season in 2011, Arctic ozone in the 19–21 km altitude region was observed to be more than 70% less that typical values. In the winter–spring of 2012, on the other hand, Arctic conditions were overall much warmer than in 2011, and no evidence of significant ozone loss was seen above the Asiatic regions of Russian Federation.

The aim of the paper is to describe which and where these measurements were carried out and illustrate their performances by some examples of ozone data measured in Western and Eastern Siberia, Russia such as that which occurred in the winter–spring season of 2011.