Atmospheric Ozone and Climate

Atmospheric ozone and climate research examines how chemical and dynamical processes in the stratosphere — particularly ozone concentrations, water vapor levels, and large-scale circulation patterns like the Brewer-Dobson circulation — shape Earth's energy balance and surface climate. The Montreal Protocol's success in curbing ozone-depleting substances has made the stratosphere a rare case study in environmental recovery, yet scientists are still untangling how ozone recovery interacts with greenhouse gas-driven warming and alters circulation in ways that reach down to affect weather at the surface. A central challenge is accurately attributing observed changes in stratospheric composition to specific drivers — volcanic eruptions, solar variability, aviation, or shifts in tropical dynamics — which requires combining satellite and balloon-based remote sensing with high-resolution chemical transport models. Open questions remain around how a warming climate will modify stratospheric water vapor and the strength of the Brewer-Dobson circulation, both of which feed back on ozone chemistry and, in turn, on the climate system itself.

Works

121,571

Total citations

1,697,126

Keywords

Stratospheric Water VaporOzone DepletionTropopause LayerClimate ImpactBrewer-Dobson CirculationAtmospheric Composition