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ANTARCTIC OZONE
This page gives information about ozone at Halley, Rothera and Vernadsky/Faraday
stations. It was either updated or new data was added on 2020 June 15.
The next update is likely to be on or about June 22.
Antarctic ozone today: The 2019 ozone hole is long over, but the 2020 one is beginning to form. Ozone amounts are building around the continent as the polar vortex forms, and are lower within the vortex. Values range from around 270 DU within the vortex to over 400 DU outside it. A dynamical event has reduced ozone levels to around 240 DU on the northern edge of the vortex over the South Atlantic. The vortex area is increasing and now covers around 17 million square kilometres (msqkm) near the base of the ozone layer. The temperature of the ozone layer over Antarctica is falling and is now below the -78°C Polar Stratospheric Cloud (PSC) formation threshold in many parts, giving an area with potential PSC of 16 msqkm. It is mostly close to average values and is highest around Antarctica and declines towards the equator and over the Pole.
The 2019 ozone hole: The 2019 polar vortex began to form in May and had reached some 20 million square kilometres in area near the base of the ozone layer by early July; this was smaller than over the last decade. At the time of the solstice, the growing polar vortex was unusually offset towards the Indian Ocean and centred over East Antarctica. It returned to being more pole centred and by early August was some 28 million square kilometres in area. After the solstice it was near the smallest over the last decade and was generally offset towards the Atlantic. It reached its maximum size in late August, unusually early and only during this period was it close to the average size for the decade. Overall the stratosphere was quite disturbed during the winter, with strong wave activity with a period of around a month, and this gave rise to the smaller than usual vortex and ozone hole. The vortex dissipated in late November, roughly a week earlier than in any year over the previous decade. Temperatures in the ozone layer were below the -78°C Polar Stratospheric Cloud (PSC) formation threshold from late May until the equinox. A sudden spring warming of the stratosphere began in early September. Such an early pulse of warming in the stratosphere was not uncommon in the years prior to the formation of an ozone hole in the 1980s, but it has been rarer in the last 30 years. More stable conditions returned in October and during the month the temperature rose more slowly and by the end of the month was close to the normal with the spring warming having subsided. The area with potential PSCs reached a peak of some 26 million square kilometres in area at times from mid July to August and then declined rapidly. Satellite observations show that the ozone hole began to grow from mid-August and reached a peak of around 11 million square kilometres in area in early September. It then shrank to 3 million square kilometres by the time of the equinox as a result of the early warming. More stable conditions returned in late September and the hole re-grew to a peak size of some 8 million square kilometres in area in mid October, still smaller than seen over the last decade. The final decline came in early November, slightly later than the ozone hole of 2017.
See the final situation report for last year for information on the 2018 - 2019 season.
Notes: An ozone hole is defined as an area with values below 220 Dobson Units (DU). On average a column of air will hold 300 DU of ozone, equivalent to 3mm of ozone at sea-level pressure. Most of the ozone is between 10 and 40 km with a peak at around 20 km. The Antarctic ozone hole is usually largest in early September and deepest in late September to early October. September 16 is world ozone day, and in 2009 the final UN Member State to ratify the Montreal Protocol signed up. All 197 Member States have now ratified the protocol up to and including the Beijing amendments. 2007 was the International Year of the Ozone Layer. Prior to the formation of ozone holes, Antarctic ozone values were normally at their lowest in the autumn (ie March). On occasion atmospheric vertical motions create small areas with ozone substantially below the long term average. Different satellites give different views of the exact ozone distribution. The continent covers 14 million sq. km. A summary of the WMO/UN 2014 Ozone Assessment, the Assessment for Decision-Makers was released on 2014 September 10. 2017 was the 30th Anniversary of the Montreal Protocol. The US Government shutdown in 2019 means that some NOAA/NASA data about the stratosphere is not currently available. There are marked differences between the various satellite ozone measurements and analyses. The KNMI analysis and TEMIS forecasts are close to the observed values, whereas the Canadian analysis seems largely based on SMOBA data and is clearly at variance with ground based observations.
News: Observations reported in Nature in May 2018 showed that the rate of decline of CFC-11, an ozone depleting substances in the atmosphere, which is also a greenhouse gas, had become slower than predicted. This suggested that either something unusual was taking place in the atmosphere or that there were additional man-made emissions. The paper suggested that the most likely reason was illegal manufacture and release from somewhere in eastern Asia. Investigation by the EIA has found that production of polyurethene foam in China can explain the observed changes. They encourage the Chinese government to take immediate action. This became news again in May 2019 when another paper was published in Nature.
Observations
from Halley since 1994 (the year when ozone depleting gasses were at their peak
according to one estimate) show a slow increase of about 1 DU per year in the
minimum ozone amount recorded each October. However, the inter-annual variation
is such that this trend is not quite significant at the 99% level, ie the data
is also just consistent with no change in the minimum amount. Although the
amount of ozone destroying substances in the atmosphere is going down, the
inter-annual variation in the size and depth of the ozone hole is largely
controlled by the meteorological conditions in the stratosphere. The
provisional Halley 2015 October minimum value was lower than that of 2014, 2013
and 2012 and this was due to the prevailing meteorological conditions. It
was also influenced by the eruption from Calbuco in southern Chile. Models suggest that recovery
may be more rapid after 2010. The 2019 October ozone minimum at Halley was
the highest since the split ozone hole of 2002 and the overall springtime
minimum the highest since 1982. The springtime (ie September and October)
minimum ozone values at Halley are slightly better fitted by a quadratic than a
linear fit. It is still too soon to say that we have
had the worst ever ozone hole, particularly as there has been no major volcanic
eruption in the Southern Hemisphere since 1992. There has also been little
cooling of the lower stratosphere since the mid 1990s. A simple linear extrapolation of the trend in
minimum values gives the final year with ozone hole levels as 2070, whilst the
quadratic fit suggests 2035, though the error bars on this estimate are very
large. Satellite data, which shows good agreement with the Dobson
data, has been used to fill the gaps in 2016 and 2017.
Click on a thumbnail to get the latest graph or high resolution images, which are updated more frequently than the thumbnails.
Halley - Total ozone: The Dobson ozone observing season at Halley normally begins at the end of August and ends in mid April. Very early and late season observations are made with the Sun at low elevation, and are less accurate than those made during the main observing period of September 6 to April 6. In addition the Dobson at Halley was changed in 2012 February and required maintenance in 2013 August, so the zenith sky tables of the current instrument are not yet fully determined. Ozone observations at the station ceased on 2017 February 15 when the station was shut down for the winter due to the risk of calving of the ice shelf on which it is located. Manual observations resumed on 2017 December 7, but ceased for the winter on 2018 February 26. Jonathan Shanklin was on station over the summer and made many calibration observations. An automated Dobson ran for a short while during 2018 January and February, and resumed in 2019 January. The preliminary automated Dobson values given here should be treated with some caution and will be revised. The 2019 values have been adjusted on the basis of observations made during the Antarctic summer of 2018/19, which suggest a systematic bias to zenith CD observations, with the automated instrument reading too high when ozone values are low. The values are now in good agreement with satellite data. Manual observations with Dobson 31 resumed in early December 2019, with measured ozone amounts in good agreement with those from the automated instrument. It ran until February 1, when the station began closing down for the winter. The instrument constants for the manual Dobson were revised on 2020 January 10 and the constants for both instruments will be revised again at the end of the season. The automated system was down for maintenance for ten days in January 2020 and there was an operator error in early February.
Automated observations resumed in late August, and they suggest that ozone
levels were around 235 DU (20% depletion) until early September and then fell to
a minimum of around 190 DU (40% depletion) in early October. They
steadily rose during the month and reached 230 DU (25% depletion) by the end of
the month, then rose more rapidly during the first half of November to reach 340
DU (10% depletion). Ozone amounts then slowly fell to around
260 DU (10% depletion) when ozone measurements ceased on April 15. In early April there was a strong diurnal signal
in the recorded ozone amount for several days, with values high in the morning
and low in the evening. Satellite images show an area of high ozone to the
east of the station and an area of low ozone to the west. The lowest value
recorded this season was 182 DU on
September 28 and the highest was 371 DU on November 20. The station came within the ozone hole on September 17 and
remained within it until October 24. The October monthly mean was the
highest since 2002, when the ozone hole split into two.
Rothera - Total ozone:
Real-time graphs showing current ozone and NO2 levels. There are occasional periods when the
computed values appear
erroneous and this is
likely due to internal clock
errors. Ozone values were around 280 DU in the first half of January.
The instrument then stopped working for a lengthy period, but following a return
to measurements, values were around 290 DU for most of the first half of the
year, with wave activity giving some longer period fluctuation of around +/- 20
DU. Stronger wave activity pushed values to a peak of around 320 DU at the
solstice, but they fell to a minimum of around 230 DU in mid July before rising
again to around 295 DU in late July, a little above the normal. By the
third week of August they had dropped to around 145 DU, but then rose to a peak
of around 340 DU in early October, well above the average for the date.
Mean values fell to around 210 DU in late October a little below the average for
the date and then rose to around 330 DU in mid November, well above the average
for the date. They fell to around 310 DU in early December and remained
near this level until the end of the year. They began 2020 at around 300
DU, close to the mean for the time of year and fell to around 270 DU in early
February, with daily values dropping to to 230 DU on February 6. They
slowly rose from this minimum to around 300 DU in late March, then fell to reach
around 260 DU by late May. In early June it rose to around 300 DU. The station
experienced its first "ozone hole" day of the season on 2019 July 2 and was within
the growing ozone hole from August 11 to September 20 and within the shrinking
one from October 28 to November 4. The lowest value
recorded this season was 110 DU on August 19 and the highest was 375 DU on
October 4. The monthly mean for October was the highest for the month
since records began at the station in 1996. Superimposed on the general trends described
here are fluctuations with periods of days to around a month and values can
change by over 50% in a few days in the spring when the polar vortex rotates
across the station.
Vernadsky - Total ozone: Vernadsky station is run by the
National Antarctic Scientific Centre of Ukraine. It is some 250 km north of
Rothera. The observing season at
Vernadsky
began in late July, when ozone values were around 230 DU, though they quickly
recovered to around 300 DU by the end of the month. They fell rapidly to
around 180 DU (45% depletion) during the first three weeks of August. Mean
values rose slowly to 200 DU (40% depletion) in mid September and then rapidly
to near normal values around 350 DU in early October. They fell again to
around 230 DU (40% depletion) in late October, with the final rise starting in
early November and peaking at around 355 DU (10% depletion) in mid month.
Ozone amounts fell to a minimum of around 280 DU (10% depletion) in
late February. They had risen to around 300 DU by the end of March, close
to the long term mean, but were about 280 DU at the end of April. The
observing season finished on May 21. The lowest value recorded
this season was 154 DU on September 3 and the highest was 411 DU on
September 26. The October monthly mean is the highest for the month since
1979.
Superimposed on the general trends during the year are fluctuations with periods of days to around a month and values can change by over 50% in a few days in the spring when the polar vortex rotates across the station, which is usually near the edge region of the polar vortex. Very early and late season observations are made with the Sun at low elevation, and are less accurate than those made during the main observing period of August 6 to May 6. The instrument constants were revised in 2016 November, which resulted in some previously listed values for 2016 and earlier being updated. A further revision may be required. See the data section for current provisional values for 1972 - date.
Temperature
and PSCs: The 100 hPa pressure level is near the base of the ozone
layer, but is reached by most radiosonde flights. The
temperature at this height is sufficiently cold from July to October that polar
stratospheric clouds (PSCs) can form. Note: "the normal" is used to refer to
the long term mean for the time of year.
Both Halley and Rothera see
displays of nacreous clouds. Those at Halley are of the form described
during the IGY as "ultra-cirrus". The 2019 season started early
at Rothera with a sighting on May 22. Rothera also saw nacreous clouds on
June 3, 12, 13, 17, July 1, 2, 3, 4, August 9, 10, 13, 14, 16, 18, 20. The
2020 season also started early with a sighting on May 25.
Halley - 100 hPa temperature: Radiosonde flights resumed on
December 2. The 100 hPa temperature above the station
fell from around -43°C when flights resumed to around -46°C in mid December, some 5
degrees below the historic normal for the time of year. It slowly rose to
a peak of around -41°C in late January, close to the historic normal for the time of year.
It was slowly falling at around -43°C when sonde flights ceased for the
winter on February 2.
All the colder winters in the ozone layer
have been within the last 15 years.
Arctic: Stratospheric temperatures are no longer cold enough for polar
stratospheric clouds to exist in the Arctic ozone layer.
Generally the temperature is close to the normal. The
lower ozone layer temperature is now highest over the pole.
Ozone values have become more broadly uniform and range from around 290 DU to
nearly 400 DU. Ozone amounts over the UK are around 340 DU. 
Peninsula - 100 hPa temperature:
The 100 hPa temperature started the year at around -45°C,
a little cooler than the 30-year mean. It generally fell and had reached -70°C in early June.
Then the offset
of the polar vortex towards the Indian Ocean pushed temperatures back up to -60°C
around the time of the solstice, which is
much above the historic
mean
for the time of year. It fell to around -82°C in early September, which is
7° below
the historic mean for the time of year. In a sudden spring warming it rose
to a peak of around
-54°C in early October, 14° above the historic mean for the time of year.
Temperatures subsequently fell to around -70°C in late October, 10° below the normal for the time
of year, before starting to rise again. The temperature peaked at around
-46°C in late November. It then fell a little, before rising to a second
peak at around -43°C in late December, close to the historic normal for the time of year.
It fell to around -47°C, some four degrees below the historic
normal in early January before recovering to a third peak of -42°C late in
the month. As autumn progresses it is falling rather erratically and is
currently around -68°C, a little below the normal. Plantetary wave
activity with a period of about a month is persisting. There is often large day to day variation during the spring because the area is
in the edge region of the circumpolar vortex.
The 2019 June mean temperature was the joint warmest since 2013.
The north polar vortex is usually smaller and more disturbed than the corresponding one that forms during the Antarctic winter. It was relatively large and stable during the winter of 2017/18. Significant ozone depletion affected the north polar region during January and February 2018. Values were low between Svalbard and Scandinavia, where ozone hole levels below 220 DU appear to have been reached on 2018 February 3. Low values below 220 DU were also reached near the west coast of Canada on 2018 February 12, 13, 16 and 17, in what appears to be dynamic event, although PSCs were seen. A major spring warming then took place with a rapid rise in ozone amounts across the northern polar regions. 2019/20 The area with potential PSCs reached a peak of 13 msqkm in late January and was the largest on record for the time of year from late February to late March. The peak size was around half the size of the peak area seen over Antarctica. Ozone depletion occurred and ozone values over the UK briefly dropped to 240 DU in late January, not quite low enough to be an ozone hole. Ozone hole values were reached over Scandinavia around January 26. Nacreous clouds were seen from Elgin, Scotland on December 3. PSCs might have been seen from the UK over the period January 24 - 27 but skies were largely cloudy. On the morning of January 25 skies over Cambridge were rather milky at sunrise, perhaps indicating the presence of "Ultracirrus", the type of stratospheric cloud first reported from Antarctica in the 1950s. The Arctic polar vortex persisted unusually late in the year, finally disipating in mid May.
There are sometimes significant differences (over 100 DU) between modeled, satellite and ground-based measurements, particularly when there is large variation in total column ozone. Ozone values over the Arctic during 2019/20 are shown in our Northern Hemisphere OMI movie. For more UK information see the DEFRA UK Stratospheric Ozone Measurements page.
Equator: Ozone levels are normally lowest over the topics and OMI data shows nothing unusual. The latest theories on how the ozone layer will change in response to increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere suggest that there will be a slow decline in ozone amounts over tropical and sub-tropical regions.
Measurements reported here refer to ozone in the "ozone layer", where most of the ozone in the atmosphere is found. This "layer" stretches from roughly 10 to 40km above the Earth's surface, with a peak at around 20km. Bringing all the ozone in the "layer" down to ground level would give a thickness of around 3mm of pure ozone, which reduces to around 1mm at the height of the ozone hole. A little ozone also exists closer to the Earth's surface and research shows that natural halogens in Antarctica can produce depletion in this near surface layer. The theoretical basis for the formation of the Antarctic ozone hole and its link with the halogen chemistry of man-made substances is well established and the mechanism is described at sites such as the Ozone Hole Tour at the Cambridge University Centre for Atmospheric Science.
The BAS ozone bulletins contained the actual ozone values reported together with an analysis of the situation. These were distributed by email on request, but are now superceded by this web site. The last email ozone bulletin was issued on 2002 May 28. The final situation report of each season is archived for historical reference.
Please read this metadata
description before asking any questions about the data.
[updated 2019 December 9].
Two documents describe our standard operating procedures:
The BAS Dobson Manual
and the BAS ozone station
instructions. A paper describing the stations, observing programs and
reduction procedures is in preparation. Most of our data is available on line,
however please note that this is provisional and likely to change without
warning. You must request permission to reproduce the data and we may be
able to supply more suitable or more up to date material. If data from
Halley is used you must give the station name as Halley; Halley Bay was a
geographical feature that no longer exists.
Older data (1972 - 2011) has been recomputed and all the preliminary values are posted. Some of the zenith sky regressions do not give a good fit and will be improved. The direct sun measurements during this period are unlikely to change.
Current provisional daily
mean ozone values for 2019/2020 for Halley
[AutoDobson, updated 2020 April 20] and Vernadsky. [Updated 2020 May 29].
Note : The calibration of the current instruments is not yet
fully determined as the instruments use ongoing solar measurements for in-situ
calibration. The Dobson at Halley was changed in 2012 February and
required maintenance in 2013 August. The zenith sky tables or other
calibration values were last revised on 2018 February 4, but the daily means may
still have errors up to 5%, particularly when ozone values or the solar
elevation are low. Halley has become a summer only station and there are no manual observations
between 2017 February 15 and 2017 December 7,
2018 February 26 and 2018 December 10 and since 2019 February 16. The instrument calibration constants
are being
revised, so values given here may change. The automated Dobson is likely
to have larger errors as it has not been callibrated under low ozone conditions.
The instrument constants for Dobson 123 at Vernadsky were revised in 2019
October and may require further revision. The preliminary Halley and Vernadsky
values should therefore be treated with some caution.
Halley
Provisional daily mean ozone values for Halley in
2011/12 , 2012/13
,
2013/14 , 2014/15
,
2015/16 , 2016/17
, 2017/18 , 2018/19
, 2019/20 using Dobson 31.
Provisional daily mean ozone values for Halley in
2005/06 , 2006/07
,
2007/08 , 2008/09
,
2009/10 , 2010/11
,
2011/12 using Dobson 73 in manual mode. 2017/18
, 2018/19 , 2019/20 using Dobson 73 in auto mode.
Provisional daily mean ozone values for Halley in
1991/92 , 1992/93
,
1993/94 , 1994/95
,
1995/96 , 1996/97
,
1997/98 , 1998/99
,
1999/00 , 2000/01
,
2001/02 , 2002/03
,
2003/04 , 2004/05
,
2005/06
using Dobson 103.
Provisional daily mean ozone values for Halley in
1981/82 , 1982/83
,
1983/84 , 1984/85
,
1985/86 , 1986/87
,
1987/88 , 1988/89
,
1989/90 , 1990/91
,
1991/92
using Dobson 123.
Provisional daily mean ozone values for Halley in
1972/73 ,
1973/74 , 1974/75
,
1975/76 , 1976/77
,
1977/78 , 1978/79
,
1979/80 , 1980/81
,
1981/82
using Dobson 31.
Provisional individual ozone values for Halley
in
2011/12 , 2012/13
,
2013/14 , 2014/15
, 2015/16 ,
2016/17 , 2017/18 ,
2018/19 , 2019/20 using Dobson 31.
Provisional individual ozone values for Halley in
2005/06 , 2006/07
,
2007/08 , 2008/09
,
2009/10 , 2010/11
,
2011/12 with Dobson 73 in manual mode, 2017/18
, 2018/19 , 2019/20 using Dobson 73 in auto mode.
Provisional individual ozone values for Halley in
1991/92 , 1992/93
,
1993/94 , 1994/95
,
1995/96 , 1996/97
,
1997/98 , 1998/99
,
1999/00 , 2000/01
,
2001/02 , 2002/03
,
2003/04 , 2004/05
,
2005/06
using Dobson 103.
Provisional individual ozone values for Halley in
1981/82 , 1982/83
,
1983/84 , 1984/85
,
1985/86 , 1986/87
,
1987/88 , 1988/89
,
1989/90 , 1990/91
,
1991/92
using Dobson 123.
Provisional individual ozone values for Halley in
1972/73 ,
1973/74 , 1974/75
,
1975/76 , 1976/77
,
1977/78 , 1978/79
,
1979/80 , 1980/81
,
1981/82
using Dobson 31.
Faraday/Vernadsky
Provisional daily mean
ozone values for Vernadsky in
2004/05 , 2005/06
, 2006/07 ,
2007/08 , 2008/09
, 2009/10 ,
2010/11 , 2011/12
, 2012/13 ,
2013/14 , 2014/15
, 2015/16 ,
2016/17 , 2017/18 ,
2018/19 , 2019/20 using Dobson 123.
Provisional daily mean ozone values for Vernadsky in
1983/84 , 1984/85
, 1985/86 ,
1986/87 , 1987/88
, 1988/89 ,
1989/90 , 1990/91
, 1991/92 ,
1992/93 , 1993/94
, 1994/95 ,
1995/96 , 1996/97
, 1997/98 ,
1998/99 , 1999/00
, 2000/01 ,
2001/02 , 2002/03
, 2003/04 ,
2004/05 using Dobson 31.
Provisional daily mean ozone values for Vernadsky in
1971/72 ,
1972/73 , 1973/74
, 1974/75 ,
1975/76 , 1976/77
, 1977/78 ,
1978/79 , 1979/80
, 1980/81 ,
1981/82 , 1982/83
, 1983/84 ,
1984/85 using Dobson 73.
Provisional individual ozone values for Vernadsky in
2004/05 , 2005/06
, 2006/07 ,
2007/08 , 2008/09
, 2009/10 ,
2010/11 , 2011/12
, 2012/13 ,
2013/14 , 2014/15
, 2015/16 ,
2016/17 , 2017/18 ,
2018/19 , 2019/20 using Dobson 123.
Provisional individual ozone values for Vernadsky in
1983/84 , 1984/85
, 1985/86 ,
1986/87 , 1987/88
, 1988/89 ,
1989/90 , 1990/91
, 1991/92 ,
1992/93 , 1993/94
, 1994/95 ,
1995/96 , 1996/97
, 1997/98 ,
1998/99 , 1999/00
, 2000/01 ,
2001/02 , 2002/03
, 2003/04 ,
2004/05 using Dobson 31.
Provisional individual ozone values for Vernadsky in
1971/72 ,
1972/73 , 1973/74
, 1974/75 ,
1975/76 , 1976/77
, 1977/78 ,
1978/79 , 1979/80
, 1980/81 ,
1981/82 , 1982/83
, 1983/84 ,
1984/85 using Dobson 73.
Provisional Dobson monthly mean ozone values for Faraday/Vernadsky and Halley between 1956 and 2020 April.
Monthly mean satellite ozone values for Halley from 2004 October to 2019 August.
Note the satellite season lasts longer into April and starts earlier in August
than do Dobson measurements. Overall there is good agreement between the
two datasets, so the satellite data may be used to fill Dobson data gaps.
Provisional monthly minimum ozone values for Faraday/Vernadsky between 1972 and 2019 November and Halley between 1956 and 2019 November.
Mean daily ozone values for the period 1957 - 1972 for
Faraday
and Halley. [NB: not corrected to Bass-Paur]
Daily ozone values for the period 1957 - 1973 for Faraday and Halley. [Revised to Bass-Paur]
Provisional Halley SAOZ total column nitrogen dioxide
and ozone:
2013 [processing revised 2013 November 22] ,
2014 ,
2015 , 2016 [updated
2016 December 12] and as
real-time graphs showing current ozone and NO2 levels [Not yet available].
The SAOZ did not run during the 2018 winter; it may run during the 2019 winter.
Temperature and Ozone graphs for Halley and Vernadsky/Faraday. [Updated 2017 July 24]. The historic period shown in the inline graphs is for 1957 - 1972.
Rothera
Ozone & nitrogen dioxide:
SAOZ total column nitrogen dioxide and ozone:
1996 ,
1997 , 1998 ,
1999 ,
2000 , 2001 ,
2002 ,
2003 , 2004 ,
2005 ,
2006 , 2007 and
2008
[to 2008 January 22].
"New" SAOZ total column nitrogen dioxide and ozone:
2006 , 2007 ,
2008 ,
2009 , 2010 ,
2011 ,
2012 , 2013 ,
2014 ,
2015 , 2016 , 2017 ,
2018 , 2019 , 2020
[updated 2020 June 15]
and as
real-time graphs showing current ozone and NO2 levels. Data is missing
between 2013 December 23 and 2014 January 6. Data from 2017 January 6 to
May 8 is
likely to be revised as there were some issues with the instrument. Some
data in 2017 October and November, which show high standard deviation is also
suspect, though in some cases this simply reflects large changes in ozone column
during the day. There are some shorter periods with missing data due to
computer glitches. These became more problematic in 2019 and no data was collected
between 2019 January 18 and March 4.
Provisional monthly mean ozone values
from 1996 to 2019 November.
Note that means for some months are based on partial data.
Ozonesondes:
During 2003 we carried out ozone sonde flights at Rothera as part of the
QUOBI project. Data from these
flights
is available in NASA-AMES format. Animation
of the ozonesonde flight results [note that although the ozone scale on these
graphs reads nanobars, it should read mPa].
Bentham ozone. Provisional values for 1997
/ 1998 / 1999 /
2000
/ 2001 / 2003 /
2004 [updated 2004 November 5]. The
Bentham instrument ran until 2012, but data from it has not been used to produce
further ozone values.
Some background information on Halley, Rothera and Faraday stations is available from BAS. Information about Vernadsky station is also available from the Ukrainian Antarctic Centre. Information about Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky
Some surface and upper air synoptic data is also available on line from our public data page.
Southern Hemisphere ozone
hole movies for 1997/1998 , 1998/1999
, 1999/2000 , 2000/2001
, 2001/2002 , 2002/2003
, 2003/2004 , 2004/2005
, 2005 [TOMS], 2005/2006
, 2006/2007 , 2007/2008
, 2008/2009 , 2009/2010
, 2010/2011 , 2011/2012
, 2012/2013 , 2013/2014
, 2014/2015 , 2015/2016
, 2016/2017 , 2017/2018
, 2018/2019 , 2019/2020
[OMI, updated to 2020 May 31]. A short sequence of the
2001 ozone hole.
Northern Hemisphere movies for 2000/2001 , 2001/2002
, 2002/2003 ,
2003/2004
, 2004/2005 , 2005
[TOMS], 2005/2006 ,
2006/2007
, 2007/2008 , 2008/2009
, 2009/2010 , 2010/2011
, 2011/2012 , 2012/2013
, 2013/2014 , 2014/2015
, 2015/2016 , 2016/2017
, 2017/2018 , 2018/2019
, 2019/2020
[OMI, updated to 2020 May 30] A short sequence of ozone depletion during the
2002/03 northern winter showing the difference from the normal.
The annual movies are about 7Mb and were compiled from daily TOMS images until the end of 2005; from
2005/06 they have been compiled from OMI images. The movies begin and end on
the June solstice.
Today's
forecast OMI Antarctic image
The
current area of the hole and
other latest details are available from the NOAA Climate Prediction Center.
Environment Canada have a set of
daily maps showing both northern and southern ozone levels from a variety of
sources.
The Sciamachy uv index
from the ESA Tropospheric Emission Monitoring Internet Service.
Note that west longitude is negative when entering co-ordinates.
Requests for permission to use this data or for further information should be sent to Jon Shanklin who maintains these pages.
|
© Copyright Natural Environment Research Council - British Antarctic Survey 2020 |
