Antti Kero, SGO, Finland
Jia Jia, SGO, Finland
Mick Denton, Boulder, US
Rigel Kivi, FMI, Finland
Pekka Verronen, FMI, Finland
Annika Seppälä, Otago, New Zealand
Ilya Usoskin, Oulu, Finland
Eugene Rozanov, IAC ETHZ, PMOD/WRC, Switzerland
Christine Smith-Johnsen, University of Bergen, Norway
Niilo Kalakoski, Finnish Meteorological Institute, Finland
Kseniia Golubenko, University of Oulu, Finland
Kenneth Nilsen, SGO, Finland
Our team investigates possible direct stratospheric ozone variability caused by space weather events, i.s., solar proton events and the modulated cosmic ray fluxes.
Recently, Denton et al., [2018 a,b] have discovered a statistically
detectable direct ozone reduction during the solar proton events by
using the balloon-sounding datasets, i.e., at the altitudes of the ozone
layer. This effect is highly unexpected by the current models, as the
ionisation rates induced by most of the solar protons events are
expected to be significant in the upper stratosphere and mesosphere, but
insignificant at the altitudes of the ozone balloon soundings.
The influence of Galactic Cosmic Rays on the stratospheric ozone was
studied by using SOCOL model in Calisto et al., 2011. A strong loss in
the Antarctic polar lower stratosphere with annual mean mixing ratios
decreasing by 3 % was reported. However, this effect has not been
confirmed by observations to date.
Our team will make an assessment on these effects based on satellite (MLS, GOMOS) and ground based datasets (ozonesonde) and atmospheric models (SIC, WACCM-D, SOCOL), including the crucial role of the polar vortex. Our primary research objective is to find a mechanism by which the ozone layer is reduced by solar proton events. Moreover, we will assess experimentally the importance of the galactic cosmic ray fluxes variations to the stratospheric ozone.
References
Calisto, M., Usoskin, I., Rozanov, E., and Peter, T.: Influence of
Galactic Cosmic Rays on atmospheric composition and dynamics, Atmos.
Chem. Phys., 11, 4547-4556, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-11-4547-2011,
2011.
M.H. Denton, R. Kivi, T. Ulich, C.J. Rodger, M.A. Clilverd, R.B.
Horne, A.J. Kavanagh, Solar proton events and stratospheric ozone
depletion over northern Finland, Journal of Atmospheric and
Solar-Terrestrial Physics, Volume 177, 2018a,
Denton, M. H., Kivi, R., Ulich, T., Clilverd, M. A., Rodger, C. J., & von der Gathen, P. (2018b). Northern hemisphere stratospheric ozone depletion caused by solar proton events: The role of the polar vortex. Geophysical Research Letters, 45.https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL075966