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Copyright Copernicus GmbH 2013

Abstract

The international research project RECONCILE has addressed central questions regarding polar ozone depletion, with the objective to quantify some of the most relevant yet still uncertain physical and chemical processes and thereby improve prognostic modelling capabilities to realistically predict the response of the ozone layer to climate change. This overview paper outlines the scope and the general approach of RECONCILE, and it provides a summary of observations and modelling in 2010 and 2011 that have generated an in many respects unprecedented dataset to study processes in the Arctic winter stratosphere. Principally, it summarises important outcomes of RECONCILE including (i) better constraints and enhanced consistency on the set of parameters governing catalytic ozone destruction cycles, (ii) a better understanding of the role of cold binary aerosols in heterogeneous chlorine activation, (iii) an improved scheme of polar stratospheric cloud (PSC) processes that includes heterogeneous nucleation of nitric acid trihydrate (NAT) and ice on non-volatile background aerosol leading to better model parameterisations with respect to denitrification, and (iv) long transient simulations with a chemistry-climate model (CCM) updated based on the results of RECONCILE that better reproduce past ozone trends in Antarctica and are deemed to produce more reliable predictions of future ozone trends. The process studies and the global simulations conducted in RECONCILE show that in the Arctic, ozone depletion uncertainties in the chemical and microphysical processes are now clearly smaller than the sensitivity to dynamic variability.

Details

Title
Reconciliation of essential process parameters for an enhanced predictability of Arctic stratospheric ozone loss and its climate interactions (RECONCILE): activities and results
Author
von Hobe, M.; Bekki, S.; Borrmann, S.; Cairo, F.; D'Amato, F.; Donfrancesco, G. Di; Dörnbrack, A.; Ebersoldt, A.; Ebert, M.; Emde, C.; Engel, I.; Ern, M.; Frey, W.; Genco, S.; Griessbach, S.; Grooß, J.-U.; Gulde, T.; Günther, G.; Hösen, E.; Hoffmann, L.; Homonnai, V.; Hoyle, C. R.; Isaksen, I. S. A.; Jackson, D. R.; Jánosi, I. M.; Jones, R. L.; Kandler, K.; Kalicinsky, C.; Keil, A.; Khaykin, S. M.; Khosrawi, F.; Kivi, R.; Kuttippurath, J.; Laube, J. C.; Lefèvre, F.; Lehmann, R.; Ludmann, S.; Luo, B. P.; Marchand, M.; Meyer, J.; Mitev, V.; Molleker, S.; Müller, R.; Oelhaf, H.; Olschewski, F.; Orsolini, Y.; Peter, T.; Pfeilsticker, K.; Piesch, C.; Pitts, M. C.; Poole, L. R.; Pope, F. D.; Ravegnani, F.; Rex, M.; Riese, M.; Röckmann, T.; Rognerud, B.; Roiger, A.; Rolf, C.; Santee, M. L.; Scheibe, M.; Schiller, C.; Schlager, H.; de Cumis, M. Siciliani; Sitnikov, N.; Søvde, O. A.; Spang, R.; Spelten, N.; Stordal, F.; Suminska-Ebersoldt, O.; Ulanovski, A.; Ungermann, J.; Viciani, S.; Volk, C. M.; Scheidt, M. vom; von der Gathen, P.; Walker, K.; Wegner, T.; Weigel, R.; Weinbruch, S.; Wetzel, G.; Wienhold, F. G.; Wohltmann, I.; Woiwode, W.; Young, I. A. K.; Yushkov, V.; Zobrist, B.; Stroh, F.
First page
9233
Publication year
2013
Publication date
2013
Publisher
Copernicus GmbH
ISSN
16807316
e-ISSN
16807324
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
1434106516
Copyright
Copyright Copernicus GmbH 2013