Stratospheric Ozone-induced Indirect Radiative Effects on Antarctic Sea Ice

Abstract:

Recent studies demonstrated that the Antarctic Ozone Hole has important influences on Antarctic sea ice. While all these have focused on stratospheric ozone-induced dynamic effects on sea ice, here we show results that ozone-induced indirect radiative effects have important influences on Antarctic sea ice. Our simulations demonstrate that the recovery of the Antarctic Ozone Hole causes equatorward shift of clouds over the Southern Ocean. The cloud-band shift leads to reduction of downward infrared radiation, which causes surface cooling. On the other hand, it also causes increasing solar radiation on the surface. However, the increase in solar radiation is offset by surface reflection due to increasing sea ice. As a result solar radiation absorbed by the surface is reduced, which also causes surface cooling. Therefore, the overall ozone-induced cloud radiative effect is to cool the surface and causes expansion of sea ice around the Antarctic. As shown in previous studies, the cloud-band shift is associated with the equatorward shift of the westerly jet stream around the Antarctic. Our simulations also demonstrate increasing snow rate near the sea ice edge, which also contributes to Antarctic sea-ice expansion. The ozone-induced cloud radiative effect would mitigate Antarctic sea-ice melting due to greenhouse warming in the 21^st century.