Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91109, USA.
Nature. 2011 Oct 2;478(7370):469-75. doi: 10.1038/nature10556.
Chemical ozone destruction occurs over both polar regions in local winter-spring. In the Antarctic, essentially complete removal of lower-stratospheric ozone currently results in an ozone hole every year, whereas in the Arctic, ozone loss is highly variable and has until now been much more limited. Here we demonstrate that chemical ozone destruction over the Arctic in early 2011 was--for the first time in the observational record--comparable to that in the Antarctic ozone hole. Unusually long-lasting cold conditions in the Arctic lower stratosphere led to persistent enhancement in ozone-destroying forms of chlorine and to unprecedented ozone loss, which exceeded 80 per cent over 18-20 kilometres altitude. Our results show that Arctic ozone holes are possible even with temperatures much milder than those in the Antarctic. We cannot at present predict when such severe Arctic ozone depletion may be matched or exceeded.
极地地区在当地冬春季节都存在化学性臭氧消耗。在南极，目前平流层下部臭氧几乎被完全消耗，导致每年都会出现臭氧空洞；而在北极，臭氧损耗的情况变化不定，且到目前为止，其程度要小得多。本研究表明，2011 年初北极地区的化学性臭氧消耗——在观测记录中——首次可与南极臭氧空洞相媲美。北极平流层下部异常持久的低温导致破坏性氯形态的臭氧持续增加，并出现前所未有的臭氧损耗，在 18-20 公里的海拔高度，臭氧损耗超过 80%。研究结果表明，即使北极地区的温度比南极地区温和得多，也可能出现臭氧空洞。目前，我们无法预测何时可能出现或超过如此严重的北极臭氧损耗。
