The dynamics of the stratospheric polar vortex and its relation to springtime ozone depletions

Recent aircraft observations have determined the structure of polar vortices during winter and their relationship to polar ozone depletions, based on high dynamical isolation and the extremely low temperatures required for stratospheric cloud formation. The aircraft data reveal large gradients of potential vorticity and concentrations of conservative trace species at the transition from high-latitude to polar air, implying that the inward mixing of heat and constituents is strongly inhibited, and that the perturbed polar stratospheric chemistry associated with the ozone hole is isolated from the rest of the stratosphere until the vortex breaks up in late spring. It is therefore the overall polar vortex which limits the annual polar ozone depletions' maximum area-coverage.