Relationship between ozone and temperature trends in the lower stratosphere: Latitude and seasonal dependences

A one-dimensional radiative transfer model with fixed dynamical heating is used to calculate the approximate latitude and seasonal dependences of lower stratospheric temperature changes associated with observed ozone trends. The spatial and temporal distribution of ozone profile trends in the lower stratosphere is estimated from a combination of Nimbus 7 Solar Backscattered Ultraviolet (SBUV) global measurements of the ozone column below 32 mbar for the period 1979-1990 and balloon ozonesonde profile trends at northern middle latitudes. The calculated temperature trends near 100 mbar compare favorably with those recently derived by Randel and Cobb (1994) using data from Channel 4 of the Microwave Sounding Unit (MSU) on the NOAA operational satellites, although a number of quantitative differences are found. An independent analysis reported here of 100 mbar temperatures derived from northern hemisphere radiosonde data at the Free University of Berlin (FUB) supports the validity of the satellite-derived lower stratospheric temperature trends. These results are therefore generally consistent with the hypothesis that observed lower stratospheric cooling trends are predominantly determined by reductions in radiative heating associated with stratospheric ozone depletion.