On the interpretation of seasonal variations of stratospheric ozone

The causes of the annual and semiannual ozone oscillations were investigated. Using the middle-atmosphere model of Garcia and Solomon (1983), the monthly variations of the ozone mixing ratio were computed and Fourier-analyzed, with excellent agreement found between the computed values and those measured with the SBUV instrument. It was found that, at high latitudes and low altitudes, the modeled ozone abundances increased in the winter due to transport and decreased in the summer due to chemical destruction. In the middle stratosphere, the calculated annual ozone variation was found to be largely due to the annual variation in the odd-oxygen production rate, while in the upper stratosphere, the annual ozone variation was found to be caused by the large annual oscillation in temperature.