A lot of people mix up the ozone¹ hole and global warming, believing the hole is a major cause of the world's increasing average temperature. Scientists, on the other hand, have long attributed a small cooling effect to the ozone shortage in the hole. Now a new computer-modeling study suggests that the ozone hole might actually have a slight warming influence, but because of its effect on winds, not temperatures. The new research suggests that shifting wind patterns caused by the ozone hole push clouds farther toward the South Pole, reducing the amount of radiation the clouds reflect and possibly causing a bit of warming rather than cooling.

 

"We were surprised this effect happened just by shifting the jet stream and the clouds," said lead author Kevin Grise, a climate scientist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory² of Columbia University in New York City.

 

Grise notes this small warming effect may be important for climatologists trying to predict the future of Southern Hemisphere climate.

 

The work is detailed³ in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union. Grise collaborated⁴ on the study with Lorenzo Polvani of Columbia University, George Tselioudis of NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, Yutian Wu of New York University, and Mark Zelinka of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

 

 

Each ozone molecule⁵ consists of three oxygen atoms bound together. These ozone molecules⁶ gather in the lower portion of the stratosphere about 20 to 30 kilometers (12 to 19 miles) above the ground -- about twice as high as commercial airliners⁷ fly.

 

Thankfully for the living things below, this layer of ozone shields Earth from some of the hazardous⁸ ultraviolet radiation barraging⁹ the atmosphere. Unchecked, these ultraviolet rays can cause sunburns, eye damage and even skin cancer.

 

In the 1980s, scientists discovered thinning of the ozone layer above Antarctica during the Southern Hemisphere's spring months. The cause of this "hole" turned out to be chlorofluorocarbons, such as Freon, from cooling systems, aerosols¹⁰ cans and degreasing solvents¹¹, which break apart ozone molecules. Even though the1987 Montreal Protocol¹² banned these chlorofluorocarbons worldwide, the ozone hole persists decades later.

 

Many people falsely equate¹³ the ozone hole to global warming. In a 2010 Yale University poll, 61 percent of those surveyed believed the ozone hole significantly contributed to global warming. Additionally, 43 percent agreed with the statement "if we stopped punching holes in the ozone layer with rockets, it would reduce global warming."

 

An actual consequence of the ozone hole is its odd effect on the Southern Hemisphere polar jet stream, the fast flowing air currents encircling the South Pole. Despite the ozone hole only appearing during the spring months, throughout each subsequent summer the high-speed jet stream swings south toward the pole.

 

"For some reason when you put an ozone hole in the Southern Hemisphere during springtime, you get this robust¹⁴ poleward shift in the jet stream during the following summer season," said Grise. "People have been looking at this for 10 years and there's still no real answer of why this happens."

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