TRENDS IN STRATOSPHERIC AND FREE TROPOSPHERIC OZONE

Current understanding of the long-term ozone trends is described. Of p articular concern is an assessment of the quality of the available mea surements, both ground and satellite based. Trends in total ozone have been calculated for the ground-based network and the combined data se t from the solar backscatter ultraviolet (SBUV) instruments on Nimbus 7 and NOAA 11, At midlatitudes in the northern hemisphere the trends f rom 1979 to 1994 are significantly negative in all seasons and are lar ger in winter/spring (up to 7%/decade) than in summer/fall (about 3%/d ecade). Trends in the southern midlatitudes are also significantly neg ative in all seasons (3 to 6%/decade), but there is a smaller seasonal variation, In the tropics, trends are slightly-negative and at the ed ge of being significant at the 95% confidence level: these tropical tr ends are sensitive to the low ozone amounts observed near the end of t he record and allowance must also be made for the suspected drift in t he satellite calibration. The bulk of the midlatitude loss in the ozon e column has taken place at altitudes between 15 and 25 km. There is d isagreement on the magnitude of the reduction, with the SAGE I/II reco rd showing trends as large as -20 +/- 8%/decade at 16-17 km and the oz onesondes indicating an average trend of -7 +/- 3%/decade in the north ern hemisphere. (All uncertainties given in this paper are two standar d errors or 95% confidence limits unless stated otherwise), Recent ozo ne measurements are described for both Antarctica and the rest of the globe, The sulphate aerosol resulting from the eruption of Mount Pinat ubo in 1991 and dynamic phenomena seem to have affected ozone levels, particularly at northern midlatitudes and in the Antarctic vortex, How ever, the record low values observed were partly caused by the long-te rm trends and the effect on the calculated trends was less than 1.5%/d ecade.