Jd. Price et al., REMOVAL OF METEOROLOGICAL SYNOPTIC-SCALE DISTURBANCES FROM TOMS TOTALOZONE FIELDS, Geophysical research letters, 21(13), 1994, pp. 1475-1478
It is expected from theoretical considerations that synoptic-scale var
iations in total ozone should be correlated with the absolute vorticit
y field near the tropopause. A similar correlation is expected with po
tential vorticity on larger scales and comparisons between these two c
orrelations can provide an insight into stratospheric dynamics. This p
aper uses TOMS total ozone fields and vorticity derived from ECMWF ana
lyses for 1987, to reveal the evolution of the lower stratospheric sta
bility structure, and the presence of the polar vortex. The possibilit
y of using total ozone data to study the chemical evolution of the nor
thern polar vortex is also discussed.