The Scandinavia Ozone Loss and Surface Heating

Analysis on NASA Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS) ozone shows a clear ozone loss, -50 DU (15% of the total ozone), over Scandinavia. Correlation analysis between the ozone loss and the east-to-west sea surface temperature (SST) contrast in the North Atlantic shows correlation coefficients -0.96 for seasonal variation and -0.70 for monthly mean (168 months) in 1979-1992. Correlation coefficients between the ozone loss and the surface-to-atmosphere heat fluxes are higher than -0.87. Therefore the authors suggest that the warm Atlantic current carries energy northward to Scandinavia and causes ozone loss there via the surface-to-atmosphere heating processes.