UK OZONE MONITORING AND RESEARCH Andy Chalmers UK Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs 7 th ORM, 20 May 2008

Outline Stratospheric ozone monitoring UV measurements ODS monitoring Research projects Future research needs

UK monitoring of stratospheric ozone UK – 4 sites: N Scotland (Dobson instrument) N England (Brewer spectrophotometer) S England (Brewer spectrophotometer) Wales (SAOZ spectrometer) Antarctica – British Antarctic Survey (BAS), 2 sites: Halley station (Dobson) Rothera station (SAOZ)

UK ozone monitoring – data reporting Sites in England and Scotland: Data for best daily average are uploaded to a dedicated web page and issued to the World Ozone and Ultra Violet Data Centre (WOUDC) Monthly data are submitted to the WOUDC for inclusion in their archive Welsh site: Data added to the Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Climate Change (NDACC), annually

UV monitoring in the UK 2 monitoring sites (Bentham spectrophotometers): N England S England Solar UV index (Broadband): Measured at 7 sites by the Radiation Protection Division, Health Protection Agency Data reporting: Monitoring sites – dedicated website and WOUDC UV index sites – global solar UV index

Monitoring ozone depleting substances High frequency, real time measurements of the principal halocarbons and radiatively active trace gases are made at Mace Head, Ireland The site is part of the Advanced Global Atmosphere Gases Experiment (AGAGE) network The data are used to estimate Northern Hemisphere baseline concentrations and their European and UK emission distributions

The Upper Troposphere/ Lower Stratosphere (UTLS) OZONE Programme UTLS OZONE, which ended in 2006, was an eight-year UK NERC funded thematic programme to study ozone in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere This research led to an improved understanding of chemical composition and structure in the UTLS region between 6 and 20km In particular, showed that interactions between dynamics (meteorology) and atmospheric chemistry strongly influence the distribution of ozone and other trace gases in the UTLS

Stratospheric-Climate links with emphasis on the Upper Troposphere and lower stratosphere (SCOUT-03) 5-year EC integrated project, ending in 2009, involving 19 countries Co-ordinated by the European Ozone Research Co- ordinating Unit (EORCU), at the University of Cambridge Project aims to predict aspects of the coupled chemistry/climate system, including ozone change in the lower stratosphere and associated UV and climate impact Model forecasts have/will contribute to assessments of ozone depletion and climate change

Met Office Hadley Centre (MOHC) – climate/ozone modelling MOHC has groups working on the modelling of both tropospheric and stratospheric ozone and their relationship to climate change Currently combining its tropospheric and stratospheric ozone models, in collaboration with the Universities of Cambridge and Leeds, to develop a whole atmosphere chemistry model (UKCA, Chemistry and Aerosols) UKCA will be combined with MOHCs climate and ecosystem models, to create a full earth-system model

New research projects – started in 2007 Modelling climate change in the S hemisphere, according to predictions of future ozone change – 3-year study, led by University of E Anglia Influence of solar variability on atmospheric composition (including stratospheric ozone) and climate (SOLCI) – 5-year project, led by Imperial College London

Future research needs Issues identified in the UK report: Further research on ozone/climate change interactions oImproving the capability of climate models to represent stratospheric processes oBetter understanding of the basic physical processes involved in ozone-climate links Verification of the photolysis rate for the ClO dimer