The longitudinal movement of stratospheric ozone waves as determined by satellite

With total ozone sensors on earth-orbitung satellites the ozone distribution over the entire earth may be measured daily. The conclusions from some of the Nimbus III measurements are discussed in this paper. A comparison of time-longitude variations of stratospheric radiance values at 60°S with values of the total ozone indicated that low (high) radiance values correspond very closely with the low (high) total ozone amounts. The speed at which these ozone ‘waves’ progress eastward is greatest in the winter hemisphere. The speed of eastward progression decreases as one approaches the lower latitudes in the winter hemisphere. In the equatorial region the progression of the ozone ‘waves’ appears to be slowly westward. In the Northern Hemisphere the waves progress slowly eastward during summer. The intensity of the ozone ‘waves’ was also observed to change with latitude. These temporal and spatial fluctuations are related mainly to the motion of dynamic tropospheric systems. The extremely tight ozone gradients, which may be seen in the winter hemisphere data, have been shown to be associated with strong baroclinic zones in the lower stratosphere and upper troposphere, which are moving eastward. Assuming uniform zonal velocity we found Rossby wavelengths that varied from 2500 to 3700 km.