The ozone layer over Antarctica has recovered enough to actually halt many alarming changes in the southern hemisphere's atmosphere.
New research suggests that the Montreal Protocol – the 1987 agreement to end the production of ozone-depleting substances (ODS) – may be causing some alarming changes in airflow around the Southern Hemisphere to halt or even completely stop.
At high altitude, fast air currents, known as jet streams, move towards the poles of our planet. Until the turn of the century, ozone depletion diverted the southern jet stream from its usual direction. This led to a change in the nature of precipitation and, possibly, to a change in ocean currents.
Using computer simulations, the researchers showed that flow recovery was not only caused by natural wind shears. Instead, changes in the ozone layer may explain why the shift has suddenly stopped.
The “weather stripes” that carry our cold fronts taper towards the south pole, which is why rainfall has decreased in southern Australia over the past thirty years, says Ian Rae, a chemist at the University of Melbourne who was not involved in the study.
“If the ozone layer recovers and air circulation shifts further, the climate will recover as well.”
The study was published in the journal Nature.
Sources: Photo: The ozone hole is at its smallest in a decade. (NASA)
