By Sid Perkins
The ozone hole over Antarctica does more than let a little extra ultraviolet light reach ground level: It boosts ocean acidification in the waters surrounding the icy continent and reduces the amount of carbon dioxide emissions those waters can absorb.
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Recent research has indicated that the oceans surrounding Antarctica aren’t absorbing nearly as much planet-warming CO2 from the atmosphere as they did in previous decades (SN: 5/26/07, p. 333). In one of those studies, scientists speculated that meteorological effects of the high-altitude ozone hole over Antarctica, including strengthening of winds at sea level, might be to blame. Now, results of computer simulations bolster that notion, researchers report online June 20 in Geophysical Research Letters.
Francis Codron, an atmospheric scientist at the French national center for scientific research, CNRS, in Paris, and his colleagues used climate models to compare two scenarios: one in which the stratosphere over Antarctica had no ozone hole from 1975 to 2004 and one in which the stratosphere had a hole like the one that has actually developed. The researchers ran five simulations for each of the two scenarios, Codron says.