Response of Total Ozone to ENSO in the Tropical Region

Joong-Bae Ahn and Dong-Wook Shin

Korean Journal of Amospheric Sciences, 1, 70-77. 1998.

Abstract

The relationship between tropical total ozone and El Nino/Southern Oscillation(ENSO) is studied by using Nimbus-7/TOMS Version 7 instrument total ozone data for the pe riod of 1979-1992(14 years). Statistical analyses illustrate that the total ozone variations are closely related with both ENSO and quasi-biennual oscillstion(QBO). Results show that ENSO mode in the total ozone variations has a zonally asymmetric pattern unlike the seasonal cycle and QBO which have strong zonally uniform phase changes. Therefore, in this study, the ENSO mode in the total ozone variations is efficiently detected from a transient zonal perturbation field. Meanwhile seasonal cycles and QBO modes are analyzed from a transient zonal mean field.