The climate effects of the ozone hole reach further than believed, researchers say

Oct 14, 2013 19:16 GMT  ·  By
Researchers say loss of ozone over the South Pole has caused southern Africa to warm
   Researchers say loss of ozone over the South Pole has caused southern Africa to warm

The increase in greenhouse gases concentrations in our planet's atmosphere is not entirely to blame for the fact that southern Africa has gotten significantly warmer over the past two decades. On the contrary, the ozone hole over the South Pole appears to have also had a say in the matter.

Thus, climate scientists explain that, after analyzing the southern African climate between the years 1979 to 2010, they found that the development of the ozone hole over the Antarctic must be linked to higher surface air temperatures in said part of Africa.

In a paper published in yesterday's issue of the journal Nature Geoscience, they detail that, according to their investigations, the ozone hole influenced average temperatures in South Africa by altering wind patterns.

Specifically, a larger ozone hole over the Antarctica is now argued to make it easier for warm air present at lower latitudes to reach South Africa, thus causing an increase in local temperatures.

What's more, the increase in temperatures brought about by these new wind patterns was not a gradual one, as is the case with warming caused by buildups of greenhouse gases in our planet's atmosphere, but a fairly abrupt one.

“The temperatures were actually significantly higher than those of other seasons and the rising assumed a shift rather than a slow and gradual manner,” said Desmond Manatsa, a climate scientist with the Bindura University of Science in Zimbabwe, as cited by Nature.

Interestingly enough, scientists have long been aware of the fact that ozone loss over the South Pole can influence climate patterns in various regions of the planet. However, it was assumed that middle and high latitudes were the only ones vulnerable to this phenomenon.

“The ozone hole is a dominant feature in the southern hemisphere. Originally we thought that the effects were limited to middle or higher latitudes, but it’s increasingly clear that it is the lower latitudes as well,” said Ted Shepherd with the University of Reading in the UK.

The good news is that, since it was caused by chemical compounds whose use was banned under the 1987 Montreal Protocol, the ozone hole over the Antarctica is expected to shrink in the years to come. In fact, some researchers expect that it will have completely disappeared by the year 2065.