Stratospheric Ozone

Ozone Hole, Ozone Operational Maps, Meteorological Conditions, and Stratospheric Temperatures

• Southern Hemisphere Ozone Hole - NOAA monitors the progression of the ozone hole from space and on the ground in Antarctica during August through December. The current year's ozone hole plot shows the progression of this year's ozone hole and is placed in reference with the previous ten years.

• OMPS Total and Profile Ozone - OMPS (Ozone Mapping and Profiler Suite) currently flies on S-NPP and NOAA-20 providing operational maps of profile and total ozone.

• Meteorological Conditions and Ozone In the Polar Stratosphere - NOAA monitors the meteorological conditions and ozone amounts in the stratosphere. The Climate Prediction Center (CPC) presents graphics from this monitoring effort to aid in visualizing the evolution of the South Polar "ozone hole" and factors important for ozone depletion in the polar areas. Information on the size of the polar vortex and the ozone hole, the area in which air cold enough to form Polar Stratospheric Clouds (PSCs) and which parts of this cold air are sunlit such that photo-chemical ozone depletion processes can occur. In addition, zonal profiles show the thermal evolution in the polar area.

• Global Temperature Analyses Times Series - The CPC global temperature analyses are derived each day at 8 stratospheric levels. Graphical aids for monitoring temperature anomalies in the stratosphere are shown along with daily temperature values averaged over each latitude region. The values for the current year may be compared to the average values for each day and the extreme maximum and minimum values for the entire temperature analysis record from 1979 to current.

Historical Ozone Datasets

• SBUV-2 Total and Profile Ozone - The Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet (SBUV/2) was the previous operational ozone instrument onboard the NOAA NPOES satellite series ending with NOAA-19. Maps of Total and Profile Ozone are available here for 2001 to 2018.

• TOVS Total Ozone - NOAA's TIROS Operational Vertical Sounder(TOVS) is a suite of three instruments: the Microwave Sounding Unit(MSU), the High resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder(HIRS), and the Stratospheric Sounding Unit(SSU). Each instrument measures radiation emitted by the Earth at several different wavelengths. Total Ozone has been extracted from HIRS and is available from 1995 - 2005. The data gathered is presented in a map. Grib data is also available for download.

• SMOBA (Stratospheric Monitoring Ozone Blended Analysis) - This analysis has applications for the input to CERES/EOS heating rate calculation and the initial conditions for numerical ozone forecasts.