Cited by 28Atmospheric chemistry and aerosolsAtmospheric Ozone and ClimateAtmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics

Arctic tropospheric ozone: assessment of current knowledge and model performance

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Whaley, Cynthia H., Law, Kathy S., Hjorth, Jens Liengaard, Skov, Henrik, Arnold, Stephen R., Langner, Joakim, Pernov, Jakob Boyd, Bergeron, Garance +31 more·2023·Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics

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Abstract

As the third most important greenhouse gas (GHG) after carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and methane (CH 4 ), tropospheric ozone (O 3 ) is also an air pollutant causing damage to human health and ecosystems. This study brings together recent research on observations and modeling of tropospheric O 3 in the Arctic, a rapidly warming and sensitive environment. At different locations in the Arctic, the observed surface O 3 seasonal cycles are quite different. Coastal Arctic locations, for example, have a minimum in the springtime due to O 3 depletion events resulting from surface bromine chemistry. In contrast, other Arctic locations have a maximum in the spring. The 12 state-of-the-art models used in this study lack the surface halogen chemistry needed to simulate coastal Arctic surface O 3 depletion in the springtime; however, the multi-model median (MMM) has accurate seasonal cycles at non-coastal Arctic locations. There is a large amount of variability among models, which has been previously reported, and we show that there continues to be no convergence among models or improved accuracy in simulating tropospheric O 3 and its precursor species. The MMM underestimates Arctic surface O 3 by 5 % to 15 % depending on the location. The vertical distribution of tropospheric O 3 is studied from recent ozonesonde measurements and the models. The models are highly variable, simulating free-tropospheric O 3 within a range of ±50 % depending on the model and the altitude. The MMM performs best, within ±8 % for most locations and seasons. However, nearly all models overestimate O 3 near the tropopause (∼300 hPa or ∼8 km), likely due to ongoing issues with underestimating the altitude of the tropopause and excessive downward transport of stratospheric O 3 at high latitudes. For example, the MMM is biased high by about 20 % at Eureka. Observed and simulated O 3 precursors (CO, NO x , and reservoir PAN) are evaluated throughout the troposphere. Models underestimate wintertime CO everywhere, likely due to a combination of underestimating CO emissions and possibly overestimating OH. Throughout the vertical profile (compared to aircraft measurements), the MMM underestimates both CO and NO x but overestimates PAN. Perhaps as a result of competing deficiencies, the MMM O 3 matches the observed O 3 reasonably well. Our findings suggest that despite model updates over the last decade, model results are as highly variable as ever and have not increased in accuracy for representing Arctic tropospheric O 3 .

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Crossref · 10.5194/acp-23-637-2023

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  • CO values in the WPBL (121-148 nmol mol-1) are slightly lower than those reported by Brock et al. (2011) (161 ± 8 nmol mol-1) but very similar to those reported by Kinase et al. (2025) (131 [107-150] nmol mol-1) at Poker Flat Research Range and by Whaley et al. (2023) at Utqiaġvik/Barrow (~140-150 nmol mol-1).

    “CO values in the WPBL (121-148 nmol mol -1 ) are overall slightly lower than those reported by Brock et al. (2011) (161 ± 8 nmol mol -1 ) but very similar to those reported by Kinase et al. (2025) (131 [107-150] nmol mol -1 ) at the Poker Flat Research Range, 30 km north of Fairbanks, and by Whaley et al. (2023) at Utqiaġvik/Barrow (∼ 140-150 nmol mol -1 ) (surface measurements).”

    From In situ vertical observations of the layered structure of air pollution in a continental high-latitude urban boundary layer during winter (2025) · cites this paper as Whaley et al. (2023)

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  • Whaley et al. (2023) reported O3 values between 32 and 40 nmol mol-1 for Arctic stations during January and February, very similar to our observations.

    “Whaley et al. (2023) reported values between 32 and 40 nmol mol -1 for Arctic stations during January and February, very similar to our observations.”

    From In situ vertical observations of the layered structure of air pollution in a continental high-latitude urban boundary layer during winter (2025) · cites this paper as Whaley et al. (2023)

    Section 5.1.1 (p. 8) says surface O₃ reaches a winter maximum at high-Arctic stations, and the Figure 5 caption (p. 9) describes monthly station medians. The figure itself is an image placeholder in our copy, and the text does not give January–February values of 32–40 nmol mol⁻¹, so the claimed range cannot be checked. (LLM, conf=0.73)

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1 of the 138 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 4

  1. Phys., 21, 10229-10248, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-102292021, 2021. · DOI
  2. Esau, I. and Sorokina, S.: Climatology of the Arctic Planetary Boundary Layer, Chapter 1 in Atmospheric Turbulence, Meteorological Modeling, ISBN 978-1-60741-091-1, Eds: Peter R. Lang and Frank S. Lombargo, 2016.
  3. IPCC: Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis, Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, edited by: Masson-Delmotte, V., Zhai, P., Pirani, A., Connors, S. L., Péan, C., Berger, S., Caud, N., Chen, Y., Goldfarb, L., Gomis, M. I., Huang, M., Leitzell, K., Lonnoy, E., Matthews, J. B. R., Maycock, T. K., Waterfield, T., Yelekçi, O., Yu, R., and Zhou, B., Tech. rep., Cambridge University Press, https://www.ipcc.ch/ report/ar6/wg1/{#}FullReport (last access: 14 April 2022), 2021.
  4. Shapiro, M. A., Hampel, T., and Krueger, A. J.: The Arctic tropopause fold, Mon. Wea. Rev., 115, 444-454, https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0493, 1987. · DOI

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Authors
Whaley, C. H., Law, K. S., Hjorth, J. L., Skov, H., Arnold, S. R., Langner, J., Pernov, J. B., Bergeron, G., Bourgeois, I., Christensen, J. H., Chien, R.-Y., Deushi, M., Dong, X., Effertz, P., Faluvegi, G., Flanner, M., Fu, J. S., Gauss, M., Huey, G., Im, U., Kivi, R., Marelle, L., Onishi, T., Oshima, N., Petropavlovskikh, I., Peischl, J., Plummer, D. A., Pozzoli, L., Raut, J.-C., Ryerson, T., Skeie, R., Solberg, S., Thomas, M. A., Thompson, C., Tsigaridis, K., Tsyro, S., Turnock, S. T., von Salzen, K., & Tarasick, D. W.
Affiliations
  • Environment and Climate Change Canada (CA)
  • Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
  • Aarhus University (DK)
  • University of Leeds (GB)
  • Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SE)
  • Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (US)
  • University of Tennessee at Knoxville (US)
  • Japan Meteorological Agency (JP)
  • Goddard Institute for Space Studies (US)
  • University of Michigan (US)
  • Norwegian Meteorological Institute (NO)
  • Finnish Meteorological Institute (FI)
  • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (US)
  • Joint Research Centre (IT)
  • Scientific Aviation (United States) (US)
  • CICERO Center for International Climate Research (NO)
  • NILU (NO)
  • NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory (US)
  • Columbia University (US)
  • Met Office (GB)
Corresponding author
  • Law, Kathy S.
  • Skov, Henrik
  • Bourgeois, Ilann
  • Deushi, Makoto
  • Dong, Xinyi
  • Flanner, Mark
  • Fu, Joshua S.
  • Kivi, Rigel
  • Oshima, Naga
  • Petropavlovskikh, Irina
  • Peischl, Jeff
  • Raut, Jean-Christophe
  • Ryerson, Tom
  • Skeie, Ragnhild
  • Thompson, Chelsea
  • Tsigaridis, Kostas
  • Tsyro, Svetlana
  • Turnock, Steven T.
Venue
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
Published
2023-01-16
Volume
23
Issue
1
Pages
637-661
ISSN
  • 1680-7316 (ISSN-L)
  • 1680-7324
OpenAlex
W4316465429
Cited by
28
References
138
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 2
FWCI
2.87
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Atmospheric chemistry and physics (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • HAL (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • White Rose Research Online (University of Leeds, The University of Sheffield, University of York) (submittedVersion)
  • Infoscience (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • OSTI OAI (U.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information) (submittedVersion)
  • KTH Publication Database DiVA (KTH Royal Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • NILU Brage (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • NOAA Institutional Repository (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Funders
  • Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JP18H03363, JP21H03582, JP20K04070, JP19K12312, JP18H05292)
  • Naturvårdsverket (NV-03174-20)
  • Nordisk Ministerråd (MST-227-00036, MFVM-2019-13476)
  • Miljøstyrelsen (MST-112- 00298)
  • Grand Équipement National De Calcul Intensif (A009017141)
  • Energistyrelsen (2019-7975, MST-112- 00298, TAS 4005-0153)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Atmospheric Science › Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols
  • Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Atmospheric Science › Atmospheric Ozone and Climate
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Global and Planetary Change › Atmospheric and Environmental Gas Dynamics
Keywords
tropospheric ozone, Arctic, model evaluation, ozone depletion events, bromine chemistry, halogen chemistry, ozonesondes, vertical ozone distribution, tropopause height, stratospheric ozone transport, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, peroxyacetyl nitrate, ozone precursors, model bias, Eureka

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