Science Update: Indirect effects of the ozone hole: cloud-radiative anomalies in response to the poleward jet shift

A recent GRL paper by K.M. Grise and co-authors looks at the effects of the poleward shift in southern hemisphere (SH) tropospheric circulation induced by the Antarctic ozone hole. Using climate model simulations in which only stratospheric ozone depletion is specified, they find that high and mid-level clouds follow the poleward shift of the SH mid-latitude jet, and that low-level clouds decrease over much of the Southern Ocean. The annual hemispheric mean radiation response to the cloud anomalies is estimated at approximately +0.25 W m-2, largely a response to the reduction of total cloud fraction in the SH mid-latitudes in austral summer. Find the full abstract here.