Total ozone and perturbations in the middle stratosphere

Total ozone amounts are shown to vary with the motion systems of the stratospheric polar vortex. Two cold outbreaks, one over Europe in 1959 and the other over North America in 1960, produced similar pronounced minima in the total ozone records. The results support the hypothesis that major anomalies in the horizontal and seasonal distributions of total ozone are related to dynamical activity in the polar-night vortex and the stratospheric warm belt.