State of Environment

Indicator 9 - Daily records of total column ozone at Macquarie Island

Index - Description | Data | Custodian evaluation | Related resources | Parameters

Sunset (AAD Photo 1188/ C1) by E. Szworak, 1984

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Indicator Definition

The monthly means of total column ozone measured at Macquarie Island.

Responsible
Organisation

Bureau of Meteorology, Department of the Environment and Heritage (details)

Custodians

JIM EASSON j.easson@bom.gov.au	INVESTIGATOR TECHNICAL CONTACT	Ozone Monitoring Unit Atmosphere Watch Section GPO Box 1289K Bureau of Meteorology Melbourne Victoria 3001 Australia Ph +61 3 9669 4238
STEVE RHODES	INVESTIGATOR TECHNICAL CONTACT

Theme Area

Atmosphere

Indicator Type

Condition Pressure

Criteria the
Indicator Satisfies

The following 12 out of 15 criteria

1.	Serve as a robust indicator of environmental change
2.	Reflect a fundamental or highly-valued aspect of the environment or an important environmental issue
3.	Be either national in scope or applicable to regional environmental issues of national significance
4.	Provide an early warning of potential problems
5.	Be capable of being monitored to provide statistically verifiable and reproducible data that shows trends over time and, preferably, apply to a broad range of environmental regions
6.	Be scientifically credible
9.	Be cost-effective
10.	Have relevance to policy and management needs
11.	Contribute to monitoring of progress towards implementing commitments in nationally important environmental policies
12.	Where possible and appropriate, facilitate community involvement
13.	Contribute to the fulfillment of reporting obligations under international agreements
15.	Where possible and appropriate, be consistent and comparable with other countries’ and state and territory indicators

For details of indicators, see the State of Environment Bibliography entries 16336 and 16337

Date Input

Daily measurements

Monitoring Location

Macquarie Island (details)

Geographic Coverage is

Rationale For Indicator Selection

Ozone filters ultra-violet (UV) radiation from the Sun and affects the
dynamics of the stratosphere and overall atmospheric radiation balance. With
reduction in stratospheric ozone levels, UV incidence on the surface has
serious ramifications for Antarctic and Southern Ocean biological systems.

Design and Strategy For Indicator Monitoring Program

Spatial Scale: Macquarie Island (lat 54deg 29' 59" S, long 158deg 57' 08" E).

Frequency: Annual report on monthly means of daily figures.

Measurement Technique: Global-scale daily analyses are produced by the Bureau
of Meteorology on a 2.5 - degree latitude by 2.5 - degree longitude grid,
using satellite data. In situ Dobson spectrophotometer measurements at
Macquarie Island in conjunction with major centres in Australia provide
benchmark and calibration data of total-column ozone.

Macquarie Island is the only station situated under the Antarctic Ozone hole,
providing an important contribution to ozone monitoring activities.

Research Issues

The traceable data set may be extended back a few years before 1978 but
cannot go much further back with any confidence.

When Dobson measurements began seriously in 1955, there was no traceability of
instrument standards. Each instrument was calibrated absolutely rather than by
the hierarchy of standards, beginning in 1978. In the initial measurement
program, ozone measurements were used mainly for day-to-day variations - the
idea of using Dobsons for a long-term trend in ozone was not an objective.
Consequently the need for properly referenced instruments was not a high
priority. The difficult mechanism of applying standards was not in place when
measurements started in 1956.

Data

Temporal range of the available data, as described by the metadata record, is from 30-Sep-96 to 31-Mar-98.

Timespan: 7-July-1957 to 30-June-2008.
Number of data points: 14678.

To view or download any of the data, you must be logged into the Data Centre Portal. If you return to this indicator, you will find a Search Data link that will allow you to view or extract the data for this indicator.

Macquarie Island: Total column ozone

Data Quality, Interpretation and
Analysis of Indicator Data

Because stratospheric ozone at any time is determined largely by meteorological transport forcing conditions (rather than by chemistry constraints), this indicator is expected to have substantial interannual variability, and care is needed in its interpretation.

Trends in ozone will be analysed for signs of the success of the Montreal Protocol in phasing out ozone depleting substances (ODSs). However, the life-time of ODSs in the atmosphere is in the order of decades, and so the global concentration of ozone is expected to continue to fall until after the turn of the 20th century. Full recovery of the ozone layer will require some decades beyond the time that the supply and emission of ODSs is stopped (Fraser 1997). Values provided in temporal coverage are approximate only.

Data Usage Constraints

Please follow instructions listed in the citation reference provided at the URL below when using these data.

Data Distribution

DATA OFFICER AADC metadata@aad.gov.au	Australian Antarctic Division 203 Channel Highway Kingston Tasmania 7050 Australia Ph +61 3 6232 3244
WOUDC woudc@ec.gc.ca	World Ozone and Ultraviolet Radiation Data Centre Meteorological Service of Canada 4905 Dufferin Street Toronto Ontario M3H 5T4 Canada Ph +1 416 739 4635

Data Access Constraints

These data are publicly available for download from the URL given below.

Custodian Evaluation

Date entered

Evaluation

7-Aug-2002

For the first quarter of this year total column ozone values at Macquarie Island remained slightly lower than average for the period 1985 to 2001. Since then daily values have gradually increased to slightly above average. It is too early to say if this is an indication of a recovery of the ozone layer or just an aberration due to the El Nino year we are experiencing. Note the data before 1985 is not traceable to our Regional Standard Dobson. While the pre 1985 data remains the best estimate of data available, there were known problems that are unlikely to be addressed properly for many years.

14-Nov-2002

Condition scale - 5

1 - the environment degraded to the point where rehabilitation is impossible

0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7

7 - the environment is pristine, in perfect condition, no anthropogenic influences

Pressure scale - 3

1 - undetectable external pressure on the environment

0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7

7 - extreme external pressure on the environment, degradation accelerating

State of Knowledge scale - 5

1 - Poor

0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7

7 - Excellent

For definitions of the Scale categories, consult the Explanation of the Status Categories

Related resources

Metadata SOE_ozone - Monthly means of total column ozone over Macquarie Island

Project 512 - A Study of Possible Tropospheric Triggering of Ozone Depletion in the Antarctic Stratosphere

Project 863 - Ozone Measurements at Macquarie Island

Project 965 - Variations of stratospheric ozone at Macquarie Island

Scientific Bibliography 17312 - Fraser, P. (1997) Chemistry of Stratospheric Ozone and Ozone Depletion Aust. Meteor. Mag., 46, 185-193.

SOE Indicator 10 - Daily broad-band ultra-violet radiation observations using biologically effective UVR detectors

SOE Indicator 13 - Polar stratospheric cloud observations at Davis

Parameters

The properties link can be used to view details of the parameters measured for this indicator.

Parameter Name	Unit of measure	Properties
Total column ozone	DU	(properties)

The following parameters and/or sensor notes are from the metadata record.

Parameters -
EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY > OXYGEN COMPOUNDS

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SIMR - (State of Environment)

State of Environment

Indicator 9 - Daily records of total column ozone at Macquarie Island