The Change of Winds

CREDIT: NASA

As the combined effects of Antarctic stratospheric ozone depletion and climate warming have forced the westerly surface winds in the Southern Hemisphere to shift toward the pole, mixing between the upper ocean and deeper waters has also changed. Waugh et al. (p. 568) now show that water originating at the surface at subtropical latitudes is mixing into the deeper ocean at a higher rate than 20 years ago, while the reverse is true for those originating at higher latitudes. The summer westerly winds that blow in the Southern Hemisphere have shifted toward the South Pole over the past several decades, but why? Lee and Feldstein (p. 563) show that greenhouse gas forcing and ozone depletion impart different signatures to wind patterns and conclude that ozone depletion has been responsible for more than half of the observed shift.

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/339/6119/487.1.short