Simulating the impact of emissions of brominated very short lived substances on past stratospheric ozone trends

Bromine from very short lived substances (VSLS), primarily from natural oceanic sources, contributes substantially to the stratospheric bromine loading. This source of stratospheric bromine has so far been ignored in most chemistry climate model calculations of stratospheric ozone trends. Here we present a transient simulation with the chemistry climate model EMAC for the period 1960-2005 including emissions of the five brominated VSLS CHBr3, CH2Br2, CH2BrCl, CHBrCl2, and CHBr2Cl. The emissions lead to a realistic stratospheric bromine loading of about 20pptv for present-day conditions. Comparison with a standard model simulation without VSLS shows large differences in modeled ozone in the extratropical lowermost stratosphere and in the troposphere. Differences in ozone maximize in the Antarctic Ozone Hole, resulting in more than 20% less ozone when VSLS are included. Even though the emissions of VSLS are assumed to be constant in time, the model simulation with VSLS included shows a much larger ozone decrease in the lowermost stratosphere during the 1979-1995 period and a faster ozone increase during 1996-2005, in better agreement with observed ozone trends than the standard simulation without VSLS emissions.