The physics that control ozone-dynamics interactions is not fully understood; yet such understanding is vital to producing reliable assessments of the impacts of ozone loss and recovery on key features of the climate system, including the upward flux of planetary wave activity, the strength of the polar vortex, and the Brewer-Dobson circulation.

Our goal in this study is to isolate the physics that forms pathways for communicating changes imparted by 3D ozone (zonal-mean plus zonally asymmetric) to the polar vortex. As we show through numerical experiments and ozone-modified wave diagnostics, the effects of zonally asymmetric ozone (ZAO) are communicated vertically along two pathways that combine to alter the polar vortex. Along each pathway ZAO plays a crucial role. Along pathway one, ZAO modulates wave propagation and wave damping (attenuation), which together modulate the vertical energy flux and planetary wave drag. Along pathway two, ZAO produces convergences of wave-ozone flux that modulate the zonal-mean ozone heating and thus zonal-mean temperature.

In the lower stratosphere, ZAO causes wave propagation and wave damping to oppose each other. The result is a small change in planetary wave drag but a large reduction in wave amplitude. Thus in the lower stratosphere, ZAO "preconditions" the wave before it propagates into the upper stratosphere, where damping due to photochemically accelerated cooling dominates, causing a large reduction in planetary wave drag and thus a colder polar vortex. We discuss the ability of ZAO within the lower stratosphere to affect the upper stratosphere and lower mesosphere in light of secular and episodic changes in stratospheric ozone.