International cooperation on ozone-depleting chemicals is helping to return the southern jet stream to a normal state after decades of disruption, a study shows.
Scientists say the findings prove that there is the capacity to heal damaged climate systems if governments act promptly and in coordination to deal with the causes.
The southern jet stream is a powerful wind that shapes weather patterns and ocean currents in the southern hemisphere, particularly in the summer.
Up until about 2000, it had been shifting from its usual course and moving southward at a rate of 1° of latitude each decade, affecting storm tracks and rainfall over South America, east Africa and Australia.
Previous research has shown this was primarily driven by the depletion of the ozone layer by chemical compounds such as chlorofluorocarbons and hydrochlorofluorocarbons, which are found in fridges, aerosols and other industrial processes.
The chemicals, which were used in vast quantities until they started to be phased out under the UN 1987 Montreal Protocol, thinned the ozone layer, causing a widening “hole” high above the south pole that affected wind patterns.
The paper, published in the journal Nature, shows that the Montreal Protocol has paused the southward movement of the jet stream since the turn of the century and might even be starting to reverse it as the ozone hole begins to close.
In September last year, satellite images showed that the ozone hole annual peak had shrunk to 16.4 million square kilometers, the smallest extent since 1982.
“It’s a success story. This is more evidence that the Montreal Protocol has led to the recovery of the ozone layer,” said the study’s lead author, Antara Banerjee, who works in the chemical sciences division of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and is a visiting fellow at the University of Boulder, Colorado.
The expected effect on people will vary from region to region. In Patagonia in southern Chile and Argentina, there should be more rain and less ultraviolet light.
The findings will be of more concern for Uruguay, Paraguay, southern Brazil and northern Argentina, where ozone depletion was previously found to bring more rainfall and wider bands of agricultural production.
Previous studies suggest the reversal might also be good news for Australia, which has had more droughts because the jet stream pushed rain-bearing storms away from its coast during winter.
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