Undoubtedly, to struggle against air pollutions does not help to tranquilize climatic warming. They know that the struggle against acid rains plays paradoxically a role of amplification of greenhouse effect, sulphured pollutants acting as mirrors in relation to the solar radiation. A study published on Friday in Science lets think that the success of the struggle against the hole of the ozone layer is going deeply to change Antarctic climate and, perhaps, warms it up.

Since the coming into force of the protocol of Montreal, signed in 1987, the rejections of the CHOLOROFLUOROCARBONES (CFC) which cause a destruction of the stratospheric ozone seriously went down. Not because the famous "hole" which forms every year in spring southern above the ocean and the Antarctic continent he disappears, on the contrary, is only stabilised and knows fluctuations year by year. But as he will be reduced — what should take quarantine years southern climate is going to change.

Since 2000, numerous observations confirmed that winds troposphériques of west one speeded up near the South Pole. An acceleration which leads to changes in the temperatures of surface, exchanges ocean-atmosphere and the extension of sea ice. So much modifications linked to total climatic warming and to destruction of stratospheric ozone, without that the relating part of these two phenomena is known. The climatic models used by the experts of the UNO (Giec) envisage that this acceleration of the throws of altitude will continue, in a less supported way, in the course of this century. But they do not take into account the evolution of the ozone layer.

It is therefore what attracted the international team (the United States, Japan, Korea, Switzerland, Canada), by linking climatic models and simulation of the chemistry of the stratosphere over half a century, until 2050. While Antarctic sudden climate rather a cooling — safe in the West tendency could be reversed in future.

As always, the authors are very careful on their results. Notably because the models of chemistry of the ozone are still very imperfect. While calling other teams to validate — or to deny their jobs the researchers show nevertheless that the stratospheric ozone plays an essential role in the training of the polar climate which had been until now underestimated. As every year, Nasa will open its Ozone “site watch” in the course of the summer.

Picture: The hole of the ozone layer on December 4th, 2007 © Nasa